Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/412

HALL the neighbouring, villages. Latterly he ministered to a small congregation in Harvey Lane, Leicester, from whom at the close of 1806 he accepted a call to be their stated pastor. In the autumn of 1807 he changed his residence fromEnderby to Leicester, and in 1808 he married the servant of a brother minister. His proposal of marriage had been made after an almost momentary acquaintance, and, according to the tra ditionary account,, in very abrupt and peculiar terms ; but, judging from his subsequent domestic life,hischoice did suffi cient credit to his penetration and sagacity. His writings at Leicester embraced various tracts printed for private circula tion; anumberof contributions to the Eclectic Review, among which may be mentioned his articles on " Foster s Essays " and on "Zeal without Innovation"; several sermons, includ ing those On the Advantages of Knowledge to the Lower Classes (1810), On the Death of the Princess Charlotte (1817), and On the Death of Dr Ryland (1825) ; and his pamphlet on Terms of Communion, in which he advocated intercom munion with all those who acknowledged the "essentials" of Christianity. In 1819 he published an edition in one volume of his sermons formerly printed. On the death of Dr Ryland, Hall was invited to return to the pastorate of Broadmead Chapel, Bristol, and as the peace of the congre gation at Leicester had been to some degree disturbed by a controversy regarding several cases of discipline, he resolved to accept the invitation, and removed there in April 1826. About this period the malady renal calculus which had for many years rendered his life an almost continual martyrdom, and whose influence he had triumphed over with such marvellous fortitude, began to show signs of indirectly obtaining the mastery over his vigorous con stitution ; and henceforth increasing infirmities and suffer ings, which rest and change of scene could do little to alleviate, surrounded with deepening external gloom the spirit whose cheerfulness and peace they seemed to leave almost totally uninjured. Gradually the inability to take proper exercise, by inducing a plethoric habit of body and impeding the circulation, led to a diseased condition of the heart, which resulted in his death, February 21, 1831. The private manners of Hall were remarkably simple and unaffected; and if his method of expressing his opinions was frequently impetuous, and occasionally somewhat brusque and imperious, this was owing rather to his constitutional energy and straightforward impulsive honesty than to an overbear ing and dogmatic temper. Though exercising his sarcastic powers with great unconstraint, he reserved his severity chiefly for errors which implied some kind of moral culpa bility, and he was always careful to be respectful to true worth even when concealed or deformed by many superficial defects, or conjoined with humble rank or weak mental capacity. In reality few were more unassuming or unselfish or more continuously actuated by feelings truly charitable and benevolent. His mental absorption led to the con traction of many minor eccentricities, one of which was a frequent obliviousness to the flight of time and a con sequent inability to remember his engagements. Towards the close of his Cambridge ministry he acquired the habit of smoking, and from that time his pipe was his almost constant companion and one of his principal solaces in his bodily suffering. Indeed talk and tobacco may be said to have supplied his chief means of recreation. In his conversation the calibre and idiosyncrasies of his genius were better displayed than in any of the writings he has left us ; and it is said to have exercised an even more "captivating charm than did his finest orations. Its most striking characteristics were keen, biting, and original wit, and wild and daring imaginative flights. Both physically and mentally Hall possessed a rare com bination of qualities fitting him to excel as a public speaker. Hedid not attain success without effortand discipline, but the faults which hampered his capabilities were not of a formid able character. He was of powerful and athletic build, and his great breadth of chest, while it lent an impression of massiveness to his bearing, indicated abundant capacity to sustain the kind of physical exertion which oratory entails. His voice was deficient in strength and volume, but exceptionally pure and melodious, and capable of being thoroughly interpenetrated by emotion. Its inadequacy in tone was also compensated for by its great flexibility, which enabled him by the momentum of rapid utterance to obtain all the vocal force necessary to the highest oratorical effects. According to Foster, his countenance " was formed as if on purpose for the most declared manifestation of power." The forehead was high and sloping, with well-arched brows, beneath which his dark and brilliant eye, in his more excited moments, burned and glowed with thought and passion. The lower part of his countenance indicated a vehement and headstrong temperament under the control of an iron will doubtless powerfully reinforced by the strong moral sensibility which gave a peculiar elevation and dignity to features possessing no trait of grace or beauty. Perhaps the "stern, intense, and somewhat for midable expression," which Foster referred to as wanting in the portrait accompanying his works, had its origin partly in his constant suffering. His gestures in speaking were few and simple, and his manner seemed to be naturally determined by his mental emotions without conscious purpose on his part. He gave the impression of thorough self-forgetfulness and absorption in his subject, and during the latter part of an oration of being wholly possessed and dominated by the thoughts and sentiments which he uttered. It is generally affirmed that in his spoken sermons his style was more easy, graceful, and various than in any of the sermons which he prepared for the press. In the latter the structure of the sentences is often formal and laboured, the rhythm artificial and monotonous ; and idiomatic vigour is in some degree sacri ficed to elegance and pomp. In the higher flights of his eloquence his language was, however, unsurpassed for purity and happy adaptation to the thought. Indeed one of his most remarkable gifts is said to have been his extempor aneous command of a clear and felicitous vocabulary, which seemed to clothe every shade of his meaning with its appropriate expression, and whose musical cadences formed a not unimportant element in the fascination exer : cised by his oratory. It is true that in many cases his language had before he spoke undergone considerable mental elaboration, but he was nevertheless so little enslaved to his memory that, according to his own statement, he never entered the pulpit without omitting something which he wished to say and saying something which he wished to omit. In preaching his severe taste and deep sense of solemnity restrained every tendency to eccentricity or extravagance, and he never permitted his brilliant wit to emit even the faintest and most momentary sparkle. It may therefore be believed that on a secular platform his oratory would have been more racy and natural, and from the scope afforded for the free exercise of all his powers would have attained to a more varied perfection. In his occasional reviews his style is clear and pointed, but apart from this it is his sarcasm that chiefly conveys the im pression of more than average ability. The predominant element of his eloquence was reasoning. His statements and propositions were animated with passion and illuminated by a vivid and rich if not strikingly powerful and original imagination ; but in no instance did passion or imagination seem to obtain the chief sway. It was generally not till towards the close of his sermon that the spell of his elo quence asserted itshighest influenceover hisaudience. Then

the various trains of thought through which he had been