The chart and scale of truth, by which to find the cause of error

F Edward Tatham, the learned and acute author of the present work, we have few biographical materials. He was a native of Yorkshire, as appears from the register of his baptism in the parochial chapelry of Dent, in the parish of Sedbergh, dated October 1, 1749, and the son of James Tatham, gentleman, to whom he affectionately inscribed his volume of Discourses, introductory to the Study of Divinity, published in 1780. It was no ordinary gratification to an aged parent to receive such a token of filial gratitude and intellectual ability.

He was educated at Sedbergh Grammar School, under the care of the Rev. Dr. Bateman, who appears to have been a teacher of uncommon worth. Dr. Tatham, in his

affectionate manner, always termed him, in his Yorkshire accent, "Ould Bateman,' and Dr. Haygarth of Bath, who was also one of Dr. Bateman's pupils, appears to have retained the same grateful recollections of his early instructor. To all, who can enter into the feelings of grateful pupils desiring to record the merits of their old schoolmaster, it will give pleasure to read the letters, many years afterwards written by Dr. Haygarth to Dr. Tatham, which are placed in the appendix to this short memoir1. He was admitted of Queen's College, 1769, and took deacon's orders in 1776, and priest's in 1778. his first taking orders, he undertook the curacy of Banbury, where he published the sermons already mentioned. Whilst resident at Queen's, the fire, in 1779, which consumed a considerable part of the college, destroyed his books and some of his manuscripts. The materials on which the Chart and Scale of Truth is founded

Dr. King, the late Bishop of Rochester, was also educated at Sedbergh, and was the contemporary with Dr. Tatham.-See Appendix, No. 1.

are yet in existence; but no place or date is mentioned, by which it can be ascertained, where or when they were put together. In 1781, he was elected fellow of Lincoln College, and became the acting tutor. It was during this period he preached the Bampton Lectures, the first volume of which was published in 1790, and the second in 1792. In March, 1792, he was elected Rector of Lincoln College, on the decease of Dr. Horner.

His powerful mind was not confined to theological inquiries; he took an active interest in the political questions of that critical period. In 1790, he published a remonstrative Letter to the Revolution Society, and in the year following, a Letter addressed to Mr. Burke. But it is unnecessary to particularize his various minor publications, as a list of their titles is subjoined to this brief memorial.

On the election of Dr. Tatham to the rectorship, he became possessed of a handsome income, which he very liberally expended in improvements on the rectorial houses at Combe and Twyford.

At a

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