Footprints of Famous Men: Designed as Incitements to Intellectual Industry

by John G. Edgar

Notwithstanding the ungrateful and troublesome tasks thus devolved upon him, Milner’s success at the University was great. He enjoyed one advantage—not always granted to men springing from so humble an origin—in a personal appearance which could not fail to prepossess beholders. His form, above the usual height, was cast in admirable proportions, and his presence striking; and his regular and handsome features expressed the talent of his brain, the benevolence of his mind, the kindness of his heart, the serenity of his temper, and the frankness of his disposition. His mental faculties were, as time passed on, placed beyond question by the brilliant success he achieved; and the fulness and variety of his colloquial powers rendered him the soul of the circles he frequented, either in Cambridge or London, and his listening audiences comparatively subservient. His mind became so marvelously comprehensive in its grasp, that it could master the details of any subject; and so universal was his information, that there were few trades on which he could not enlighten those who made them the business of their lives. He was, perhaps, a little more zealous than discreet in collecting his vast stores, and he was in the habit of reflecting from them with a pen in hand to take notes.

One very singular instance is given of his zeal in the acquirement of apparently uncongenial knowledge. Late in life, when his portrait, by Kerrick, was engraved, and his friends were anxious to have his coat-of-arms on the print, the then dean, on being applied to, at once declared that he had, of course, no armorial bearings, but he entertained no objection to be furnished with such as had nothing ridiculous about them. It was, however, a constant maxim with him that any knowledge which comes in one’s way is worth gathering, and his attention being thus attracted toward heraldry, he procured books, and succeeded in gaining much curious information on the subject in which he had no natural interest.

Throughout his earthly existence, Milner was distinguished by piety, purity, and integrity; and though ready enough to converse on other subjects with sportive levity, he never alluded to that of religion without the utmost sincerity and the most becoming seriousness. On entering the University he studied indefatigably, and with a result which must have been highly gratifying to his anxious relatives. In 1774 he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and that year the moderators not only assigned him the dignity of senior wrangler, but likewise the title of Incomparabilis. On attaining this distinction, Milner ran off, in the pride of his heart and intellect, to indulge in the extravagance of ordering a seal, with the head of his immortal predecessor, Sir Isaac Newton, engraved on it.

He was now admitted as a member of the Hyson club, which had been formed in 1758, and could boast of several names known to fame. About the same period, the appointment of tutor to a Polish prince was placed within his acceptance, but declined; and his reputation as a mathematician was so unquestioned, that the papers he made out for the use of his pupils were much prized; and there even occurred an instance of a bed-maker being bribed to procure some of them by stealth, to be copied by a student belonging to another college. Yet it was not merely with mathematics that his attention was now occupied. Various philosophical subjects were subjected to his learned faculties; his intellectual performances had secured him friends, and he had shown the independence of spirit by standing alone, among the students of the college, in a refusal to attach his name to a petition against subscription to the Articles of the Church. To this fact he referred with satisfaction in later days, in his encounter with the Bishop of Peterborough, whose denunciation of the sin and danger of giving people the Bible to read, unaccompanied by the Prayer-book, had brought him into the controversial arena.

At the age of twenty-six Milner was ordained deacon, and next year was admitted to priests’ orders, having in the interval been elected a fellow of his college, of which he became tutor in 1777. At that date he took the degree of Master of Arts. He got into the habit of now and then assisting his friends by officiating in country churches in the neighborhood; and he was presented to the rectory of the parish of St. Botolph. Milner had already contributed several papers to the “Transactions of the Royal Society,” of which he, in due time, became a fellow; and he was led to embark, with all the ardor which characterized him, on the study of chemistry. Eminently successful in this pursuit, he proceeded to deliver public lectures on the science. It appears, however, that the experiments he made considerably impaired his health; and this unfortunate circumstance prevented him from undertaking much public labor in his clerical capacity; but he studied scripture and theology with critical interest, and thus laid the foundation of his extensive knowledge of divinity. He was in the habit of going to spend part of the Cambridge long vacation with his brother, in whose house now resided their aged mother, a woman of mental vigor and activity, and to whose shrewd and talkative humor several amusing anecdotes bear witness. When at Hull, in this way, Milner disdained not to return to his duties as usher. To the boys he could be gay and frolicsome, and they relished alike his playful manner and the clearness with which he explained what they could not understand without such assistance.

In 1784, Milner was chosen Jacksonian Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy; and in the same year took part in the institution of a society for the advancement of philosophy and general literature, which only enjoyed a brief existence.

When Wilberforce was living in the house of an aunt, who held Methodistical views of religion, and was suspected of being impressed with such doctrines, his rich and sapient grandsire delivered himself of this alarming and oracular saying: “Billy shall travel with Milner when he is of age; but if Billy turns Methodist, he shall not have a sixpence of mine.” It did come to pass that, after Wilberforce was elected member for his native shire, and his acquaintance with Milner was renewed, he requested the company of his former instructor on a Continental tour. Accordingly they started on their excursion in the autumn of 1784, accompanied by the young, wealthy, and eloquent senator’s female relatives. It is related that, during this expedition, the travelers being on one occasion in imminent danger of being dashed over the brink of a precipice, from the weight of their vehicle overpowering the horses, Milner leaped out, and, grasping the wheels, exerted his great physical strength so effectually, that the danger was obviated. During their wayfarings they met, in Switzerland, the celebrated Lavater, in whose conversation Milner was much interested. Shortly afterward Milner visited his friend at Bath, when “the volatile representative of the county of York” was attacked by a serious illness, and subsequently at his temporary residence in Westmoreland, which being filled with guests of distinction, furnished the divine with a fair field for the display of his wonderful power and versatility. He held conversations with his host on religious subjects, and exercised no slight influence on the mind and opinions of the great philanthropist, in whose schemes for the freedom and welfare of the human race he warmly sympathized.

In the year 1786 Milner took his degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and about the same time was an active member of the Board of Longitude, instituted for the purpose of considering and reporting to government any discoveries calculated to mitigate the perils of navigation. He was regarded as one of the most talented men at Cambridge, where he was considered as an excellent lecturer. As Jacksonian professor he gave alternate courses on chemistry and experimental philosophy, the former of which were especially well attended; and he continued to occupy the chair till his preferment to ecclesiastical dignity.

About his thirty-eighth year he was elected President of Queen’s College; and in this capacity he is reported to have aimed at affording encouragement to learned men belonging to the foundation, and introducing such improvements in the reformation of abuses, and other means, as were calculated to conduce to the welfare of the students, and the honor of the university. Four years later he took the degree of Doctor of Divinity, on being appointed to the deanery of Carlisle, of which he took formal possession by reading prayers in the cathedral. As a preacher he was most effective: his voice, in which he took pride, was sonorous and magnificent; his eloquence was, on the whole, dignified and impressive; and when it was known that he was to preach, as he was in the habit of doing almost every Sunday during his periodic residence, in the cathedral of the ancient city, the aisles and every part of the building were thronged with people of all religious persuasions. Indeed it was remarked, that on such occasions you might walk on the heads of the crowd; and even those who did not entirely agree with his doctrines, admitted the ability with which they were urged, and the striking light in which they were placed. Nor did he court popularity by the brevity of his discourses; for we read, that on an Ash Wednesday he preached to a thronging congregation in the chapel of Whitehall, on “the one thing needful,” for no shorter space than an hour and twenty minutes.

Milner’s presentation to the deanery was closely followed by his election to the Vice-chancellorship of the University, of which he was so distinguished a resident; and in 1809 he was unexpectedly re-elected to the office: having, in the mean time, been called to fill the mathematical chair, which a century earlier had been occupied by the ever-illustrious Newton.