wise, until about his eighth year, when the sarcasms of a schoolfellow upon his dulness seemed to rouse him from a lethargy. From that time he made rapid prog- ress in learning, especially in the Latin language. In his 17th year his mind was brought, by the ministry of Mr. Brettell and Mr. Barber (Methodist preachers), under religious impressions, and. in 1778 he joined the Methodist society at Mullica Hill, near Coleraine. He soon became a class-leader and home-missionaiy. Having been recommended to the notice of Wesley, he was sent by him in 1782 to Kingswood School, where he did not remain long. His sufferings there are amus- ingly detailed in his autobiography. While digging one day in the garden at Kingswood he found a half guinea, with which he bought 'a Hebrew Bible ; and this (he says in his Autcbiographg) " laid the founda- tion of all his knowledge of the sacred writings of the Old Testament." Towards the end of 1782 he was sent out by Wesley as an itinerant preacher, and he re- mained in this laborious work with few interruptions until 1815. A more earnest, faithful, and diligent preacher never lived, and few more popular have ever appeared in England. To the last the chapels where he preached were filled to overflowing. Every part of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as Guernsey, Jersey, and the Shetland Islands, shared in his toils as I^eacher and missionary. In 1795 he was appointed to London, and again in 1805 ; and he now remained in the metropolis ten years, full of labors in the pas- toral work, in the benevolent enterprises of the day, and in literary pursuits. He was thrice elected (1806, 1814, 1822) president of the British Conference.
While a travelling preacher, he found time for much study, especially in Oriental literature. Jjo. 1802 he published a Bibliographical Dictionary (6 yols. 12nio), which at once gave hhn a literary reputation. Before this, as early as 1798, he began to gather materials for a Commentary on the Bible, the first part of which was published in 1810, and the last in 1825. ** In this ai^ duous work," he says, " I have had no assistants, not even a single week^s help from an amanuensis; no person to look for commonplaces, or refer to an an- cient author, to find out the place and transcribe a passage of Latin, Greek, or any other language (which my memory had generally recalled), or to verify a quotation, Uie help excepted which 1 received in the chronological department fh>m my own nephew, Mr. John Edward Clarke. I have labored alone for twen- ty-five years previously to the work being sent to the press, and fifteen years have been employed in bring- ing it through the press, so that nearly forty years of life have been so consumed" (^Autobiography),
His literary labors in London from 1^ to 1815 (dur- ing which he ^* was abundant also in labft^ as pastor and preacher'*) were enormous. Soon after his settlement in the dty he was called into the committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and for years he di- rected largely its publications in Oriental languages. In 1806 he published The Bibliographical Miscellany (2 ▼ols.), a supplement to his Bibliographical Dictionary. In 1807 the University of Aberdeen gave him the degree of M.A., and in 1808 that of LL.D. In 1808 also appeared his Succession of Sacred Literature, vol. i (vol. ii by his son, J. B. B. Clarke, 1830, 8vo). At the end of that year the Bible Society requested that the rale of the Conference under which Dr. Clarke would be compelled to leave London might be sus- pended in his case, in order that he might remain in their service longer. The request was granted. In the same year the British government intrusted to him the arrangement, for publication^ old state pa- pers, in continuation of Rymer's Fcedera, On this la- borious and comparatively unprofitable task he spent the best part of ten years, being relieved from it in 1819. After the organization of the Wesleyan Mis- sionary Society in 1814, he preached, spoke, and trav- elled largely in its service. During all this time he
CLARKE, EDWARD DANIEL 366
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was working on his Commmiary^ and in studying for it made himself more or less completely master, not only of Greek and Hebrew, bat also of tiie Ofiental languages. He had long been acquainted with the languages of modem Europe. These varied and ex- traordinary labors at length injured his health, and in 1815 he withdrew ftom London to a small estate at Biillbrook, Lancashire*. Here be continued to prose- cute his literary labors, and especial^ his CcmmeiUary^ which was now in an advanced state of preparation. In 1828 he returned to the vicinity of London, and fixed his residence at Haydon Hall, where be spent the remainder of his days, engaged in literary labor, and also in the service of the Church in various ways. Among his most important labors of this period was the organization of Methodism in the Shetland Isl- ands, to which he made two missionary journeys (1826 and 1828). During the summer of 1882 he exerted himself too much, and died at Bayswater, Middlesex, August 26 of that year, of cholera.
Dr. Clarke's life was one of almost qnparalleled in- dustry as preacher, pastor, student, and author. His literary reputation rests chiefly upon his Commmtanf (last ed. Carlton and Porter, N. T. 1866, 6 vols. 8vo}, which has had a wider circulation than any other in the English language, except, perhaps, Matthew Hen- ry's. It is now superseded by later works, but will always be cited with respect for its multi&rious learn- ing, and for the frequent originality and acuteness of its annotations. As a theologian, Dr. Clarke was an Arminian, and held the Wesleyan theology entire, with the exception ot the doctrines of the Eternal Son- diip of Christ. His error on this point drew out those admirable works, Watson's Remark$ on the Eternal Son- ship ( Worb, Lond. ed. vol. vii), and Treflfry's Inquiry kUo the Doctrine of the Eternal JSonMp (8d ed. Lond. 1849).