It is said that when Dr. Kennicott took orders, he came to officiate in his clerical capacity in his native town,—when his father, as parish clerk, proceeded to place the surplice on his shoulders, a struggle ensued between the modesty of the son and the honest pride of the parent, who insisted on paying that respect to his son which he had been accustomed to shew to other clergymen; to this filial obedience he was obliged to submit. A circumstance is added, that his mother had often declared she should never be able to support the joy of hearing her son preach; and that on her attendance at the church, for the first time, she was so overcome as to be taken out in a state of temporary insensibility. * * * * * _The following Letter from Dr. Kennicott to the Rev. William Daddo has been preserved_: “_To the Rev. Mr. Daddo, in Tiverton, Devon._ “_Wadh. Coll. Mar. 30, 1744._ “Rev. and Hon. Sir, “Gratitude to benefactors is the great law of nature, and lest I should violate what was ever sacred, I presume to lay the following before you. “There are, Sir, in the world, gentlemen who confine their regards to self, or the circle of their own acquaintance, and there are (happy experience convinces me) who command their influence to enlarge and exert itself on persons remotely situate, both by fortune and education. To you, Sir, belongs the honour of this encomium,—to me the pleasure of the obligation, and as I am now first at leisure in the place whither your goodness has transplanted me, I lay this acknowledgment before you, as one of the movers in this system of exalted generosity; for when I consider myself as surrounded with benefactors, there seems a bright resemblance of the now exploded system of Ptolemy, in which, Sir, (you know) the heavenly bodies revolved around the central earth which was thus rendered completely blest by the contribution of their cheering and benign influence. “And now, Sir, the sentiments of duty rise so warm within me, that every expression of thanks seems faint, and I am lost in endeavours after a suitable acknowledgment of my obligations. “But I know, Sir, whom I am now addressing; I know those who most deserve can least bear praise, and that your goodness is so great, as even to reject the very thanks of the grateful; like the sun in its splendour, which forbids the eye that offers to admire it. “That Heaven may reward yourself and Mrs. Daddo with its best favours, and console you under your parental sorrows, is my daily and fervent prayer; and I shall esteem it one of the great honours of my life to be favoured at your leisure with any commands or advices you shall condescend to bestow on Rev. Sir, Your dutiful and obliged Servant, BENJAMIN KENNICOTT.” * * * * *