In November 1SO4 flail ICU visited by an attack of insanity, the violence of which did not last long, but from which he did not entirely recover for some years. Hie state of health made it necessary for him to resign his charge at Cambridge; but, about 1807, ho became minister of the Baptist chapel in Harvey-lane, Leicester, and this position he held for nearly twenty years. He married in March, 1808. At last, in 1826, he removed to the pastoral care of his old congrega tion at Broadmead, Bristol ; and here he remained till his death, which took place at Bristol, on the 21st of February 1831.
Besides occasional contributions to various dissenting periodical publications, Ball published various tracts and sermons in the last twenty years of his life, which, along with those already mentioned, have since his death been collected and reprinted under the title of The Works of Robert Hall, A IL, with a brief Memoir of his Life by Dr. Gregory, and Observations on his Character as a Preacher by John Foster ; published under the superintendence of Oliuthus Gregory, LL.D., profesesor of mathematics in the Royal Military Academy,' 6 vols. 8vo, London, 1831-32. It was intended that tho Life should have been written by Sir James Mackintosh, but he died (in May, 1832) before beginning it. Dr. Gregory e Memoir, from which we have abstracted the materials of this article, somewhat amplified was afterwards published in a separate form: [Oneoone, OLINTIR78.1 The first volume of Hall's Works contains sermons, charges, and circular letters (or addressee in the name of the governing body of the Baptist church); the second, a tract entitled 'On Terms of Com munion,' in two parts, 1815; and another entitled ' The Essential Difference between Christian Baptism and the Baptism of John' (a defence of what is called the practice of fret) communion, which pro duced a powerful effect in liberalising the practice of the Baptist community), in two parts, 1816 and 1818; the third, isolitical and miscellaneous tracts, extending from 1791 to 1826, and also the Bristol newspaper contributions of 1786.87; the fourth, reviews and miscel
laneous pieces; the fifth, notes of sermons, and letters. The sixth, besides Dr. Gregory's memoir, contains Mr. Foster's observations, and cotes taken down by friends of twenty-one sermons.
Hall was a man of many virtues, and of intellectual powers which placed him in the first class of men of talent. His acquirements were very considerable, and he appears to have kept up the habits of a studious man to the end of his life. But the great temporary impres sion which he made as a preacher and as a writer is to be attributed more to general force and fervour of mind, than to any higher or rarer faculty. He was more of an orator or of a rhetorician than of a thinker. His greatness lay in expression and exposition, not in inven tion ; and even his eloquence was rather flowing and decorative than imaginative or Impassioned. His mind was scarcely in any sense an original or creative, nor even a subtle or a far-seeing one.