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is paid in cash, viz. L. 5 from the bounty of Queen Anne, and L.5 from W. P. Esq. of P, out of the annual rents, he being lord of the manor, and L. 3 from the several inhabitants of L, settled upon the tenements as a rent-charge; the house and gardens I value at L. 4 yearly, and not worth more; and, I believe the surplice fees and voluntary contributions, one year with another, may be worth L.3; but, as the inhabitants are few in number, and the fees very low, this last-mentioned sum consists merely in free-will offerings.

"I am situated greatly to my satisfaction with regard to the conduct and behaviour of my auditory, who not only live in the happy ignorance of the follies and vices of the age, but in mutual peace and good-will with one another, and are seemingly (I hope really too) sincere Christians, and sound members of the established church, not one dissenter of any denomination being amongst them all. I got to the value of L. 40 for my wife's fortune, but had no real estate of my own, being the youngest son of twelve children, born of obscure parents; and though my income has been but small, and my family large, yet, by a providential blessing upon my own diligent endeavours, the kindness of friends, and a cheap country to live in, we have always had the necessaries of life. By what I have written (which is a true and exact account to the best of my knowledge) I hope you will not think your favour to me, out of the late worthy Dr Stratford's effects, quite misbestowed, for which I must ever gratefully own myself, Sir, your much obliged and most obedient humble Servant,

"R. W., Curate of S"To Mr C., of Lancaster.""

"About the time when this letter was written, the Bishop of Chester recommended the scheme of joining the curacy of Ulpha to the contiguous one of Seathwaite, and the nomination was offered to Mr Walker; but an unexpected difficulty arising, Mr W. in a letter to the Bishop, (a copy of which, in his own beautiful handwriting, now lies before me,) thus expresses himself: If he,' meaning the person in whom the difficulty originated, had suggested any such objection before, I should utterly have declined any attempt to the curacy of Ulpha; indeed, I was always apprehensive it might be disagreeable to my auditory at Seathwaite, as they have been always accustomed to double duty, and the inhabitants of Ulpha despair of being able to support a schoolmaster who is not curate there also; which suppressed all thoughts in me of serving them both.' And in a second letter to the Bishop he writes:

MY LORD-I have the favour of yours of the 1st inst., and am exceedingly

obliged on account of the Ulpha affair; if that curacy should lapse into your Lordship's hands, I would beg leave rather to decline than embrace it; for the chapels of Seathwhite and Ulpha annexed together, would be apt to cause a general discontent among the inhabitants of both places; by either thinking themselves slighted, being only served alternately, or neglected in the duty, or attributing it to covetousness in me; all which occasions of murmuring I would willingly avoid.' And in concluding his former letter, he expresses a similar sentiment upon the same occasion, desiring, if it be possible, however, as much as in me lieth, to live peaceably with all men.'

The year following, the curacy of Seathwaite was again augmented; and to effect this augmentation, fifty pounds had been advanced by himself; and in 1760, lands were purchased with eight hundred pounds. Scanty as was his income, the frequent offer of much better benefices could not tempt Mr W. to quit, a situation where he had been so long happy, with a consciousness of being useful. Among his papers I find the following copy of a letter, dated 1775, twenty years after his refusal of the curacy of Ulpha, which will show what exertions had been made for one of his sons.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE, "Our remote situation here makes it dif

ficult to get the necessary information for transacting business regularly such is the reason of my giving your Grace the present trouble.

"The bearer (my son) is desirous of offering himself candidate for deacon's orders, at your Grace's ensuing ordination; the first, on the 25th inst. so that his papers could not be transmitted in due time. As he is now fully at age, and I have afforded him education to the utmost of my ability, it would give me great satisfaction (if your Grace would take him, and find him qualified) to have him ordained. His constitution has been tender for some years; he entered the college of Dublin, but his health would not permit him to continue there, or I would have supported him much longer. He has been with me at home above a year, in which time he has gained great strength of body, sufficient, I hope, to enable him for performing the function. Divine Providence, assisted by liberal benefactors, has blest my endeavours, from a small income, to rear a numerous family; and as my time of life renders me now unfit for much future expectancy from this world, I should be glad to see my son settled in a promising way to acquire an honest livelihood for himself. His behaviour, so far in life, has been irreproachable; and I hope he will not degenerate, in principles or practice, fron

the precepts and pattern of an indulgent parent. Your Grace's favourable reception of this from a distant corner of the diocese, and an obscure hand, will excite filial gratitude, and a due use shall be made of the obligation vouchsafed thereby to your Grace's very dutiĵul and most obedient son and servant, ROBERT WALKER.' "The same man, who was thus liberal in the education of his numerous family, was even munificent in hospitality as a parish priest. Every Sunday were served, upon the long table, at which he has been described sitting with a child upon his knee, messes of broth, for the refreshment of those of his congregation who came from a distance, and usually took their seats as parts of his own household. It seems scarcely possible that this custom could have commenced before the augmentation of his cure; and, what would to many have been a high price of self-denial, was paid, by the pastor and his family, for this gratification; as the treat could only be provided by dressing at one time the whole, perhaps, of their weekly allowance of fresh animal food; consequently, for a succession of days, the table was covered with cold victuals only. His generosity in old age may be still further illustrated by a liule circumstance relating to an orphan grandson, then ten years of age, which I find in a copy of a letter to one of his sons; he requests that half-a-guinea may be left for little Robert's pocket-money,' who was then at school; entrusting it to the care of a lady, who, as he says,may sometimes frustrate his squandering it away foolishly,' and promising to send him an equal allowance annually for the same purpose. The conclusion of the same letter is so characteristic, that I cannot forbear to transcribe it. We,' meaning his wife and himself, are in our wonted state of health, allow ing for the hasty strides of old age knocking daily at our door, and threateningly telling us, we are not only mortal, but must expect ere long to take our leave of our ancient cottage, and lie down in our last dormitory. Pray pardon my neglect to answer yours: let us hear sooner from you, to augment the mirth of the Christmas holidays. Wishing you all the plea sures of the approaching season, I am, dear son, with lasting sincerity, yours af. fectionately,

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"ROBERT WALKER.' "He loved old customs and usages, and in some instances stuck to them to his own loss; for, having had a sum of money lodged in the hands of a neighbouring tradesman, when long course of time had raised the rate of interest; and more was offered, he refused to accept it; an act not difficult to one, who, while he was drawing seventeen pounds a-year from his curacy,

VOL. VII.

declined, as we have seen, to add the profits of another small benefice to his own, lest he should be suspected of cupidity.— From this vice he was utterly free; he made no charge for teaching school; such as could afford to pay, gave him what they pleased. When very young, having kept a diary of his expences, however trifling, the large amount, at the end of the year, surprised him; and from that time the rule of his life was to be economical, not avaricious. At his decease he left behind him no less a sum than L. 2000, and such a sense of his various excellencies was prevalent in the country, that the epithet of WONDERFUL is to this day attached to his name.

"There is in the above sketch some. thing so extraordinary as to require further explanatory details. And to begin with his industry; eight hours in each day, during five days in the week, and half of Saturday, except when the labours of husbandry were urgent, he was occupied in teaching. His seat was within the rails of the altar; the communion table was his desk; and, like Shenstone's school-mistress, the master employed himself at the spinning-wheel, while the children were repeating their lessons by his side. Every evening, after school hours, if not more profitably engaged, he continued the same kind of labour, exchanging, for the benefit of exercise, the small wheel, at which he had sate, for the large one on which wool is spun, the spinner stepping to and fro.— Thus, was the wheel constantly in readi ness to prevent the waste of a moment's time. Nor was his industry with the pen, when occasion called for it, less eager. Entrusted with extensive management of public and private affairs, he acted in his rustic neighbourhood as scrivener, writing out petitions, deeds of conveyance, wills, covenants, &c. with pecuniary gain to himself, and to the great benefit of his em ployers. These labours (at all times considerable) at one period of the year, viz. between Christmas and Candlemas, when money transactions are settled in this country, were often so intense, that he passed great part of the night, and sometimes whole nights, at his desk. His garden also was tilled by his own hand; he had a right of pasturage upon the mountains for a few sheep and a couple of cows, which requir ed his attendance; with this pastoral occupation, he joined the labours of husbandry upon a small scale, renting two or three acres in addition to his own less than one acre of glebe; and the humblest drudgery which the cultivation of these fields requir cd was performed by himself.

"He also assisted his neighbours in hay-making, and shearing their flocks, and in the performance of this latter service he was eminently dexterous. They, in their

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turn, complimented him with a present of a hay-cock or a fleece; less as a recompence for this particular service than as a general acknowledgment. The Sabbath was in a strict sense kept holy; the Sunday evenings being devoted to reading the Scripture and family prayer. The principal festivals appointed by the Church were also duly observed; but through every other day in the week, through every week in the year, he was incessantly occupied in work of hand or mind; not allowing a moment for recreation, except upon a Saturday afternoon, when he indulged himself with a newspaper, or sometimes with a magazine. The frugality and temperance established in his house were as admirable as the industry. Nothing to which the name of luxury could be given was there known; in the latter part of his life, indeed, when tea had been brought into al most general use, it was provided for visitors, and for such of his own family as returned occasionally to his roof, and had been accustomed to this refreshment elsewhere; but neither he nor his wife ever partook of it. The raiment worn by his family was comely and decent, but as simple as their diet; the home-spun materials were made up into apparel by their own hands. At the time of the decease of this thrifty pair, their cottage contained a large store of webs of woollen and linen cloth, woven from thread of their own spinning. And it is remarkable, that the pew in the chapel in which the family used to sit, remained a few years ago neatly lined with woollen cloth spun by the pastor's own hands. It is the only pew in the chapel so distinguished; and I know of no other instance of his conformity to the delicate accommodations of modern times. The fuel of the house, like that of their neighbours, consisted of peat, procured from the mosses by their own labour. The lights by which in the winter evenings their work was performed, were of their own manufacture, such as still continue to be used in these cottages; they are made of the pith of rushes dipped in any unctuous substance that the house affords. White candles, as tallow candles are here called, were reserved to honour the Christmas festivals, and were perhaps produced upon no other occasions. Once a month, during the proper season, a sheep was drawn from their small mountain flock, and killed for the use of the family; and a cow, towards the close of the year, was salted and dried, for winter provision: the hide was tanned to furnish them with shoes. By these various resources, this venerable clergyman reared a numerous family, not only preserving them, as he affectingly says, from wanting the necessaries of life; but afforded them an unstinted education, and the means of raising themselves in society.

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"It might have been concluded that no one could thus, as it were, have converted his body into a machine of industry for the humblest uses, and kept his thoughts so frequently bent upon secular concerns, without grievous injury to the more precious parts of his nature. How could the powers of intellect thrive, or its graces be displayed, in the midst of circumstances apparently so unfavourable, and where, to the direct cultivation of the mind, so small a portion of time was allotted? But, in this extraordinary man, things in their nature adverse were reconciled; his conversation was remarkable, not only for being chaste and pure, but for the degree in which it was fervent and eloquent; his written style was correct, simple, and animated. Nor did his affections suffer more than his intellect; he was tenderly alive to all the duties of his pastoral office: the poor and needy he never sent empty away,'-the stranger was fed and refreshed in passing that unfrequented vale,-the sick were visited; the feelings of humanity found further exercise among the distresses and embarrassments in the worldly estate of his neighbours, with which his talents for business made him acquainted; and the disinterestedness, impartiality, and uprightness which he maintained in the management of all affairs confided to him, were virtues seldom separated in his own conscience from religious obligations. could such conduct fail to remind those who witnessed it of a spirit nobler than law or custom; they felt convictions which, but for such intercourse, could not have been afforded, that, as in the practice of their pastor there was no guile, so in his faith there was nothing hollow; and we are warranted in believing, that, upon these occasions, selfishness, obstinacy, and discord, would often give way before the breathings of his good-will and saintly integrity. It may be presumed also, while his humble congregation were listening to the moral precepts which he delivered from the pulpit, and to the Christian exhortations that they should love their neighbour as themselves, and do as they would be done unto, that peculiar efficacy was given to the preacher's labours by recollections in the minds of his congregation, that they were called upon to do no more than his own actions were daily setting before their eyes.

Nor

"The afternoon service in the chapel was less numerously attended than that of the morning, but by a more serious auditory; the lesson from the New Testament, on those occasions, was accompanied by Burkitt's Commentaries. These lessons he read with impassioned emphasis, frequently drawing tears from his hearers, and leaving a lasting impression upon their minds. His devotional feelings and the

powers of his own mind were further exercised, along with those of his family, in perusing the Scriptures; not only on the Sunday evenings, but on every other evening, while the rest of the household were at work, some one of the children, and in her turn the servant, for the sake of practise in reading, or for instruction, read the Bible aloud; and in this manner the whole was repeatedly gone through. That no common importance was attached to the observance of religious ordinances by his family, appears from the following memorandum by one of his descendants, which I am tempted to insert at length, as it is characteristic, and somewhat curious. There is a small chapel, in the county palatine of Lancaster, where a certain clergyman has regularly officiated above sixty years, and a few months ago administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the same, to a decent number of devout communicants. After the clergyman had received himself, the first company out of the assembly who approached the altar, and kneeled down to be partakers of the sacred elements, consisted of the parson's wife, to whom he had been married up wards of sixty years; one son and his wife; four daughters, each with her husband; whose ages all added together a mount to above 714 years. The several and respective distances from the place of each of their abodes to the chapel where they all communicated, will measure more than 1000 English miles. Though the narration will appear surprising, it is with out doubt a fact, that the same persons, exactly four years before, met at the same place, and all joined in performance of the same venerable duty.'

"He was indeed most zealously attached to the doctrine and frame of the Established Church. We have seen him congratulating himself that he had no dissenters in his cure of any denomination. Some allowance must be made for the state of opinion when his first religious impressions were received, before the reader will acquit him of bigotry, when I mention, that, at the time of the augmentation of the cure, he refused to invest part of the money in the purchase of an estate offered to him upon advantageous terms, because the proprietor was a Quaker ;-whether from scrupulous apprehension that a blessing would not attend a contract framed for the benefit of the Church between persons not in religious sympathy with each other: or, as a seeker of peace, he was afraid of the uncomplying disposition which at one time was too frequently conspicuous in that sect. Of this an instance had fallen under his own notice: for, while he taught school at Loweswater, certain persons of that denomination had refused to pay, or be distrained upon, for the accustomed annual

interest due from them, among others, un der the title of church stock: a great hardship upon the incumbent, for the curacy of Loweswater was then scarcely less poor than that of Seathwaite. To what degree this prejudice of his was blameable need not be determined;-certain it is, that he was not only desirous, as he himself says, to live in peace, but in love, with all men. He was placable, and charitable in his judgments; and, however correct in con. duct and rigorous to himself, he was ever ready to forgive the trespasses of others, and to soften the censure that was cast upon their frailties.-It would be unpardonable to omit that, in the maintenance of his virtues, he received due support from the Partner of his long life. She was equally strict in attending to her share of their joint cares, nor less diligent in her appropriate occupations. A person who had been some time their servant in the latter part of their lives, concluded the panegyric of her mistress by saying to me, "she was no less excellent than her husband; she was good to the poor, she was good to every thing!' He survived for a short time this virtuous companion. When she died, he ordered that her body should be borne to the grave by three of her daughters and one grand-daughter; and, when the corpse was lifted from the threshhold, he insisted upon lending his aid, and feeling about, for he was then almost blind, took hold of a napkin fixed to the coffin, and, as a bearer of the body, enter ed the Chapel, a few steps from the lowly Parsonage.

"What a contrast does the life of this obscurely-seated, and, in point of worldly wealth, poorly-repaid Churchman, present to that of a Cardinal Wolsey!

"O'tis a burthen, Cromwell, 'tis a bur then

Too heavy for a man who hopes for hea

ven !" "

LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR OF
ESSAYS ON PHRENOLOGY.

MR EDITOR,

I HAVE read with much pleasure the "attempt to reconcile Metaphysics and Phrenology" which appeared in your Number for May, and feel greatly indebted to your philosophical correspondent for the liberality, candour, and ingenuity, and, I may add, success of his attempt. He observes, that in the Essays on Phrenology, the Metaphysicians are spoken of in terms calculated rather to widen the breach, than to cement the union betwixt them and the Phrenologists; and as

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this is, in some degree, true, and as, in consequence of subsequent events, the two sciences appear not to be so widely opposed as I had at first conceived, I beg leave, through the medium of your pages, to make a few observations illustrative of what now appears to be the relation betwixt them.

ticular faculties; and the mirthful fit being over, they are disposed to inquire seriously into the subject of their joke. The day, perhaps, is not far distant, when their delusion itself will afford an ample fund of entertainment both to themselves, and afterwards to posterity; but, the joke apart, I may observe, that the full value and the high merit of Dr Brown's discoveries are perceived by none so distinctly as by Phrenologists, and that his reputation for profundity and acuteness will rise every day as Phrenology becomes known. It is easy to shew how this will be the case, and for the sake not only of sci

The greatest causes of the opposition which the doctrines of Phrenology encountered from the philosophers, were the entire novelty of the division of the powers of the mind which they contained, and the irreconcileable differences betwixt them and the systems of metaphysical philosophy generally received. The Metaphysicians exhibited a long list of Faculties, Conscience, but of the numerous admirers ousness, Sensation, Perception, Conception, Attention, Abstraction, Association, Memory, Imagination, and Judgment, and the Phrenologists de clared not only that no organs were to be found in the brain corresponding to such powers, but that other powers, of which the Metaphysicians had no idea, were to be found in constant concomitance with particular cerebral parts. They, therefore, denied that the faculties of the Metaphysicians were primitive powers, and exhibited, in opposition to them, an account of the faculties which they had discovered by observation.

While matters stood thus, the differences were irreconcileable. The one system could not subsist if the other was true. But Dr Thomas Brown arose, and by one of those wonderful efforts of mental power, which only one man in a century seems capable of making, he broke down the wall of partition, and enabled the parties to unite as friends engaged in the prosecution of one common object, instead of contending as opponents. He shewed by the most profound, yet correct metaphysical analysis, that the faculties of the Metaphysicians were not powers, but states, of the mind. This was precisely what the Phrenologists had all along contended for, And he then made a new division of the mental powers, which, as your ingenious correspondent has shewn, coincides in a wonderful degree with the results of phrenological observations.

The public have now laughed to satiety at the idea of the brain being the organ of the mind, and of different parts of it being the organs of par

of Dr Brown, who cannot but feel an interest in every thing that is likely to enhance, in any degree, the esteem in which his genius is held, I beg to be allowed to make a few observations on the relation of Metaphysics to Phrenology, in addition to those of your correspondent.

It is now granted on all hands that the mind has no consciousness of the organs by which it acts on the external world, and that dissection throws no light on the functions of the brain. It is a question, therefore, purely of observation, whether the brain be the organ of the mind, and whether particular parts of it be the organs of particular powers or not. But supposing a moment that such is the case, let me ask what will the result be in regard to the philosophy of the mind? It will be interesting in no common degree, for it will make a mighty revolution not only in the mode of cultivating the science, but in the extent and degree of its certainty, application, and utility.

The object of the Metaphysicians has always been to discover the elementary principles of the human mind, and they have endeavoured to accomplish this end by reflecting on and analyzing the thoughts and feelings of which they are conscious. Every one of them has borne testimony to the difficulty of this analysis, and lamented, that, even after it has been accomplished, only few minds are capable of comprehending the results. Hence, in the opinion of the reading public, the science of Mind has, in the words of a contemporary reviewer, "resembled rather the fantastic evolutions of the mimic-actors

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