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 almost 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.

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 conscience from religious. obligations. Nor 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 exhortation 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.

The afternoon service in the chapel was less numerously attended than that of the morning, but by a more serious auditory; the lessons on those occasions, were 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 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 practice 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 of 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 New Series--vol. III.

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a decent number of devout communicants. After the clergyman had received himself, the first company 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 upwards of sixty years; one son and his wife, four daughters, each with her husband; whose ages all added together amount to above 714 years. The several and respective distances from the place of their different abodes to the chapel where they all communicated, will measure more than 1000 English miles. Though the narration will appear surprising, it is without 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 a 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, under the title of church stock; a great hardship upon the incumbent, for the curacy of Loweswater was then scarcely less poor than that of Leathwaite. To what degree this prejudice of his was blameable need not to 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 conduct 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, con

cluded 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 threshold, he insisted on 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, entered 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 burthen

Too heavy fox a man who hopes for heaven!

HERDER'S LETTERS.

[Translated from the German.]

LETTER V.

Of Jacob's blessing on his sons. Its portraying of their characters under the figures of animals. Judah's blessing. The looking forward of the dying patriarch to the land of promise.

You remind me again that I was to give you a more particular illustration of remarkable poetical passages in these most ancient books: before we go any further then, let the present letter be devoted to that object.

:

Jacob's prophecy over his sons* is not properly a song; such for example as the song of Lamech, of Moses, of Deborah, of David by comparing the song of Moses which he taught the people, with the blessing which he pronounced on them, you will easily perceive the difference. It is a high view, a heroic prediction in a parabolic, figurative style; but no more a song than the prophecy of the angel over Ishmael, or of Isaac over Jacob. Where warlike nations would have sung of heroes and triumphs, this pastoral people recited in measured tones the lofty declarations and prophecies of their expiring forefathers.

The bud of Jacob's blessing, its first flush, and as it were the prototype in the soul of the prophetic old man, is the thought of

*Genesis xlix.

*

the land which was promised to his fathers, and which he divides among his children according to the traits of their characters, or the pursuits of their lives. We see this plainly with regard to Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Joseph, because we know more of their history it is obviously the same too with the rest, and with Judah especially. He was a noble lion, and his tribe was to maintain that character. Issachar was doubtless a lover of quietness and the fields: Dan's was a mind full of crafty stratagems: Gad allowed himself to be assailed, but then roused himself and grew valiant: Asher was probably fond of sumptuous delicacies; and Naphthali was the beautiful turpentine tree, with its noble top. A view of this kind is entirely appropriate to these shepherd times; and especially to the observant glance of the father, who had witnessed the conduct of his sons for almost a century, and had been impressed by it all with deep traces of grief and joy. The prophetic spirit of Jehovah kindled in these lines his sons stood living before him, and the future history of their descendants in the promised land seemed also present and distinct. I see Reuben standing abashed there, a man of might and excellency; but he had cast off the crown of his preeminence; crownless he appears, and obtains not the heritage of the first-born. Fierce of eye and with suppressed and hidden passions, I discern Simeon and Levi; their bloody deed is in the sight of the parent; and for the sake of security they are divided. There appears the kingly lion Judah, Issachar looking tranquilly about him, the subtle Dan, the brave Gad, Naphthali the beautiful and tender terebinth, and he, with all his father's strength and all his mother's attractions, Joseph. The happy issue of his trials is seen upon him, his head is encircled with the diadem of Egypt, he stands as a prince among his brethren even as to his future inheritance. Taking with us this perfectly natural interpretation, it cannot be told how every word, every allusion of Jacob becomes a striking truth; † while else all is distant and loses itself in prophetic obscurity. The fruitfulness of Joseph, his wealth, his renown in the presence and in the midst of strangers, by what image could they be more beautifully represented, than by that of a branch from the vine stock of his amiable mother? She travailed late and but twice; but in Joseph alone

*See Dr. Harris's Nat. History of the Bible. p. 310.

In the second part of the Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry, I have treated separately of the local circumstances of the land, which Jacob destined for his sons, and illustrated the patriarch's blessing as a geographical description of Canaan: here I confine myself to the characteristic descriptions of those sons.

Author's note.