Is it a fair fond thought, That you may still our friends and guardians be; May we not sweetly hope, That you around our path and bed may dwell? 'Shall we not feel you near In hours of danger, solitude, and pain, Shall not your gentle voice Break on temptation's dark and sullen mood, 'Oh yes! to us, to us, A portion of our converse shall be given! 'Lead our faint steps to God; Be with us while the desert here we roam; There is an interesting memoir of Dr. Morrison, but we must pass it over to detach a few anecdotes from the Recollections of Wilberforce. Upon his religious habits, the mind of the writer of these recollections delights to dwell. He was a Christian indeed. The elevated and consistent tone of spiritual piety which he maintained during the whole course of his hurried public life, was sustained by much private prayer, by a religious observation of the rest of the Sabbath, and by study of the Scriptures. His remarks in his family devotions, on the passages which he read, were generally attractive, new, striking, practical, and in harmony with the spirit of the sacred book. The writer has seen the Bible which he used in private, the margins were crowded with annotations, references, critical emendations, and marks, all in pencil, and evidently the work of reference and love for the sacred book. I remember his expositions dwelt much on the topies of gratitude to God for redemption, of the debt of love we owe, of the happiness of religion, and the misery of a life of sin. It required some management to draw him out in conversation. And the nearer you observed him, the more the habit of his mind appeared obviously to be modest and lowly. And, therefore, some of those who only saw him once might go away disappointed. But if he was lighted up, and in a small circle where he was entirely at his $345 ease, his powers of conversation were prodigious; a natural eloquence was poured out; strokes of gentle playfulness and satire fell on all sides; and the company were soon absorbed in admiration. It commonly took only one visit to gain over the most prejudiced stranger. I hardly know, whether it would be worth while particularizing two occasions. He was on a visit to Brighton; the king hearing of it, sent for him one evening, without a moment's notice, to attend at the Pavilion. Mr. Wilberforce was so much surprised that he actually called in the orderly, that he might have the message from the man's own mouth. He hurried on his dress, and went. party was assembled, and the king (George IV.) paid him much atA large tention. By degrees he was engaged in conversation, and so fixed the royal circle, that the company did not break up till a late hour, his Majesty playfully accusing Mr. Wilberforce of being the occasion. At another time, he was invited to meet the celebrated Madame de Stael, at, I believe, Lord Lansdowne's: there were only two or three guests; one of whom told me that Wilberforce broke out on a suitable topic, leading from it into so eloquent a panegyric of missionaries carrying the gospel to the heathen nations, that the party were rapt in amazement; the conversation afterwards naturally fell into his hands, (such was the expression used to me,) and the evening was altogether delightful. I recollect Mr. Wilberforce saying, that he once laboured for hours in endeavouring to convince Mr. Pitt of the real spirituality of Christianity, and of the value of those clergymen whom the world at that day upbraided with extravagance. He succeeded, however, in one important effort. Minister by Mr. Pretyman, (afterwards Tomline, and successively Some project had been nearly carried with the Bishop of Lincoln and Winchester,) but Wilberforce hearing of it, took such pains to inform Mr. Pitt of the real bearings of the case, that it was abandoned. Mr. Wilberforce, thirty years afterwards, told the writer he did not know that he had in anything been more really serviceable to the cause of true religion than by that private interposition.' Recollections of William Wilberforce, Esq. It may be fairly said, upon reflecting on Mr. Wilberforce's labours for this cause, including the thirty-seven years that he was in parliament after he brought it forward, and the nine years of retirement afterwards, during which he continued to aid and direct in the conduct of it, that there has been no statesman in our memory who has proposed to himself so great an object, pursued it with such perseverance, and been crowned during his own lifetime with such complete success. His extreme benevolence contributed largely to this success. I have heard him say, that it was one of his constant rules, on this question especially, never to provoke an adversary,-to allow him fully, sincerity and purity of motive,-to abstain from irritating expressions,-to avoid even such political attacks as would indispose his opponents for his great cause. the kind-heartedness of his character, disarmed the bitterest foes. In fact, the benignity, the gentleness, Not only on this question did he restrain himself, but generally. Once he had been called during a whole debate, by a considerable speaker The Mr. of the opposition, "the religious member," in a kind of scorn. impropriety had been checked by the interference of the house. Wilberforce told me afterwards, that he was much inclined to have retorted by calling his opponent "the irreligious member," but that he refrained, as it would be a returning of evil for evil. 'A friend told me that he found him once in the greatest agitation looking for a despatch which he had mislaid:-one of the royal family was waiting for it, he had delayed the search to the last moment,— he seemed at last quite vexed and flurried. At this unlucky instant, a disturbance in the nursery over-head occurred. My friend, who was with him, said to himself, Now, for once, Wilberforce's temper will give way. He had hardly thought thus, when Wilberforce turned to him, and said, "What a blessing it is to have these dear children; -only think what a relief amidst other hurries, to hear their voices, and know they are well." We have room for only one more extract, and we cannot but pronounce the following stanzas one of the most beautiful poems in this delightful volume. We must speak of the Scrap Book next month it is a highly attractive Omnium Gatherum, fit for a drawing room. THE SHEPHERD'S VIGIL. Silent, and calm, and beautiful The starry night came down, Where Kedar's deserts frown; The dark green hills, where oft of old And lonely lay the land around, Lonely as when, of yore, The footsteps of her God were found Upon her olive shore: And where her vine-wreathed gates unclosed The shadow of her Rock reposed. In Bethlehem his father's sheep The son of Jesse led ; And still on crag and palm-crown'd steep Of sceptred Judah spread A thousand folded fleeces shone 6 Far, far along the purple heights That stretched into the sky, When distant founts are heard to play Silently rose the hour-when He, Came veiled and alone: A stranger in that pleasant land He who hath passed the palace by, The contrite bosom's guest: Watching among the dark green hills, The low bleat of the fold;- And voices not of this world's mirth; Startling the dreamer's dazzled eye, They heard the words which never now And pathless is the mountain sod, So long by angel footsteps trod. THOU, who hast walked the world alone, With sad and weary feet; THOU, who didst leave thine ancient throne, Thy straying sheep to meet; Tho' fallen and lost the guilty spot, Yet oh, do THOU forsake it not. 11 ART. X. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. In the course of October will appear, in one volume octavo, a Treatise on the Functional and Structural Changes of the Liver, in the Progress of Disease, with numerous Cases, exhibiting the Invasion, Symptoms, Progress, and Treatment of Hepatic Disease in India. By W. E. E. Canwell, M.R.I.A., Surgeon of the Madras Establish ment. In the Press, Schleirmacher's Introduction to the Dialogues of Plato, translated from the German. By William Dobson, M.Ă., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. The Rev. Eustace Carey has in the Press, A Memoir of the Rev. William Carey, D.D., more than forty years Missionary in India, Professor of Oriental Languages in the College of Fort William, &c., &c. The Work will comprise, a review of his early life and entrance upon the Christian Ministry, by Himself. A recollection of his early life, by a beloved Sister.-An " Attempt at a Memoir," &c., by the late Rev. Andrew Fuller.-A Critique upon his Character and Labours as an Oriental Scholar and Translator, by Dr. Wilson, Professor of Oriental Literature in the University of Oxford, &c., &c. |