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had ever read or heard ( and it was the favourite business of many , many years , to read and to hear all that was possible concerning them ) : he could go through all the successions from father to son , or though collateral lines , and trace with perfect accuracy the births , marriages , extraordinary events , and deaths , of all the names in succession . He could do this , through all
the Episcopal Sees , and all the gradations of ecclesiastical order , from their first erection . He could pass through allnobk ^ families of every degree , and through all inferior titles , down to the lowest names of which there are any records . Mr . T . 's extreme curiosity to know these circumstances , of
birth , marriage , death , &c . respecting any person of his acquaintance , or o £ whom he had but slightly heard , appeared to some to be almost trifling . The writer of this seldom received a letter from his friend , which did not contain enquiries of this kind , urged in a manner which seemed to shew , that they were regarded by him as of great moment ; or at least , as affording to him peculiar gratification .
The memory of Mr . T . had however its peculiarities . It had its distinguishing line of action . It was not universally tenacious , upon all subjects , and in all directions . Amazing as it was , it did not enable him , or at least his taste did not incline him , to quote you a long passage of fine poetry , or of splendid eloquence . He did not commit Ids own Sermons to his memory , and repeat
them without book . Here he was not at all distinguished . His own compositions were laboured and accurate in a superior degree ; and therefore long time must have been employed upon them : and they were written with singular neatness . But they Mere read with as constant an application of the eye to the page ^ as those employ , whose memory is most treacherous .
But the noblest excellence of the mind of this venerable man remains yet to be mentioned . His humility was perhaps almost as extraordinary as his memory . No man alive was less proud of what he possessed , less conscious of possessing it , or le ^ assuming on account of it . PI is modesty was uncommonly
great . It was retiring diffidence . It was the feeling of the sensitive plant : it shrunk even from the frown , of an infant . He was indeed harmless — I had almost said , helpless , as a child Taken out of his study , he was from home , dependent tipon others , and almost , unable to do any thing for himself .
The shortness of his sight added to this disposition of his mind - lie could not ride on horseback , for he could not see the ground . He could not find his way through a large town , for the turnings of the streets mocked his power of vision . We may add that his manner of speaking appeared tso a stranger rather lbqjialat > d
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174 Memoirs of the Rev . T . Threlkeld .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1807, page 174, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2379/page/6/
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