On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    and debate , for conducting the business of popular assemblies . Having finished his studies , Mr . Home was admitted into the church of Scotland , as a minister , and presented to the living of Athelstonford , in the neighbourhood of

    Edinburgh . Here he cultivated the acquaintance of the literati of the metropolis of the North ? and in the year 1754 , made one of the Select Society , an institution intended partly for philosophical improvement , and partly for the improvement of the members in public speaking , and projected by Mr .

    Allan Ramsay > the painter . This society attracted so much of the public notice , that in the following year the number of members exceeded a hundred , including all the individuals in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood who were most distinguished by genius or by literary attainments . In the list of Mr . Home ' s associates in the Select Society ,

    besides Mr . Ramsay , we find the names Dr . Robertson , Mr . David Hume , Dr . Adam Smith , Mr . Wedderburn , ( afterwards Lord Chancellor , ) Lord Kames , and Sir Gilbert Elliot . The Society subsisted in vigour six or seven years ; and to the friendships he cultivated here , Mr . Home , probably , owed the powerful support "which he experienced when he was soon after assailed by religious

    fanaticism . In the year 1757 , Mr . Home published the Tragedy of Douglas , which kindled a flame among the Scottish clergy . The extraordinary merits of this performance , which is now become to Scotchmen a subject of national pride , were not sufficient to atone

    for so bold a departure from the austerity expected in a Presbyterian divine , and the offence was not a little exasperated by the conduct of some of Mr . Home ' s brethren , who partly from eiiriosity and partly from a friendly wi-h to share in the censure bestowed on the

    author , were led to witness the fir ^ t representation of the piece on the Edinburgh stage . Ecclesiastical proceedings were instituted against him ; and notwithstanding the able and animated exertions , and the persuasive eloquence of

    his friends , and particularly Dr . Robertson , in the assembly df the church of Scotland , he was stripped of Jbis beneiice and excommunicated . This bitter per-&ecutidn of the author of a tragedy , which is as unexceptionable in its tendency as it is beautiful in its fable and com-

    Untitled Article

    position , which contains " no line when dying he could wish to blot , " powerfully attracted the public sympathy . Patrick Lord Elibank , a lively and accomplished nobleman , henceforwards adopted Mr .

    Home , as an intimate companion ; and his present Majesty , then Prince of Wales , bestowed on him a pension , which he enjoyed to the end of life . The tragedy of Douglas has been extolled by the poet Gray , as a work that "

    retrieved the true language of the stage , lost for three hundred years ; " yet it was refused by Mr . Garrick , when offered for the English stage , on account of its simplicity of fable , incident and poetry : exquisite simplicity ! on which has been founded its best claim to

    longevity . When however , after havinglong passed its ordeal at the theatre of Edinburgh , it was brought upon the London sta ^ e , the public reversed the judgment of the English Roscius , and it has ever since been a favourite and

    popular performance . The moral taste of an English audience which had approved the tragedies of a Divine of their own country , Dr . Young , could not be offended with the more elegant dramatic production of a Presbyterian minister . — Mr . Home lived from the time of his

    publishing Douglas to his death iri studious retirement ; and his admirers will naturally lament that in that long interval he brought forth nothing for the public entertainment or instruction . . Died on the nth of September , 1808 ,

    in the 28 th year of her age , Mrs . SARAH POTTER , wife of Mr Joseph Potter , of Cuckfield , to whom she had been married about one year and four months . She had had one child ,

    which died when it ; was little more than two months old . Previous to her lyingin , she caught a severe cold , which at last terminated in a consumption that defied all the power of medicine . Mrs . Potter had been a member of the Unitarian General Baptist Church at Ditchling , eleven years , and was much esteemed for her seriousness and piety . From the time that she was first taken

    ill to her death , was a whole year ; during which she set an admirable example of Christian patience . For a long time she entertained hopes of recovery , but at length she became sensible of her situation . When she mentioned to her friends that she was in pain , she would say , " I hope I dou ' t naumer . " A fort-

    Untitled Article

    570 Obituary .

    Untitled Article

    Mr * 7 ohn Home * JMrs , Sarah Patief .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1808, page 570, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2397/page/46/