On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
D exlW fhi * . appointment was uiti v ^ rsally thought to be an honour mtfet jiisly due to his preeminent attainments in this science . All his studies had
contributed to fit him for this office ; but , to increase his qualifications-, he immediately began the study of the German language , and en * gag d in a minute review of his
former reading . He laid out a verv extensive plan for his lec ~ lures *—of which , however , only a few fragments were found among his papers—and expected to have been prepared t& deliver them early
in 1813 . But the alK wise Disposer had otherwise determined . In the rriidst of all his usefulness and activitv ? when he was never more
interesting to his friends , and their hopes from him were never more highly raised , these hopes were all at once extinguished . A sudden and violent access of his old
disorder instantly made a total and irrecoverable wreck of his intellect , and after lingering for a few days , during which he had not even a momentary interval of reason , he sunk under its force , Tuesday , June 9 , 1812 , having just completed his twenty-eighth
year . In his person , Me . Buckminster scarcely reached the middle size . His limbs were well . proportioned and regular . His head was formed after the finest models
of the antique : and his features presented an almost faultless combination of dignity , sweetness and intelli gence * A portrait is
prefixed to the po 3 thttmom volume ° f fcia discourses , engraved by Edwin , from one of the happiest ^ orts of the pencil of Steuart . It wMJ give a general idea of his face ;
Untitled Article
though some of the interesting ; traits , which are yet remembered with fond regret by his friends , it is , perhaps , beyond the reach of art to preserve .
There were very few peculiar !* ties in the manners of Mr . Buck * minster , to distinguish him from the generality of men of refined minds and familiar intercourse
with the best society . He was affable and unconstrained , and very accessible to the claims of his friends and the curiosity of strangers . There was a remarkable simplicity &nd directness ,, if
the expression may be allowed , an absence of all disguise in his mode of uttering his thoughts ; and it might sometimes seem , that his first impressions were made known with a freedon * which
more prudence or more selfishness would have taught hirr > to repress . He had that unfailing mark of a good disposition , an easiness to be pleased . His conversation , in large companies , was not re *
markably copious , but always very correct and elegant . In the private society of his friends he delighted in the exchange of minds —particularly on subjects connected with education , classical
learning , biography , the theory and laws of morals , the nature and influence of religion , the prospects of mankind , &c . —and was very communicative of his great variety of knowledge on all these subjects . Though he was emu
nently and habitually cheerful , there were occasional inequalities in his manner ; and there were moments , when there appeared in him a sort of reserve ^ and want of interest in those about him , which made his character misunderstood by several , who . if they ha < t
Untitled Article
Memoir of tSe Rev . J . 5 . Buchmins&r . ffftS
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1814, page 665, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2446/page/5/
-