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which are very agreeable to me ; and partly to let the person that comes after me know in what manner some of my time was spent , and what sort
of men I was concerned with in spending it ; by which my intention is to shew , how difficult it is to be an honest man in any party of religion , as a partyy and how few can be said to deserve
that title , of whom such party is composed . The great zeal which my father ever expressed for Dissenters , and the great opinion he entertained of Dissenting ministers , were the causes of my being educated as I was . He devotea me to
the ministry from an infant ; and when I consider , that he himself was brought up in all the common prejudices against the Establishment , I do not wonder at it . His mother lived in Somerset , and was some time an eye and ear-witness of the cruelties which King James's men used towards the remains of
Monmouth ' s foolish rebellion . This had the same effect on her , as it has on mankind in general , whose opinions and prejudices , right or wrong , are always heightened and confirmed by persecution and ill usage . Besides ,
he was always very fond of entertaining these ministers , who neglected no opportunities of encouraging his resolution , and by a little flattery persuaded him that 1 might prove a credit to the cause and an ornament to the
profes-I . was first sent to Tavistock school , which had at that time a good character . Here I rein aided two years ,
and learnt Helvicus , * Ovid and Virgil . I was then called home , and placed with old Mr . Bedford , with whom I staid till I was thought fit for an academy , when I was taken away , and for two or three months afterwards I
was invited by Mr . Harding to read over the Greek Testament and Vtrgil with his son , who was to be sent to the same place . My father took this as a mark of great favour and friendship , and was very generous and liberal by way of acknowledgment , not suspecting that good Mr . Harding had an end of his own in it . But the secret was tliis . Mr . Harding had brought
* Probably , his Synopsis Histories Universalis . Ed .
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up his son in his own taste and manner , that is , he was never allowed to go and play abroad with other boys , he was never sent to any public school , lest he should see bad things , or learn bad words ; by consequence all he knew of the world was from his mother and an
old nurse , and all his learning was from a father , whom he was taught to admire as an oracle , though at the same time he dreaded him as a tyrant . Thus knowing nothing of the world , it was natural to suppose he would be at a loss how to behave and converse , when
he came into it ; for tlus reason I was made acquainted with him . I was to learn and know his temper , and to behave with the same respect to him abroad , as I did to Mr . Harding ' s son in Plymouth . Neither was
this all , for it appeared afterwards , that it was expected that I should in all points yield him the precedence , though we were both entered at the academy together , and though I happened to be the eldest of the two .
In May , 17 O 8 > my father went with me to Mr . Hallett ' s in Exeter . I was then about 15 years of age . Mr . Harding and son went with us , which my father took to be so great an honour , that he defrayed all their expenses upon the road . In less than a month ,
Mr . Nicodemus began to discover what he expected from me . But he was disappointed . I did not find myself in the least disposed to give up one point to him , and I was luckily encouraged in doing so by all my fellow-pupils . My tutor directed me to construe before him at lectures . I
was helped and drank to at meals before him , and on all other occasions treated as the senior , which gave so much offence at Plymouth that it brought his father up to Exeter in a month after our first coming . He was soon after removed to private lodgings , under pretence of having some
pimples upon him which required a room and bed to himself . I was three years in going through the several courses of the academy , during which time I led a very reserved and sedentary life . There was something in the country about Exeter which pleased me , and something in the town which I hated , so that I conversed with no creature not belonging to the house , scarce ever went out above twice ft * week , and
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130 Memoirs of Himself , by Mr John Fox .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 130, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/2/
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