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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.
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He was removed from that school to a private one near Bristol , kept by one Young , a Dissenting Minister , and a brother to the well known Mr . James Young in Plymouth . He had nothing to recommend him that I could ever
hear of , but his being a Dissenter ; for he was a man of no learning , much bigotry , some cruelty , and a little cracked . However , his party got him some scholars , some he whipped into learning , and others out of their senses . With him Mr . Brett finished his
schoollearning , and then was sent to the then famous Academy at Taunton , which I have mentioned in another place . When he entered on logic , the lectures read to him on that seemed so
veiy strange to him , that ( as I have heard him say ) he could form no manner of notion about it for a long time , which seemed the stranger , because he had a head afterwards for
much deeper and more abstracted studies . I was so young when he entered on the ministry , that I can say nothing of it . All I remember is , to liave heard that he lived and preached abroad . He never met with any encouragement at home , and this was
one reason why he lived in London , Scotland , Ireland and Holland at different times . He was never pastor of a congregation in any of these places , but only acted as an itinerary assistant . He lwed a long time with his brother in Plymouth , without any
employment , or any call to it , so that he had always great opportunities for reading and improvement in the very best of his time . At length , he became a chaplain to one Mrs . Upton , an old Dissenting gentlewoman in the South-Hams ; from thence he went to
Pensanee , in the west of Cornwall , where he continued as minister for some years , and after being out of business again for some time , he was at last recommended by some ministers to the people of Liskard , where he submitted to an ordination , and so became at last
* regular pastor to a poor declining congregation . These things did not succeed one another in order of time , "Ut I chose to lay them together in one view for the better understanding the
encouragement he had in his profession . But notwithstanding this and the almost universal contempt he had froth for the generality of preachers ai * d hearers among Dissenters , 1 never
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Vnew any man more violently addicted to the party , or who took more pleasure sometimes in disputing , and sometimes in railing , against every thing and person that was of the Established Church , than he did . This was owing to the turn which his father gave him when the Dissenters were persecuted ,
and to the resentment he had against his elder brother by the first wife , who was of a different persuasion , and would be often talking to him of his zeal , and advising him to moderation . He was a man of a clear and strong head , a lively imagination , and a great memory . He read every thing , and understood it , and would talk off-hand
upon any point as if he had studied no other . He had the best command of words and the readiest invention I ever knew , which , joined to his natural temper , made him a very great disputant , for I never saw any that cared to engage him , or that were not
conquered when they did , supposing them in the right . His learning did not lie only in divinity and history , for he was an acute philosopher , and understood more of the grounds of physic than many that professed it . He had some taste likewise for painting and music ; but he did not go far in them , for want
of opportunities . In short , he was a genius , and capable of making a considerable figure in life , had he not been fatally eclipsed by the other part of his character . He was in one respect an exception to all mankind , for he had seen the world and men , and yet did not , or would not , know them .
He was so taken up with every notion he was pleased to adopt , and so tenacious of it , that whoever spoke against it was sure to be treated with some indecency . He was learned and spoke well ; but he was so overrun with illnature and ill-manners , that he always lost more in the esteem of those lie
talked with , than he got by the victory of putting them to silence . He many times disputed more for victory than for . truth * which was very mean in one who knew better , for I have heard him myself more than once , talk at
different times on both sides of a question , just as his humour pleased to dispose him . He used no art to conceal his pride : all the stories he told tended to shew his parts , and how easily he ran down and exposed his antagonist . He seldom gave any man
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Mr . John Fox ' s Biographical Sketches of some of his Contemporaries . 261
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1821, page 261, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2500/page/5/
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