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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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the horse-whip on some occasions . He was not over generous , or much givea to hospitality ; he had very seldom his friends to eat or drink ; and though he would make free for several
days together , and has been entertained with the best of all sorts > he has hardly invited that friend who entertained him to a single meal when he has next seen him . His love of
money appeared at the time of the monstrous rise of the South Sea stock ; for he would not sell at 500 or 600 advance , and staid so long till it fell , and he missed his market . He had
some peculiarities . He never could be persuaded to sit for his picture , for he had a notion that pictures originally were the occasion of worshiping images . There was a creature to which he had
a natural aversion , but he would never tell what that creature was , even to his own wife . He would not attend the marriage of his own daughter , because he had written against the ring in marriage . He was always remarkably close and secret about his own affairs , and , what is seldom , very incurious about the affairs of others . He used no manner
of diversion nor any exercise , until the swelling of his legs and other disorders obliged him to it . And , indeed , he was one of those people who are never happy but when they are deeply engaged in thought , or in a conversation which suits their way and manner of
thinking . He had some very great acquaintances , particularly Lord Chancellor King and Dr . Clarke , and was really known and esteemed more by the world than any man of his character for a century before ; and this was the occasion of his disgrace and trouble in the latter part of his life .
I don't think he behaved under it becoming a person of his sense and dignity . After he was ejected , he removed from the city into a retired house in the suburbs ; but he retired in a very ill-humour , for he suffered his pride to get the better of his philosophy . I was once walking with him
m one of his orchards , which had a prospect of St . Peter ' s towers : upon my taking notice of it , he surprised me with crying out , in great resentment and bitterness , Oh , that hated city ! " and it was plain to eveiy o that was intimate with him , that he had not greatness of mind sufficient to despise hia enemies , and that he suf-
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fered the triumph they gained over him in his ejectioh to break his heart . He did not survive his trouble many years ; ifor though he had many people of sense and fortune who stood by him ; though he had a handsome meeting-house built on purpose for him ,
with an encouraging congregation ; though he got great reputation by what he wrote in the controversy then on foot , and though he was handsomely provided for in the world ; yet his constant vexation , added to his retired way of life , threw him into a bad habit ,
which impoverished his blood so much , that a vessel broke in his lungs , which discharged so largely that he died in two or three days . He was sensible of his danger when first his disorder appeared , and he told Mrs . Peirce , who happened to be near him in his kitchen
where he was sitting , that he always thought a time would come when they must part . He spoke this with a firmness and composure which struck all who heard him . And one night he asked his apothecary , who watched
with him , what he thought of his case , who making him an answer which implied that he was fearful of telling the truth , he said , Pray let me know the worst , for I am not afraid to die /* He then said he doubted he had not
long to live , upon which he answered , " I am satisfied $ and go and tell my enemies that I die in peace ; that I have true comfort in the part I have acted , and for which I have suffered , and that I hope one day to see my Saviour ' s face with joy , when some of
them may hang their heads and tremble . " He uttered this ( as the gentleman declared ) with an astonishing greatness , and all his behaviour in his last scene of life was becoming a good and a great man . He had some share of Mr . Gilling ' s treatment after he Was
dead . He was not , indeed , denied a grave in the church-yard , but they refused his friends the liberty of setting an epitaph over him which wa 3 prepared . But this made way for something much more significant though not so long , for it is cut on his stone , € t Mr . James Peirce * s tomb . " and this
is enough to signify to the present age what he was , and what sort of creatures he was destroyed by to the future .
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Mr . John Foa ^ s Biographical Sketches of some of his Contemporaries . 331
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1821, page 331, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2501/page/7/
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