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often , and was never backward to make one at a patty of pleasure , provided it was conducted with decency and innocence . His family also began to increase , for bis youngest sister married &nd had four children , all which fell
upon him and his sisters for a maintenance , their father Mr . Smith being an indolent man , and of little or no practice . But the true reason why he first kept a horse was his falling into a hypoish disorder , which had like to have destroyed him . And this was
occasioned by his great concern for the death of Mr . Moyle , of Bake , with , whom he had lived in great intimacy . That gentleman had a great taste for critical learning , read much , and led a very sedentary life , by which means he
contracted a bad habit , and he died of a polypus in his heart . This sunk Mr . kSmithurst ' s spirits to such a degree , that he fancied he was attacked by the same disorder , and for some time he looked on himself as a dead man . He
made his will—he took leave of his friends , and had reall y an intermission in his pulse , which frightened him terribly . However , time and riding wore off the panic , and he became as well as ever . He was no generous tradesman , though strictly honest ; and it was
very visible in all parts of his life , that he was very mean-spirited where his private interest was concerned . He would never take more for any book he sold than the living price , and if he asked more , and he was paid without words , he would return the overplus ;
and yet he would never change a book without you lost half the value , and he was sure of getting as much by the second sale as he did by the first . He was very remarkable for a facetious companion , for he was generally on the merry strain , and made himself the life of the company by telling pleasant stories with uncommon humour and
spirit . He had a vast collection of these fitted to every topic almost of conversation , some of which , I am persuaded , were of his own invention ; it being a maxim with him , that there was no harm in telling what was not
strictly true , ' as long as no person was injured , but , on the contrary , entertained . The worst of it was , -he dealt always in that kind of wit called pun : this took extremely with his intimate acquaintance , who always applauded him , and even persons who could dis-
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tinguish better would pardon hitn , and laugh for company , though some t > f them were sometimes very gross and mean . ^ Matrimony and women were generally the subjects upon which he exercised his wit , and he would often
boast of his happiness in being delivered from the troubles and inconveniences which do commonly attend them . But in both these he was very unhappy ; for he was at times in love , and courted more women than one , especially the widow Hemyn , who had formerly lived with him as a servant ,
and he would actually have married her , had not his elder sister Judy , who had always a great dominion over him , prevented it . And though by this means he had no children of his own , yet his youngest sister took care to marry very contrary to his liking , and brought forth several children , every one of whom came to him for a
maintenance , though begot by a man whom he hated . And in this view I could never help considering him as like Lord Rochester ' s hedge-sparrow , which maintains by instinct what is got by a cuckow . I suppose his disappointments in these affairs helped to
prejudice him against the sex in general . It was very few he ever spoke well of , and those he did commend had , to all impartial observers , as many foibles as those he was pleased to condemn . He has often argued to me against
marrying , upon a very whimsical principle : " Suppose no man , " says he , " did marry , then you'll say there is an end to mankind ; and then so much the better / ' would he add , " unless the
world was better than it is . " This was something so stupid from him , that it surprised me , because it is supposing the bulk of both sexes to be different creatures from what they always were , and always will be and must be . He had one peculiarity beyond any
tradesman I ever saw , for instead of shewing you any thing new or remarkable , which was sent him down , he would take all precaution to conceal it from you , and I have often seen him very
much disconcerted and out of humour if a person happened to take up and look at a book or a print before he had time to get it out of the way . He had an unhappy faculty of looking on all who did not deal with him in a very
bad light ; and , on the other hand , was <| uite , and shamefully , partial in favour
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-444 Biographical Sketches of some of his Contemporaries , by Mr . John Fo # .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1821, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2503/page/4/
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