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
bright of daily increasing weakness and indisposition paralyzed these efforts . It will perhaps surprise some of my readers , who have read the Tracts written by Mrs * Mary Hughes , but who are ignorant of the circumstance about to be
mentioned , to hear that she was first led to try her skill in that species of composition , by reading the proposal for the formation of The Christian Tract Society which appeared in the Vol . of this work , for the year 1808 , she being at that time fifty-two years of age . This first attempt
ended in the production of " William ' s Return , " which forms No . 1 . of its publications , and which has been succeeded by several others from her pen , published by the same Society , and which are well known to the Unitarian -public . It would
be difficult to describe either the facility with which she composed those useful and interesting little works , or the delight the employment afforded her . it beguiled many an hour , which pain would
otherwise have rendered tedious ; for her health , always from infancy feeble , was by this time so much impaired , that neither she herself , nor any of her friends , expected , that a frame so peculiarly fragile and delicate , could have held out so
many years , as it was , by care and the Divine blessing , enabled to do . This new and interesting occupation , presented to her active and benevolent mind , another means of benefiting her fellow-creatures , and was besides the means of introducing her to the personal acquaintance of many excellent individuals , to whom she would probably , without it , have remained a
stranger . In the year 1819 , she , together with her sisters , removed her residence to Bristol , whither they were accompanied by her two nieces , the daughter and granddaughter of her second sister , who had for the eight preceding years , been
inmates of the family . They had long purposed changing their abode from the country to a town , and were influenced in their choice of Bristol , by their wish to attend the ministry of the Rev . John Howe , with whom and his amiable family they bad been acquainted when he
was pastor of the Unitarian congregation , High Street , Shrewsbury , and with whom their eldest niece had enjoyed the happiness of being admitted into terms of Intimacy , during a previous residence of three years in Bristol . Indeed their wish to place her and her daughter near to
these excellent and invaluable friends , that , when death should deprive them of their natural protectors and advisers , they might enjoy the inestimable privilege of their friendship and counsel , foMl ' a large share in determining their choice ; a choice which the individuals
Untitled Article
far whose sake it was in so great measure made , had often the satisfaction of hearing them declare , that , far from having any cause to regret , it had greatly increased their happiness .
During the first three years of her residence in Bristol , Mrs . Mary Hughes found her health somewhat improved , and was enabled to na ^ ke exertions , to which her strength would have proved inadequate before she quitted Shropshire ; but after that period , it again declined , and she was , during jthe largest part of
the two last winters , confined to her apartment . In this very precarious state was she , when the death of her excellent and only surviving sister , after a very short illness , and when she appeared to » be recovering , by the severe shock which it gave to her spirits , and the too great exertions which she could not be
dissuaded from making , brought on a dangerous illness , from the effects of which she never recovered . Her nervous system had always been peculiarly sensitive , and it being severely shaken by her late mental and bodily sufferings , occasioned a depression of spirits , equally new and painful to herself to experience , and to her friends to witness . She continued
weak and languishing , though free from any specific disease , during the space of four months , when she was attacked by an acute one of the inflamatory kind , which was in a few days removed by the skill of her medical friend : but her feeble frame was exhausted ; " the delicate
machine , " as the above-mentioned medical gentleman observed to the writer of this account , " was worn out . The springs which had with difficulty been kept in motion so long , would no more perform their allotted functions . " On the tenth day from her seizure , her " spirit returned to Him who gave it . "
During the trying period which preceded this , her last illness , she often expressed a fear that if she should remain long in this state of languor and nervous depression , which she found much harder to bear than any pain she had previously
suffered , she might become impatient . She prayed often , and earnestly that this might not he the case . " My faith" she would often say , " does not fail , and , blessed be God ! I know that even should it at last fail , His goodness , and His
mercy never wilL Her faith did not fail , it rather appeared to gain strength as her bodily powers decayed : during the few last days
of her life , she was occasionally delirious , but in her lucid intervals , which were frequent , her mind was tranquil ; and although she spoke little , the few words which dropped from her were full of pious resignation and hope ; and the last
Untitled Article
Obituary . —Mrs . Mary Hughes * 115
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 115, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/51/
-