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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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A ugust 25 , at Harrowgate , Mrs . Lydia Wiggin , relict of John Wiggin , Merchant , of London , and daughter of the Kev . John Evans , formerly one of the Canons Residentiary of Hereford . During her late residence at Clifton , Mrs . Wiggin was a member of the congregation ^ at Lewin's Mead . Her father , a man of an eminently cultivated and pious mind , had always demonstrated himself to be a cordial and fearless advocate for religious and political liberty . From him hi > : daughter imbibed her first sentiments of the Divine goodness , her first views of the gospel of Christ , and her first notion of the sacred right of private judgment
in matters of religions belief . From principle and conviction , she became a decided Unitarian , full of charity for those who differed from her in opinion , and impatient only of intolerance and
bigotry . The excellence of her moral character was especially conspicuous in the privacy of domestic life , and those who were the most intimately connected with her will have felt the most correctly the eminence of her virtues . The virtue
of justice , through all its ramifications , of strict truth , unfailing fidelity , and spontaneous habitual fairness , she loved
and practised , probably , in . as great perfection as is consistent with the state of humanity . Her generosity , through the wide range of sentiment , conduct and action , in which that quality may be
demonstrated , was invariably characterized by its perfect purity : no alloy tine * tured its golden stream ; for of this admirable woman ( if of any mortal ) it may be asserted , that she was free from our
" besetting sin" of selfishness . Her hostility and opposition to every species of tyranny and oppression , were not only iinmoveable by the allurements of worldly interests and advantages , which , so presented , her noble soul would spontaneously have despised , but they were also proof against the influence of private affection , to which few hearts were so sensible us hers . She possessed , in an eminent degree , the virtue which , in modern language , is denominated civil courage : but she exercised this with iSucil admirable prudence , and with such tj'ue temnnne gentleness , that she
sometunes won to a participation in her own S ( -i »» iirients those who , in their blindness , hm ] bc ^ . uj by blaming therm Sincerely "Pi" eclated by all her intimate friends , tl ! Va l ^ ltein of female excellence , she ei pleasure in the consciousness of that ^ tuumion in which they held her ; but l ^ rather stimulated than relaxed her ^ deavows to lessen those imperfections Ouaquu-able from humanity ) which the )( sl among us are always the most ready
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to confess and to amend . In the virtue of Christian humility , Lydia Wiggin was a true disciple of her Divine Teacher-Her intellectual powers were of the first order : her instinctive taste , for the true and the beautiful , gave the highest effect to the culture which had been bestowed
on them , and diffused through her conversation a charm and an interest to which few who knew her could be insensible . — Oh , how many of her sterling virtues , how many of her lovely qualities
how many of her delightful powers , are left undescribed in this faint , slight sketch of the character of the departed ! Those who knew her while living will furnish from their own memories , rich and extensive additions to what is here said : these will also recollect , with fond affection , that pleasant medium through which the qualities of the departed shone : they will speak to each other of the modest
graces of her manners , of the genuine elegance of her deportment , and of the sweet melody of her voice . These perishable ornaments of virtue are not , as some will think , a subject for remark when their possessor is cold in the grave but let these consider that such perishable ornaments characterized the earthly covering which enwrapped the departed
and that they rendered more perceptible to her fellow-creatures the mind which was enshrined within that gem , of immortal worth and of endless duration .
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Obituary . —Mrs . Lydia Wiggin . —Ret ) . Thomas Watson . 623
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Aug . 29 , at Whitby , aged 82 , the Rev . Thomas Watson , during forty-six years the venerable minister of a congregation of Protestant Dissenters in that town . Mr . Watson was a native of Scotland ; and for several of the earlier years of his manhood , after leaving college , was engaged , as is the custom of Scottish literary young men , as a tutor in several families of distinction . He then settled
at Whitby ; and in that active and nourishing , but almost insulated , sea port , he spent the whole remainder of his long and useful life . For many years he kept a boarding school , in which several persons of eminence received their education . Besides being a good classical scholar , he was an excellent mathematician , and had
a happy talent for inspiring his pupils with a taste for mathematical and philosophical pursuits . His local situation also naturally led him to attend to natural history , particularly to the mineral kingdom , and he was one of the first who began to make collections of the curious organic remains with which the Whitby district so much abounds . He enjoyed , during the course of his long life , the general esteem and high respect
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1825, page 623, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2541/page/47/
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