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Mr . Henry Roscoe ' s memoir of his venerable father is a book we should have noticed be tore this time , were we always as able to perform as to wili . Ere now it is probably in the hands of most of our readers ; and in giving an abstract of , or extracts from , its contents , we should merely be performing a work of supererogation . All , therefore , that we shall do in the matter is , to add our hearty commendations to those already offered to the to add our hearty commendations to those already offered to the
worthy editor . \; let has performed his task in a manner most creditable to himself ; has produced a book free from all appearance of exaggeration or pretension ; has given to society an admirable picture of one of the most interesting characters that ever adorned it ; and entitled himself to the gratitude , we hope , of many a reader . Respecting the excellent man whose memorials are thus presented to us , we feel how much , how very much ,
might be said . He commands our admiration nearly at all points ; but we cannot forbear especially remarking upon him as a pattern for the many in the art of self-cultivation , in the diligent , laborious , patient preparation by which he rendered himself fit to be the minister of much good to his fellow-creatures . It is true
that Mr . Roscoe was a self-educated man ; and we know how often this phrase is associated with the idea of something superficial , presumptuous , and unsafe ; but Mr . Roscoe ' s self-education was not of this sort . No one ever laboured more diligently , or was less contented with mental slovenliness , than he . He early gave society the best pledge of a strong desire to improve his species , by a vigorous improvement of himself . We could wish that
this were an example generally followed , that men did not too often postpone the claims of their own minds , to other claims far less loud and imperative ; but it appears to us , that this is the peculiar danger of our clay ; that a sort of bustling desire to be doing , in what we conceive the service of our fellow-creatures , precedes that steady discipline of the spirit by which only human beings are prepared to be really serviceable to one another .
With Mr . Roscoe and his band of friends there was a perpetual intermingling of offices of benevolence with individual research , inquiry , and improvement . Not one of them seems to have lost his individuality , or his mental self-respect , in the midst of social at
pursuits . They were alwaj ^ i work , —quietly , but most effectively ; and now , when we look back on the long line of subjects which passed before their minds , how attractive do they appear ! how noble ! how truly worthy of men and of Christians ! We hardly know , indeed , when looking at Mr . Roscoe ' s life , as considered with regard to his most extensive relations with society , where we are to find the boundary line of its influence . No doubt , the influence of
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ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE LATE Mr . ROSCOE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1833, page 670, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2624/page/10/
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