On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    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

    Untitled Article

    670

    Untitled Article

    ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE LATE Mr . ROSCOE .

• Citation
  • 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/