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
physics to the frightful vengeance of the law , the jury brought in a verdict of insanity . I lifted up my over-clouded cast-down soul—I shook the palsy from my limbs—I prayed with fervent brevity his pardon for rushing unbidden into the fathomless Presence , urged by a passionate remorse for the fatal consequences
of an honourable deed : —I sought out and confronted men in office , to demand the privilege of a father clothed in the majesty of grief—and with a firm and erect body—a solemn voice , scarcely ever breaking—O God forgive me this one great act of agonized pride !—I myself read the burial-service over my child ' s premature , suicidal grave !
Oh ! my lord , if the feelings I have now confessed are an unpardonable crime in your eyes , I shall not offer any defence . The day of my union with his mother was the happiest of my life . This superlative bliss and the memory of it , was afterwards divided between that day , and the day of my son ' s birth . We had deep affections and anticipations involved in that event , not readily explained . The day on which his tragic end was first announced to me , was not one of excessive misery ; nor indeed were those that intervened before his burial ; for I did not well
understand what had happened , and my brain was confounded with my heart . This is -a state of passion , which , if lasting , becomes a permanent insanity . It did not last—the sight of my child ' s coffin , and the daik open-mouthed grave , that with earthy silence had so often spoke volumes to my listening soul , brought me to a clear and full conviction that the same loss had befallen
me as I had witnessed befal others , when I dropt tears with them into a new-made grave , while joining my prayer with theirs . This day was the superlative of my misery , as my deportment throughout was the greatest effort of my life . It was indeed a tragedy . I look back to it—I recollect and re-endure its sufferings—and am well contented with the briefness of mortality .
I have but little to add . My benefactor who gave me this curacy , has been dead many years . Another new rector is just appointed to our village , and I am to be ejected from my cure , now that the recent addition to its salary would render my situation more tolerable , to make room for some college protegee of the fresh incumbent . He is , no doubt , a very worthy and competent man , but it is extremely hard upon me . I am respected
here , and beloved , and have experienced the same sentiments from the parishioners , both old and young , during twenty years . A written remonstrance has been presented by them to the new rector , in my favour , and without avail . It was signed by all the inhabitants of the parish , with the exception of two small farmers . One of these sent me his favourite cow , begging me to receive it in token of his distress at refusing to put his name to the paper . The other was an old man , who out of shame absented himself from church , together with all his family , two successive Sundays .
Untitled Article
to the Bishop of the Diocese . 469
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 469, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/9/
-