The Prose Works of William Wordsworth eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,714 pages of information about The Prose Works of William Wordsworth.

Then follows a letter from another person, dated 1755, from which an extract shall be given.

’By his frugality and good management, he keeps the wolf from the door, as we say; and if he advances a little in the world, it is owing more to his own care, than to anything else he has to rely upon.  I don’t find his inclination is running after further preferment.  He is settled among the people, that are happy among themselves; and lives in the greatest unanimity and friendship with them; and, I believe, the minister and people are exceedingly satisfied with each other; and indeed how should they be dissatisfied when they have a person of so much worth and probity for their pastor?  A man who, for his candour and meekness, his sober, chaste, and virtuous conversation, his soundness in principle and practice, is an ornament to his profession, and an honour to the country he is in; and bear with me if I say, the plainness of his dress, the sanctity of his manners, the simplicity of his doctrine, and the vehemence of his expression, have a sort of resemblance to the pure practice of primitive Christianity.’

We will now give his own account of himself, to be found in the same place.

’FROM THE REV.  ROBERT WALKER.

’Sir,—­Yours of the 26th instant was communicated to me by Mr. C——­, and I should have returned an immediate answer, but the hand of Providence, then laying heavy upon an amiable pledge of conjugal endearment, hath since taken from me a promising girl, which the disconsolate mother too pensively laments the loss of; though we have yet eight living, all healthful, hopeful children, whose names and ages are as follows:—­Zaccheus, aged almost eighteen years; Elizabeth, sixteen years and ten months; Mary, fifteen; Moses, thirteen years and three months; Sarah, ten years and three months; Mabel, eight years and three months; William Tyson, three years and eight months; and Anne Esther, one year and three months; besides Anne, who died two years and six months ago, and was then aged between nine and ten; and Eleanor, who died the 23d inst., January, aged six years and ten months.  Zaccheus, the eldest child, is now learning the trade of tanner, and has two years and a half of his apprenticeship to serve.  The annual income of my chapel at present, as near as I can compute it, may amount to about 17_l._, of which is paid in cash, viz., 5_l._ from the bounty of Queen Anne, and 5_l._ from W.P., Esq., of P——­, out of the annual rents, he being lord of the manor; and 3_l._ from the several inhabitants of L——­, settled upon the tenements as a rent-charge; the house and gardens I value at 4_l._ yearly, and not worth more; and I believe the surplice fees and voluntary contributions, one year with another, may be worth 3_l._; but as the inhabitants are few in number, and the fees very low, this last-mentioned sum consists merely in free-will offerings.

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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.