I am clearly satisfied that you will do well to spend a considerable part of your time at Madeley. But I can by no means advise you to spend all your time there. I think you are a debtor to several other places also; particularly to London and Yorkshire. Nay, and if we live, I should rejoice if you and I can contrive to be in those places at the same time: For I feel a great union of spirit with you. I cannot really tell you how much I am, my dear sister, Yours invariably. CCCCXXXIII.-To Mr. Joseph Benson. DEAR JOSEPH, Wycomb, November 7, 1768. You have now twenty more volumes of the " Philosophical Transactions." Dr. Burton's Latin and Greek Poems you have in the study. Malebranche, and some other books, are coming. Logic you cannot crack without a tutor: I must read it to Peter and you, if we live to meet. It would not be amiss if I had a catalogue of the books at Kingswood; then I should know the better what to buy. As fast as I can meet with them at sales, I shall procure what are yet wanting. But beware you be not swallowed up in books: An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge. I am, dear Joseph, Your affectionate brother. CCCCXXXIV.-To the Same. MY DEAR BROTHER, London, December 4, 1768. I CANNOT yet convince you of one thing, (and it is a thing of importance,) that you may make greater progress in valuable knowledge, by reading those books, (particularly if read in that order,) than you can by reading any other books which are now extant in England. It follows, that your friend B., in this respect, is not your friend. For he puts you out of your way; he retards you in the attainment of the most useful knowledge. He gratifies your curiosity (a bad principle too) at the expense of your improvement. It is better for you to read these books than his; which (if they are not hurtful or dangerous, at least) do not lead directly to the end you propose. way. Choose the best I am, dear Joseph, Your affectionate brother. CCCCXXXV.-To the Same. MY DEAR JOSEPH, Shoreham, December 22, 1768. You do not quite take my meaning yet. When I recommend to any one a method or scheme of study, I do not barely consider this or that book separately, but in conjunction with the rest. And what I recommend I know; I know both the style and sentiments of each author; and how he will confirm or illustrate what goes before, and prepare for what comes after. Now, supposing Mr. Stonehouse, Roquet, or any other, to have ever so great learning and judgment, yet he does not enter into my plan. He does not comprehend my views, nor keep his eye fixed on the same point. Therefore, I must insist upon it, the interposing other books between these, till you have read them through, is not good husbandry. It is not making your time and pains go so far as they might go. If you want more books, let me recommend more, who best understand my own scheme. And do not ramble, however learned the persons may be that advise you so to do. This does indulge curiosity, but does not minister to real improvement, as a stricter method would do. No; you would gain more clearness and strength of judgment by reading those Latin and Greek books, (compared with which most of the English are whipped syllabub,) than by fourscore modern books. I have seen the proof, as none of your Bristol friends have done, or can do. Therefore, I advise you again, Keep to your plan, (though this implies continual self-denial,) if you would improve your understanding to the highest degree of which it is capable. I am, dear Joseph, Your affectionate brother. CCCCXXXVI.-To the Same. DEAR JOSEPH, Cork, May 27, 1769. You have now (what you never had before) a clear, providential call to Oxford. If you keep a single eye, and have courage and steadiness, you may be an instrument of much good. But you will tread on slippery ground; and the serious persons you mention may do you more hurt than many others. When I was at Oxford, I never was afraid of any but the almost Christians. If you give way to them and their prudence a hair's breadth, you will be removed from the hope of the gospel. If you are not moved, if you tread in the same steps which my brother and I did, you may be a means, under God, of raising another set of real Bible Christians. How long the world will suffer them (whether longer than they did us or not) is in God's hand. With regard to Kingswood School, I have one string more: If that breaks, I shall let it drop. I have borne the burden one-and-twenty years; I have done what I could: Now, let some one else do more. I am, dear Joseph, Your affectionate brother. CCCCXXXVII.-To the Same. DEAR JOSEPH, London, December 26, 1769. EVERY man of sense, who reads the rules of the school, may easily conclude that a school so conducted by men of piety and understanding will exceed any other school or academy in Great Britain or Ireland. In this sentiment you can never be altered. And if it was not so conducted since you were there, why was it not? You had power enough. You have all the power which I have. You may do just what you please ;— Dirue et ædifica; muta quadrata rotundis ; and I will second you to the uttermost. Trevecka is much more to than Kingswood is to me. I mixes with everything. It is my College, my Masters, my Students. I do not speak so of this school. It is not mine, but the Lord's. I look for no more honour than money from it. I am glad you defer your journey, and am, Dear Joseph, Your affectionate brother * This quotation from Horace is thus translated by Boscawen :"Destroy, build castles in the air, Now love the round, and now the square."-EDIT. CCCCXXXVIII.-To the Same. DEAR JOSEPH, Bristol, October 5, 1770. You need no apology for your writing; the more frequently and freely you write, the better. I cannot doubt but your neighbour means well; but he is a thorough enthusiast, and has hardly one clear conception of anything, natural or spiritual. Mr. Keard, from Aberdeen, and Mr. Wootton, (our new writing-master, a man of an excellent spirit,) are at Kingswood. But does Mr. J. know the price?-Sixteen pounds a year. Does he know the rules of the school? Again: Of what age are the children? I will take none that is above nine years old: Now, especially; because I will not have our children corrupted; nine of whom, together with our three maid-servants, have just now experienced a gracious visitation, and are rejoicing in a pardoning God. I am glad you had the courage to speak your mind on so critical an occasion. At all hazards, do so still; only with all possible tenderness and respect. She is much devoted to God, and has a thousand valuable and amiable qualities. There is no great fear that I should be prejudiced against one whom I have intimately known for these thirty years. And I know what is in man; therefore, I make large allowance for human weaknesses. But what you say is exactly the state of the case. They are "jealous of their authority." Truly there is no cause : Longe mea discrepat illi et vox et ratio.* I fear and shun, not desire, authority of any kind. Only when God lays that burden upon me, I bear it, for his and the people's sake. "Child," said my father to me, when I was young, “you think to carry everything by dint of argument. But you will find, by and by, how very little is ever done in the world by clear reason." Very little indeed! It is true of almost all men, except so far as we are taught of God, Against experience we believe, We argue against demonstration; And set our judgment by our passion. Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name *This quotation from Horace is thus translated by Boscawen :"Far different are my thoughts and strain."-EDIT. of reason. It is our part, by religion and reason joined, to counteract them all we can. It is yours, in particular, to do all that in you lies, to soften the prejudices of those that are round about you, and to calm the passions from which they spring. Blessed are the peace-makers! You judge rightly: Perfect love and Christian liberty are the very same thing; and those two expressions are equally proper, being equally scriptural. "Nay, how can they and you mean the same thing? They say, you insist on holiness in the creature, on good tempers, and sin destroyed." Most surely. And what is Christian liberty, but another word for holiness? And where is this liberty or holiness, if it is not in the creature? Holiness is the love of God and man, or the mind which was in Christ. Now, I trust, the love of God is shed abroad in your heart, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you. And if you are holy, is not that mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus? And are not the love of God and our neighbour good tempers? And so far as these reign in the soul, are not the opposite tempers, worldly-mindedness, malice, cruelty, revengefulness, destroyed? Indeed, the unclean spirit, though driven out, may return and enter again; nevertheless, he was driven out. I use the word destroyed, because St. Paul does: Suspended I cannot find in my Bible. "But they say, you do not consider this as the consequence of the power of Christ dwelling in us." Then what will they not say? My very words are, "None feel their need of Christ like these; none so entirely depend upon him. For Christ does not give light to the soul separate from, but in and with, himself. Hence his words are equally true of all men, in whatever state of grace they are: As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me: Without' (or separate from) 'me, ye can do nothing. For our perfection is not like that of a tree, which flourishes by the sap derived from its own root; but like that of a branch, which, united to the vine, bears fruit; but severed from it, is dried up and withered." " 6 At length, veris vincor: * I am constrained to believe, (what I would not for a long time,) these are not the objections of judgment, but of passion; they do not spring from the head, but the heart. Whatever I say, it will be all one. They will * I am overcome by the force of truth.-EDIT. |