Page images
PDF
EPUB

A

MEMORIAL OF AN ONLY AND BELOVED

SISTER.

1

BY REV. ANDREW REED,

[ocr errors]

AUTHOR OF "NO FICTION; A NARRATIVE FOUNDED ON FACT."

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

+

PREFACE.

WHEN the subject of the following memoir was removed from all earthly intercourse, it became unconsciously the purpose of the writer, as soon as his mind could come to the employ, and before any of the lighter passages in the history should be lost, to bring together whatever might best illustrate her estimable character. Such a record seemed necessary to himself, since he could not allow any thing valuable to fade from his memory connected with a name so sacred to his thoughts; and it appeared desirable for his children, as he hoped it might supply them in future time with a fine example of excellence, and a strong relative motive to copy it into their lives and deportment.

If it is asked why the original purpose is now carried out into an act of publication, the author acknowledges that he has been influenced in coming to this decision, generally, by the opinion of those on whose opinion he can well rely; and especially by the hope that it might contribute to accomplish more extensively the earnest and latest desire of his beloved relation. Without the most distant anticipation of the measure now adopted, it was particularly her prayer, that her death might be made useful; and in fervently seeking to give the fullest effect to her devout wishes, he knew not of any means better suited to the object, than placing under the eye of others a correct delineation of her character.

Let it be understood, however, that the history is entirely of a domestic class. The author has no splendid incidents, no improbable reverses, no extraordinary circumstances to excite curiosity and hold attention. The life he records, if interesting at all, must be so, not from its dissimilarity, but from its resemblance to our own; the occurrences which vary it are of that simple and sober kind, that they abound in our daily enjoyments, and are familiar to our common existence. The same observation should be applied to the character he would describe. It is not intellectual so much as moral; and if intellectual, the mental endowments are only such as are ordinary and general, while they are successfully directed to high and extraordinary moral attainments.

If these explanations are given to prevent disappointment, the writer does not state them as disadvantages. They are rather, he conceives, favorable to his design. His memoir may not make so deep an impression, but it may make a better one. Were it his duty to record the most striking incidents, he might well fear lest, in the excitation and development of an intricate story, the lessons inseparable from it should be neglected. Were he about to fix

the eye on the brilliancy of mental powers of unusual magnitude, he might suspect that his reader would be content to admire what he despaired to imitate. But as there is nothing to captivate the thoughts from the chief object, as there is nothing extraordinary but what is attainable, he would hope that the reader will readily feel, that what the deceased became he may be; and that, if he is not, it will be, not his fate, but his fault.

The author was convinced, that in portraying such a life, it would be utterly useless merely to make a chronological record of events and actions, or even to do no more than faithfully describe the leading features of character. He has been concerned to subordinate dates and occurrences to their moral effect; to trace the influence of circumstances on the passions and the judgment; to show, not only what the individual became, but to mark, step by step, the way in which she reached her spiritual elevation. And this object was not to be effected by a hasty sketch, or a few powerful strokes of the pencil. Patient exertion was indispensable. There must be stroke upon stroke, line upon line, touch upon touch, to reach progressively the full expression of a character at once energetic and delicate

In fulfilling his design, it was unavoidable that allusion should be made to living names, and especially to the members of his family. He hopes, however, that though he has not written with the eye of the public upon him, he has in no case exceeded the limits of propriety. He can sincerely say he has always made such reference with reluctance, and never except where it appeared necessary to put the subject of his memoir in interesting and useful lights. Had he taken more liberty in this way, the narrative would certainly have approached nearer to what he desired to render it. After this statement, he is ready to believe every candid mind will justify his intentions, even if it should be thought, in the fulness of the heart, more has been said than is meet.

He now commits his little work to the hands of those with whom he has found favor beyond his highest expectations; anxiously breathing at the footstool of Him who has all hearts in his disposal, the prayer of his relative that He would render her life and her death useful—eminently useful. Particularly he commends it to the kindly notice of those who are of the same sex and similar age.Their character is soon formed: much depends on how it is formed. Woman, like the snow from heaven, is the fairest thing we know when fair; the foulest when debased and polluted.

Ꮇ Ꭺ Ꭱ Ꭲ Ꮋ Ꭺ .

CHAPTER I.

INFANCY. 1793-1800. READER-Permit the writer to detain your attention one moment. He is unwilling that your eye should pass to the ensuing narrative with the indifference of a stranger, or the cold curiosity of a critic. He is about to introduce you, more or less, to a retired domestic circle, and especially to an acquaintance with one of its members, with whom he is disposed to think you cannot have communion without being made the wiser and the happier. In thus welcoming you as an inmate of his humble family, and placing before you whatever in the character and life of a beloved relative, may contribute to gratify or to benefit, he affords a sincere pledge of his friendship; and, in return, he anxiously solicits the exercise of a kindly sympathy and reposing confidence. Perhaps you possessed a treasure as dear to you as his, and have lost it; or perhaps you still hold such a one, and tremble at the idea of its removal: in either case the sympathy he desires will already have existence. And though, by a mere possibility, neither circumstance may apply to you, the pleadings of our common humanity will be, he would think, too powerful to withhold confidence where confidence is given, or to disrespect those sufferings which sooner or later "all flesh is heir to." In this assurance, then, he will pour his words as into the ear of a friend, expecting friendship for friendship, joy for joy, and tear for tear.

My dear sister was born on the 2d of June, 1793, and named Martha, after the late Mrs. Hamilton, of Brighton; a lady endeared to my mother by the intimacies of a lengthened friendship, and who was so happy in conciliating general opinion, that her friends were accustomed to say, by a forced application of Scripture, she was obnoxious to that wo, which is expressed against those who are followed by the voice of universal approbation.

have received from my sister's own conduct, vera entirely favorable to those I had derived from her birth, and are connected with the second and third years of her life. About this time, our parents judged it necessary, for the preservation of our health, to remove us from their habitation, which was in the confined neighborhood of Temple-bar, before the adoption of the recent improvements We were therefore placed at Highgate, under the care of a nurse; who, like most of her class, was notable, industrious, and attentive to the outward wants and comforts of her children; but who, with intervening fits of fondness, was really sharp-tempered; and who, whether kind or severe, was never prepared to exercise, what children most need, and in the end most desire, impartial justice. Her treatment was never the fruit of reflection on the different characters and tempers of children; it sprang from the caprice of the moment, or from the settled preferences of a selfish attachment.

It happened, from whatever cause, that my sister succeeded in gaining the partialities of this good woman; and, of course, I lost them. I was not long in painfully ascertaining the extent of my loss.We were constantly put in opposition to each other. She was the "good girl," and I was "the troublesome, mischievous boy." I was sometimes corrected on her account, when my heart told me I was not in fault; and she was caressed unduly, that I might feel more the bitterness of neglect. I was uniformly made subservient to her; if she cried, I was forced to amuse her; if she desired my toys, I was obliged to surrender them; if any thing was to be enjoyed, she was to be first and chiefly consulted; till I was in danger of concluding, that in order to make her happy, it was necessary to render me miserable.

To those who are interested in the education of children, it will at once appear that our moral dispositions were placed, at this early period, in a perilous state of trial. I had hitherto considered my At this time I was somewhat more than five years sister as a part of my happiness, as an enlargement of age; and was well prepared to receive my new of myself; and my enjoyments, of whatever kind, relation with open arms of love. I had, about a had seldom yielded me their full amount of pleatwelvemonth previously, lost an infant brother, who sure, unless she was made, as she could, to particihad been so repeatedly talked of by my parents, in pate. But now the thoughtless conduct of our terms of tenderness and regret, that I felt as if I nurse awakened within me passions, of which I had had lost every thing in losing him. When, there- not been conscious. I was disposed to look on my fore, "a little sister" was announced to me, I seem- sister's gratifications with jealousy, as they usually ed restored to a world of happiness; and I was robbed me of mine. Her interests and mine apmost earnest in begging to see and possess my un-peared, not only separate, but contrary. I felt undefined treasure.

At length I was told that my prayer was granted -that I was to see my sister; an assurance capable of producing such powerful emotions, as subsided in an impression of the event which my memory still retains, and will ever retain. The very attempt to record it, brings it to my mind with a vividness and a force, which for many years I have not realized. I am carried back to an apartment familiar to my days of childhood. I appear to see the door open, and the nurse enter with her tender charge resting on her bosom. I follow her to her seat, and take my place at her knees, impatient to behold an object of which I had I know not what conceptions. What sensations I felt, as the nurse prepared to unfold the delicate coverings in which it was wrapped! With what a full heart of satisfaction I first looked on its half hidden face! How I trembled as I pressed the soft and unresisting flesh of its little arm!

The earliest impressions which I remember to

easy in the society of her I loved above all human beings; and to avoid rebukes, and sacrifices, and humiliations, I was inclined, though reluctantly, to avoid her.

Happily, my sister seemed more prepared to meet this little crisis in our infantile friendship than myself. On a temper more vain, or more selfish, it might undoubtedly have produced the most baneful effects; but her affection supplied her already with a weapon to resist and subdue them. My previous fondness towards her, had sunk into her susceptible heart; and as soon as she perceived that her pleasures were to be purchased at the price of my comfort, she began to hesitate in demanding them.Nothing the nurse could do to gratify her at my expense, would secure her approbation, or influence her to abandon her brother in sorrow and disgrace. She would often restore the toy which, at her own hasty request, had been too rudely snatched away; she would take her little stool, and seat herself quietly by me when I was in distress, and refused to

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »