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In the mean time, it will be necessary for you to work with all your might; for I should not choose you to leave school till you were a better Latinist. I would have you leave Greek entirely, and attend to Cicero. I wish you to be able to read a Latin author readily.

Your brother Jesaiah and yourself are graciously provided for, as to a favourable and respectable entrance on the present world; but, even that needs care and industry to prove successful. But, after all is done, and however you may succeed, it is but for a moment; and an ETERNITY of joy unspeakable, or of sorrow unutterable, must follow: may God impress this consideration deeply on both your hearts! Your mamma heartily joins in wishing you every blessing, with, my dear child,

Nov. 1803.

Your affectionate father,

R. C.

LETTER X.

MY DEAR ISRAEL,

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You have sent to me and your mamma, letters which we cannot but approve; and which must give us pleasure, as specimens of a right mind. I am glad you feel your situation at during our absence from home, so pleasant; and I am only anxious lest you should forget, at certain moments, your own views of propriety, and the necessity of preserving a character. For human nature is prone to err: it not only needs our own incessant attention to keep it erect; but we need the help of a friend's eye, even to know when

we err.

I have no doubt of your resolution to be right but you must watch; and that particularly against the following mistakes-loquacity-sanguine admirations and censures-incorrect hours-assuming sentiments

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--and a loud and boisterous manner of talking. All these are so remote from the modest behaviour of a young man of real merit, that he might ruin himself by them, though as upright and well meaning as possible. Now I am thankful you have so bright an example, in the contrary respects, in Miss M. You cannot do better than study her manners as well as her piety. Desire her earnestly to point out to you where you break down; and depend upon it, you must throw in a good deal to make weight and arrive at the real quantum, on account of her delicacy.

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There is another thing I wish to warn you of, which is of great importance to you-I mean the danger of LETTING YOURSELF DOWN. You have written a hymn, which has brought you reputation: all this is well, and this has procured you reputation beyond your ability to keep up without much care and caution. If, however, on the contrary, you scribble at random, and throw about your crudities, you will sink your reputation. A pike, says Esop, made some successful attempts in the river, which emboldened him to venture into the sea, where he was at once gobbled up.

I have pointed out the danger-now for the REMEDY. It is both simple and safe. Let nothing go from under your pen, but what passes under my eye. Beware of saying, "It is but a little thing." None but fools have LITTLE THINGS, which touch their characters. Wise men know that a small leak will sink a large ship. Let me, therefore, enjoin it upon you, to write nothing before I see you.

1803.

VIEW OF THE CHARACTER

OF THE

REV. RICHARD CECIL

MRS. CECIL has so well availed herself of the advantages afforded by her near relation to our departed friend, in depicting his more DOMESTIC feelings and habits, that I shall limit my view of him to his PERSONAL and MINISTERIAL character. In doing this, while I shall communicate occasionally the impressions made by him on my own mind, most of which were recorded at the time they were made, I shall endeavour to render him as much as possible, the pourtrayer of his own character, by detailing those descriptions of his views and feelings which I gathered from him.

NATURE, EDUCATION, and GRACE combine to form and model the PERSONAL CHARACTER of every Christian. God gives to his reasonable creature such physical and intellectual constitution as he pleases; education and circumstances hide or unfold, restrain or mature this constitution: and grace, while it regulates and sanctifies the powers of the man, varies its own appearances according to the varieties of those powers. And it is by the endless modifications and counteractions of these principles that the personal character of a Christian is formed.

It might have been expected from Mr. Cecil's earliest displays of character, that he was formed to

be an instrument of extensive evil or of eminent good. There was a DECISION-a DARING-an UNTAMEABLENESS in the structure of his mind even when a boy, combined with a tone of authority and command, and a talent in the exercise of these qualities, to which the minds of his associates yielded an implicit subjection. Fear of consequences never entered into his view. Opposition, especially if accompanied by any thing like severity or oppression, awakened unrelenting resistance.

Yet this bold and untameable spirit was allied to a NOBLE and GENEROUS disposition. There was a magnificence in his mind. While he was scrupulously delicate, perhaps even to some excess, on subjects entrusted to his secrecy, and on affairs in progress : yet he would never lend himself in his own concerns, or in those of other persons, to any thing that bordered on artifice and manoeuvre: for he had a native and thorough contempt of whatever was mean, little, and equivocating. That "honesty is the best policy" may be a strong or the prevailing motive for uprightness with men of a lower tone of character, but I question if it at all entered into calculation with my great friend. His mind was too noble, to have recourse to other means or to aim at other ends, than those which he avowed; and too intrepid not to avow those which he did entertain, so far as might be required or expedient.

His temptations were to the sins of the spirit, rather than those of the flesh: and he possessed, all his life long a superiority to the pleasures of mere sense not often seen. He was, indeed, TEMPERATE in all things-holding his bodily appetites in entire subjection.

SYMPATHY WITH SUFFERING was an eminent characteristic of Mr. Cecil's mind-a sympathy which sprung less from that softness and sensibility which are the ornament of the female, than from the

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rosity of his disposition. He would have had all men happy. It gratified his generous nature to ease the burdens of suffering man. If any were afflicted by the visitations of God, he taught them to bow with submission while he pitied and relieved: if the afflictions were the natural and evident fruit of crimes, he admonished while he sympathized: if the sufferings of man or brute arose from the voluntary inflictions of others, he was indignant against the oppressor.

Such was the intrepid and noble, yet humane mind, which was trained by divine grace, under a long course of moral discipline, for eminent usefulness in the church of God. Mr. Cecil's intellectual endowments will be spoken of hereafter. At present, I shall trace the rise and the advances of his Christian character.

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He had, as Mrs. Cecil has stated, early religious impressions. These were first received from Janeway's "Token for Children," which his mother gave him, when he was about six of years age. was much affected by this book," said he, "and recollect that I wept, and got into a corner, where I prayed that I also might have an interest in Christ,' like one of the children there mentioned, though I did not then know what the expression meant."

These impressions of his childhood wore away. He fell into the follies and vices of youth; and, by degrees, began to listen to infidel principles, till he avowed himself openly an unbeliever. He has alluded frequently, in his writings, to this criminal part of his history, and Mrs. Cecil has touched on the subject; but I shall add some paragraphs on this point, partly in his own words.

He was suffered to proceed to awful lengths in infidelity. The natural daring of his mind allowed him to do nothing by halves. Into whatever society he enlisted himself, he was its leader. He became even an apostle of infidelity-anxious to banish the scru

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