book production
I fear I have been doing a very foolish thing I thought I had as
compleately made up my mind
to hang my harp upon the willows* as you had to keep your three rules. But in
my case, as in Hamlet’s Mother 'the lady did protest too
much'.* I have been so struck with the
French Mania
in all classes almost of our people of the desertion of our
country in the time of its deepest distress, and of the
importation of French Manners, that I felt it a sort of duty not
to hold my tongue. On the other hand, the Mischief done by the
[unclear]ders, and its probable fatal consequences, I thought
called for notice. Then the errors of religious people I think
require a gentle hint; as well as the prevalence of high
profession and low practice &c &c &c – to all this I
have added a pretty long dissertation on prayer, and some of the
errors which hinder its efficacy.
In about four Months I have written (at an age when I ought to
have rested) as many hundred pages. I expect to give offence to
many of my friends especially by shewing the dangers of foreign
association, and neglect of religion in the education of the
great, but I have delivered my own Soul, and I must soon stand
at a higher bar than that of this world’s judges. I have kept it
so secret that I have not yet named it even to
Wilberforce, but as it is now going to press I shall relax a little of my
strictness.* Pray for me that it may be made useful, to a few at
least.
I have just got a long letter from dear
Mary Gisborne
replete with sorrow, affection and the deepest piety.
How stupid, in
Bowdler’s prejudiced bigoted
father* to obstruct the very desirable plans of
Ld. Calthorpe
and
Mr. Inglis
to write a Memoir of the dear departed! I have written to
Harriet Bowdler
to try to soften her brother
Bartlett’s-Buildings
heart.*
Poor Mrs. Thornton I hear
looks sadly, has a pain in her chest and drinks Asses Milk. I
tremble for her life.
Her letters rather increase in sadness, but it is a sanctified
sadness. – I forgot to say that Mr.
H. and I agreed that nothing would so much contribute to give
Mr.
S. a habit of application as to give him a slight tincture of
Fractions, and Algebra; not to make him a Mathematician but to tie
down his attention –
I know of no person likely to suit
Lady Gosford’s friend as a Governess . You ask how I like
W. Scott’s new Poem.* I have not seen it, but do not hear it thought
equal to its predecessors.
A friend has sent me
Eustace’s Tour thro Italy .* It is classical & elegant in a high degree –
but has too much Republicanism too little of the Manners of the
people, and I think a disposition to overrate their Virtues – God
be praised for
the peace!* – but what Peace so long as the Witchcrafts of
Bonaparte are so many.
P. is in very poor health.
We all join in kind remembrances to Yr.
Ladyship and
Miss S.
H. Bowdler* declines interfering, but says /again/ the
Gisborne’s* are the proper people if any assurance is
necessary, which she does not think will be the case; but she
does not /see/ the strong prejudices of her brother as I, and
others see them.
Harriet Bowdler has been staying here.
She is going to meet dear
Mary Gisborne
at
Mr. Bowdler s the father of
our lamented friend
near Town.
I fear, owing to the prejudices of this father, the much
desired Memoir by
Ld. Calthorpe
and Mr.
Inglis does not proceed.* What a pity! Doubtless Mrs.
Henry and Miss Gisborne had promised themselves a sadly pleasing
meeting. But a higher interview I trust has taken place between
our dear departed with her own husband and the lover of her
friend.*
You would, were you not candor itself, think me a strange
Animal, not to have thanked you, both for your kind letter and
interest/ing/ present of books.
But in this seeming/ly/ quiet spot I can hardly give you an idea
what a scanty commodity time has been with me;
the continued bad state of my two Sisters , company very frequently, and
every interval filled with scribbling half penny and
penny compositions. Tho I would have you to know, I am now rising in dignity and
importance, having just finished (what I hope may be my last) a
work that will be very costly three half pence, if not
actually two pence,
The Death of Mr. Fantom the new Fashioned
Reformist.* If not a very learned composition, I hope
it may be of some little use.
We lately crammed in six Gisbornes; but such was the
uncomfortable state of our family, that we could only keep them
two or three days.
Indeed it was as much as they could spare us. Poor
Mary
looks the picture of silent woe.
She is indignant both at
the Memoir
and the picture which are prefixed to the two Valuable Volumes,
and deeply hurt that no kind of notice is taken of
herself.*
I am engaged in the very vapid and dry employment of revising
some of my own Works,
‘Cœlebs and Practical Piety’
for New Editions;* rectifying commas and colo[n]s
[tear] and correcting points and particles suits not my
impatient pen, tho I am thankful for the success which imposes
on me such dull work.
Such a letter as your last should not have been unanswered a
day, if I could have commanded my time, but in different ways
I have really been working double tides. So much company,
such an over-flow of letters,
to say nothing of a presumptuous book of between
5 and 6 hundred pages hurried over in a few Months.* – It will be abused, and I am prepared for it.
I hope Hatchard has by this time sent it
you as I directed before publication
Professor Farish
who was here the other day gave us an interesting account of your
Bible Meeting. I rejoyce that Episcopal tyranny could not defeat your pious
labours. I have heard such stories lately from that quarter, as I
had rather repeat than write.* –
We too in our little way had a most prosperous
Meeting* 40 Clergymen &c – 120
dined at Barley Wood in the Garden chiefly, and 200 drank tea –
I shall thankfully forwards your kind Subscriptions
to the French Translation, as soon as I am informed
that my former one was received. * They frightened me by calling the Tracts
Contes Moraux, that Rogue Mamontal’s Title I have as I think I told you
prefixed the Epithet
Nouveaux
which I think will obviate it.* The priests are very
watchful and we must be prudent. I have got in
the Conservateur, as well as the News papers of
Paris, such abuse of the
Bible Society!* – Poor
Dr. Hamilton ! his society was rather too much for you! Painful recollections
must have been inseparable from the sight of him. – And there is
no hope!*
I was so absorbed in my sorrow, that a second and third Edition
of
my book* have been nearly sold without my being able to
make one correction.
I never expected even the first Edition which was a large one
would go off,* & my book seller writes me there
never was a Season more particularly bad for the Sale of books on
account of the state of the Country, so that I am astonished at a
success I so little expected.*
It was written in great haste. I now hope to make the next
Edition if it reaches another, a little more correct.*
Among several interesting Visitors I have had from the East,
Constantinople,
Jerusalem
Egypt &c none has been more
interesting than Doctor Marshman from
Serampore.
He has made himself Master of 22 Indian Dialects, into which he
has translated the Scriptures. He has finished the Penteteuch for
the 2d.
Edition in Chinese;* and
he has not only written all these but has printed them himself
at his own Printing Press.* When I asked how he could survive such labours, his
answer was "in the 27 Years I have spent in this Mission, I have
never known one day’s head ach or heart ach. I had missed seeing
him for three or four Months, and when I asked him where he had
been, he told me he had been paying a Visit to the
King of Denmark
of whom he obtained an Audience with the greatest ease; he granted
his petition at once, which was to allow him to erect a College
and chuse their own Professors.* I did not know that
Serampore had been a Danish Island.*
I write a hasty line to take advantage of
Mr. Addington ’s Patent Frank * to send you a Specimen of my
learned labours.
I was earnestly desired by some high persons to do something
towards an Antidote for the evil Spirit of insurrection which is
at work more busily perhaps than you are aware.
The Tract inclosed I have adapted to the present
times , and it is widely circulated.*
Perhaps you would like to order some copies from
Hatchard, and recommend Your Friends to do
the same.
Hunt’s alarming Visit to
Bristol terminated to his own disgrace.
His party was very small, very shabby and very quiet. Not an
Innkeeper would let him into their houses, and
14 Printers refused to print any of his papers.*
I would therefore take the liberty of proposing a reciprocal
exchange of your Ladyship’s &
Ly. Mandeville’s letters to
dear Mrs H More, & of her’s to you, all those
passages in her’s which relate to any private or confidential
matters being of course previously obliterated: our dear Friend
has authorized us to make similar applications to some of her
Friends which we have done in many instances successfully.
It will very much add to the interest of her future Memoir, the
materials for (which we propose to place in the hands of an able
Editor) that it should be enriched by a selection of her letters
& we candidly avow that it would be highly desirable &
serviceable to us, to obtain thro’ the kindness of some of her
intimate correspondents an early possession of as large a
portion of her letters as is possible, in order that we may
while we have leisure select a few from each parcel of
those which are the most interesting & worthy of insertion
–
