certainly died, he must have been, at his death, about seventy-six or seventy-seven years of age.

I have before supposed that both he and his brother Samuel might 1 have had the rudiments of a classical education from their father, though they were both young at the time of his death, the former probably ten or twelve, the latter eight or nine years of age. But there was such an aptitude to learn, and such a power of comprehension in all the Wesley family, that at ten or twelve years of age they had acquired as much as most others have done when they have arrived at sixteen. We shall meet proofs of this as we proceed in the history of this family.

It is most likely that Matthew continued with the Non-conformists till his death; as we find no intimation that he left their communion. But as he seems to have taken no part in the political and polemical disputes which divided and tortured the people of that day, he was thought by several to be indifferent to all forms of religion. "Had this been so," says Miss Wesley, in a letter now before me, "I should hardly have supposed that such good parents as my grandfather and grandmother would have entrusted him with their darling daughter, [Martha.] He had Hetty before. Martha often told me she never had reason to believe it, as he approved her habit of going regularly to morning prayers at church, and was exemplarily moral in his words and actions, esteeming religion, but never talking of its mysteries. Silence on the subject in that age, where controversy was frequent, might give rise to the suspicion that he was sceptically inclined, especially in a family jealous for its spirituality."

Patty lived long with him, and was used by him with the greatest tenderness: but she complained that he was not decidedly religious, though he was strictly moral in his conduct, and highly esteemed piety in others. See a letter of her's to her brother John, in the Memoirs of her Life.

There is an excellent saying of his recorded by Mrs. S. Wesley in à letter to her son John in 1735, which should not be omitted :"Never let any man know that you have heard what he has said against you. It may be he spake on misinformation, or was in a passion, or did it in a weak compliance with the company; perhaps he has changed his mind, and is sorry for having done it, and may continue friendly to you. But if he finds that you are acquainted with what he has said, he will conclude you cannot forgive him, and upon that supposition will become your enemy."

I have heard that Mr. Surgeon Wesley had a son who was educated at Oxford, but shortened his life by intemperance: but of any

other part of his family I have heard nothing; nor do I know whether the above information be correct, as he appears rather as a bachelor in the scanty memoirs I have been able to glean up of his life.

SAMUEL WESLEY, RECTOR OF EPWORTH,

Father of the Rev. John Wesley, Founder of the Methodists.

We have already seen that John Wesley, vicar of Whitchurch, Dorsetshire, left two sons, Matthew and Samuel. Of the former we have spoken according to the scanty documents which remain. Of the latter we have more copious materials, with some original information which has never yet been laid before the public.

Mr. Samuel Wesley appears to have been born at Whitchurch in the year 1662. He was educated at the free-school at Dorchester, and afterwards he became a pupil in Mr. Morton's academy among the Dissenters; and in both places he appears to have profited much in classical learning; though there were many things in the private academies of the Dissenters with which he found fault, and which from one of his publications on the subject, we learn were very reprehensible: but they appear to have been chiefly of a political nature. His objections to the manner in which the Dissenting academies were conducted he stated in a private letter to a friend; who several years after, without Mr. Wesley's consent or knowledge, published the letter, which produced a controversy that shall be noticed in its proper place.

Mr. Samuel Wesley was designed for the ministry among the Nonconformists; and in their principles he had been carefully edu cated. How he came to change his views, and become a zealous churchman, his son, the late Mr. John Wesley, stated as follows:

"Some severe invectives being written against the Dissenters, Mr. S. Wesley being a young man of considerable talents, was pitched upon to answer it. This set him on a course of reading which soon produced an effect very different from what had been intended. Instead of writing the wished for answer, he himself conceived he saw reason to change his opinions; and actually formed a resolution to renounce the Dissenters, and attach himself to the Established Church.

"He lived at that time with his mother and an old aunt, both of whom were too strongly attached to the Dissenting doctrines to have