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MEMOIRS,

&c. &c.

INTRODUCTION.

The Author's view of human life....Her motives for writing

her Memoirs.

ALTHOUGH the writer of this Memoir cannot accede to the opinion of those who represent human nature as altogether corrupt and depraved, and who think they do their Maker honour, by describing it as coming out of his hands loaded with the guilt of the primeval progenitor; yet she is well aware that the road of life is a dangerous road; that great care and vigilance are required, lest, by improper indulgence, those very appetites and passions, which are implanted in the human constitution for the wisest and best purposes, should prove our ruin. Many a human traveller, for want of this salutary caution, has been wholly lost in the destructive whirlpools of vice and folly, making shipwreck of honour, of virtue, and of hope.

Others again there are, and of these perhaps a countless multitude, who, although they may escape the extreme wretchedness of atrocious vice, yet having no real solicitude to attain "to things that are excellent," no just estimate of human life and of human duty, or of those attainments

* See Dr. Cogan's Theological Disquisitions, Vol. II. p. 69. A most ingenious work of inestimable value.

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which really constitute human happiness, suffer themselves to be daily guilty of a deplorable waste of time, never more to be redeemed; and of numerous lesser faults, which if not, when singly taken, extremely criminal, yet still in the amount, do not less effectually prevent their misguided votaries from ever rising in the scale of intellectual, moral, or religious improvement. Now if it be indeed true, that "honour, glory, and immortality," are promised in the gospel, to those alone who excel in Christian virtue, then it assuredly follows, that those disappointments, privations, and sorrows, which may eventually contribute to this end, however afflictive or distressing they may be at the time, are as really blessings dispensed by the favour of our heavenly Father, as those more resplendent bounties of his providence, which are the immediate source of present prosperity and enjoyment. To the reflecting mind, the mercy and goodness of the great giver are in both equally conspicuous; but as they are not at first sight equally obvious, it may be useful to others that the experienced traveller should point out such facts of this sort, as have fallen within his own observation: or, in other words, should become his own biographer.

It is not necessary, in order to be useful in this way, that the writer should have filled any very high or conspicuous station, that he should have risen to eminence in the walks of literature or science, much less that he should have been the accomplished statesman, the profound politician, or the successful warrior: it is not even necessary

that he should have been distinguished for extraordinary talents, or admired for extraordinary accomplishments. On the contrary, it is rather desirable, if his Memoir is to be of extensive use, that he should have assimilated more nearly to the general mass of human characters; have been such as the ordinary beholder can see without envy; whose mental and moral progress he can easily trace in those common occurrences, continually taking place in human life, through which, in some form or other, he himself may expect to pass; and of whose various defects and attainments he may therefore avail himself, as of so many beacons in the great ocean of life, whether to avoid the one or to make for the other, so as happily to steer his own course in safety to the land of everlasting uprightness.

Reflections such as these, and not, as she firmly believes, any vain expectation of an imaginary life in the fleeting breath of those who may succeed her, have induced the writer of these Memoirs to take up her pen; and happy would she esteem herself, should any young persons of the rising generation, by a careful perusal of her simple narrative, be firmly convinced that those trials and privations, which necessarily arise out of their various circumstances, and are therefore the deed of Providence, may be made, even in this life, highly subservient to their happiness and comfort; and, on the contrary, that the very attainment of those objects which are usually most eagerly pursued, such as general admiration, a perpetual round of amusements, or even the ac

quirement of what is usually called a good establishment in marriage, issue not unfrequently in the ruin of their peace, their virtue, and their Christian hope.

But she has yet another end in view. It is her wish to state, as accurately as can be recollected, what passed in her own mind, upon particular occasions, during the period of infancy and childhood; being persuaded that if others would do the same, parents would eventually be furnished with more certain principles for the management of the infant mind, or at least, that they would endeavour to be more guarded in the government of their own temper, and more watchful to prevent the occurrence of erroneous sentiments in common conversation; which, being incidental, are wont to have greater influence than any moral lessons, however excellent, which are purposely taught.

It is likewise her intention, in order the more effectually to answer the objects principally in view, to give an outline, as the narrative proceeds, of the history of those persons with whom she may have been particularly connected; not indeed of their birth, parentage, and education, but merely of those leading features in their temper or situation, which appear to have fixed their character and marked their destiny. The real names of a few only will be given, but the reader may be assured that they are all portraits taken from the life; and therefore, that, as far as their history can be of any use, it may equally be depended upon.

CHAPTER 1.

Her birth....Some account of the Craven district....Of its inhabitants in the early part of the last century.....Situation of the Vicarage-house at Long Preston....Cheapness of provisions.... Injudicious treatment of the small-pox.... Widow of Capt. Maurice....Her singular fortitude.. Etiquette of a Statesman's lady.

THE writer of this Memoir was born on the 3rd of June, (old style,) 1744, at Long Preston, in Craven, a very mountainous district in the western division of the county of York. Her father, the Rev. Jeremiah Harrison, was the only son of a second marriage, and was early left to the sole care of his mother, who destined him for the Church, and entered him, at the early age of fifteen, (about the year 1721,) as a commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, where he remained seven years, until he had taken the degree of Master of Arts. During this period, he lost his only surviving parent; and soon after he left the university, was presented by his college, first to the living of Long Preston, and afterwards, in September, 1740, to that of Skipton, both of them in Craven.

This part of Yorkshire, at the time of which I am speaking, was insulated from the rest of the kingdom; not so much by its high mountains, as by its almost impassable roads. No wheel-carriage could ascend its rocky steeps; the carriers from Richmond to Kendal, conveyed their goods in

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