WHO WAS INTIMATELY ACQUAINTED WITH HIM FROM HIS BOY- EDITED BY THE REV. J. B. B. CLARKE, M.A., TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. Habuit a natura, genus quoddam acuminis, quod etiam arte limaverit, quod Χαριτι δε Θεου, ειμι ὁ ειμι. VOLUME I. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY T. MASON AND G. LANE, FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE CONFERENCE OFFICE, - J. Collord, Printer 1839. 9 Oct.11 - RB.R. PREFACE. THERE are some circumstances respecting the succeeding Memoirs which require explanation, and others which need statement. "If these Memoirs were written by the late Dr. Clarke, how happens it that they speak in the third person, and appear as though composed by an intimate friend?" The third person was assumed in order to obviate an unpleasant appearance of egotism which Autobiography must always assume, more or less offensive, according to the skill of the Narrator. In this, Dr. Clarke did but follow the example of other great names, and availed himself of a disguise, previously made known to the Readers, that the mere Individual might not be perpetually obtruding himself upon their notice: the attention being fixed upon the passing events and described feelings, the Author temporarily forgotten, the judgment may be thus formed, not from the bias of Dr. Clarke's felt presence, but from the facts as recorded in the Narrative: a mask which gives courage but conceals no feature. Various members of his family, as well as some of his most intimate friends, frequently and urgently pressed Dr. Clarke to publish, or prepare for publication, a Memoir of himself; stating that this would be the only effectual mode of preventing false or weak productions being palmed upon the world as faithful Memoirs. To all representations, however, he remained deaf, till one day a friend came and told him, "he had received sure information of a Life of him being even then in preparation; that all his Conversations had been taken down, all his Letters treasured up, all his Observations noted, with the view of being embodied when the anticipated event should take place to call them into public being; that little discretion would be used in selecting; since, the object being gain, all would be published which would sell; and that even were some conscience shown, still there was no judgment to direct; but indiscreet zeal, or the hope of *ungodly gains,' would slay his fame in the house of his 'friend."* Dr. Clarke felt the force of such observations, * It is not one of the least remarkable facts connected with the life of Dr. Clarke, that the individual here alluded to died before the Doctor; and was visited by him and his youngest son during a long and tedious illness. There is a farther notice of this affair in the following Letter to his eldest son. MY DEAR JOHN, Liverpool, June 15, 1819. SOME time ago, you wrote requesting me to set about writing the history of my Life; this is a task which, while I have contemplated, and the next morning when he came down to breakfast, he said to his friend, "I have been up long before day I have feared to attempt; but I have thought more of the subject, since you wrote; and have lately been obliged to think deeply on it too, in consequence of receiving credible information, that my Life is ready for the greedy eye of the public, so soon as my heart shall be cold! I came here yesterday evening, and in a private conversation with my friend Mr.—————, he most solemnly begged, and charged me to begin the work, because he knew some hackneyed, and hunger-bitten scriveners were ready to praise me to death, and to murder me in verse so soon as I ceased to exist among men; and I was led to believe that all the conversations, and anecdotes relative to myself and family for several years past, have been carefully taken down, and as carefully preserved. Mr. Comer took up the same subject, and most earnestly begged me instantly to begin, and defer it no longer. Well, what can I do? the Commentary is still hanging on my hands. True, I am free from the Records, which gives me a measure of leisure, and saves me from much anxiety; laying all these considerations together, with the semel calcanda via, and Mr. Comer being in good earnest, and having provided and laid on his study table ruled paper for the purpose, I sat down yesterday and made a trial! ✶ ✶✶ ✶ And thus have I brought myself on in my journey through life, to the ninth year of my age: and unless death stop me, I shall not stop in it till this be finished. I have written it in the third person as to the subject, and in the first person as to the narrator. This form may be altered if necessary. I recollect, when Mr. Thorsby wrote his own life, the pronoun. I occurred so often in it, that the printer was obliged to borrow I's from his brother printers, as his I's had run out. Your father has never been in the habit of speaking much of himself; he has never boasted, nor pretended great things; and it would ill become him, when about to pass the great deep, to occupy his time, or that of his Readers, with unreal history, or unceremonious, and, generally speaking, unwelcome pronouns. Now, suggest to me, my dear John, any thing that strikes you-any thing I should not forget, or any thing on which I should lay particular stress, &c. &c. July 3. I go on but slowly with the Life; and yet I get on. A few pages more might terminate what may be called my initial and religious history, and here I might leave it, for all the purposes of illustrating either God's providence or His grace. My literary life, as it may be called, is another thing; and belongs more to the world, than to the Church of God; and I question if ever I shall attempt it. |