[793] Mr. Tyerman, however, thinks otherwise. 'After the lapse of a hundred years,' he writes (Oxford Methodists, p. 201), 'since the author's death, few are greater favourites at the present day.'
[794] Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. v. p. 93.
[795] See especially Meditations among the Tombs, p. 29, the passage beginning, 'Since we are so liable to be dispossessed of this earthly tabernacle,' &c.
[796] 'I dare no more write in a fine style,' he said, 'than wear a fine coat.... I should purposely decline what many admire—a highly ornamental style.'
[797] Hervey's Letters in answer to Wesley were published after his death, against his own wish expressed when he was dying.
[798] Hervey's Meditations, &c., ut supra, Life.
[799] Toplady's Works, i. 102.
[800] 'My writings,' he wrote to Lady F. Shirley, 'are not fit for ordinary people: I never give them to such persons, and dissuade this class of men from procuring them. O that they may be of some service to the more refined part of the world!'
[801] Life of Hervey, prefixed to his Meditations, ut supra.
[802] See Kyle's Christian Leaders of the Last Century.