[376] Private correspondence.
[377] This letter was addressed to Mr. Newton, on the writer's recovery from an attack of his grievous constitutional malady, which lasted eight months.
[378] Private correspondence.
[379] The living of Olney had become vacant by the death of the Rev. Moses Brown, and an attempt was made to secure it for the Rev. Mr. Postlethwaite, the curate. Mr. Bean was ultimately appointed.
[380] The appellation which Sir Thomas Hesketh used to give him in jest, when he was of the Temple.
[381] See Burnet's Theory of the Earth, in which book, as well as by other writers, the formation of mountains is attributed to the agency of the great deluge. The deposit of marine shells is alleged as favouring this hypothesis.
[382] We introduce one stanza from these verses:—
"Like crowded forest trees we stand,
And some are marked to fall;
The axe will smite at God's command,
And soon shall smite us all."
[383] (Henry Mackenzie.) This popular writer first became known as the author of "The Man of Feeling," which was published in 1771, and of other works of a similar character. He afterwards became a member of a literary society, established at Edinburgh, in 1778, under the title of the Mirror Club. Here originated the Mirror and Lounger, periodical essays written after the manner of the Spectator, of which he was the editor and principal contributor. He died in 1831.
[384] In a periodical called "The Lounger."