Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel Parr
Ch. XXVIII. 1800-1807
Samuel Parr to an unnamed correspondent, [September? 1801]
“Sir,—I was yesterday evening honoured with your letter;
I read the contents of it with inexpressible anguish; I passed a comfortless
night, and this morning I am scarcely able to thank you as I ought to do, for
your delicacy in averting the shock, which I must have suffered, if
intelligence so unexpected and so distressing had rushed upon me from the
newspapers.”—“In the happiness of the late Mr. Wakefield, I always took a lively
interest: many are the inquiries I made about the
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state of his health, and the course of his studies, while
he was at Dorchester: great was my anxiety to see him after his sufferings were
at an end; and when his name was announced to me at my lodgings in Carey
Street, I seized his hand eagerly; I gazed steadfastly upon his countenance; I
was charmed with the freshness of his spirits, and the apparent stoutness of
his constitution; I anticipated for him a succession of years after years,
during which he might have smiled at the malice of his enemies, and enjoyed the
sympathies of his friends; and, at parting, I received from him a book, which
the circumstance of captivity under which it was written endeared to me, and
which his death has now consecrated.”1—“To
the learning of that excellent person, my understanding is indebted for much
valuable information;2 but my heart acknowledges yet
higher obligations to his virtuous example. I loved him unfeignedly; and though
our opinions on various subjects, both in criticism and theology, were
different, that difference never disturbed our quiet, nor relaxed our mutual
good-will.”—“In diligence, doubtless, he far surpassed any scholar,
with whom it is my lot to have been personally acquainted; and though his
writings now
1 “Noctes
Carcerariæ. The last gift of the beloved and much
respected author. S. P.”—Bibl.
Parr. p. 634. 2 When the name of Wakefield occurs to us, who does not heave a momentary
sigh, and, catching the spirit with which Jortin once alluded to the productions of learned and
ingenious dissenters, repeat the emphatical quotation of that most
accomplished and amiable scholar—“Qui tales sunt,
utinam essent nostri?”— Review of the Variorum
Horace, British Critic, vol. iii. p. 123.
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and then carry with them some marks of extreme
irritability, he was adorned, or, I should rather say, he was distinguished, by one excellence, which every wise man will admire,
and every good man will wish at least to emulate. That excellence was, in truth, a very rare one; for it existed in the
complete exemption of his soul from all the secret throbs, all the perfidious
machinations, and all the mischievous meanness of envy.”—“For my
part, sir, I shall ever think and ever speak of Mr.
Wakefield, as a very profound scholar, as a most honest man, and
as a Christian, who united knowledge with zeal, piety with benevolence, and the
simplicity of a child with the fortitude of a martyr.”—“Under the
deep and solemn impressions which his recent death has made upon my mind, I
cannot but derive consolation from that lesson, which has been taught me by one
of the wisest among the sons of men. ‘The souls of the righteous are
in the hands of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of
the unwise, they seem to die, and their departure is taken for misery—but
they are in peace.’ I am, &c.
John Jortin (1698-1770)
English divine, philologist, and critic; he published
Remarks on
Spenser (1734); his essays were collected as
Tracts,
Theological, Critical and Miscellaneous (1790).
Gilbert Wakefield (1756-1801)
Unitarian scholar and controversialist who taught at Warrington and Hackney; he was
imprisoned for a seditious pamphlet (1799-1801).
The British Critic. (1793-1825). A quarterly publication of conservative opinion continued as
The
British Critic, and Quarterly Theological Review (1838-1843). The original editors
were Robert Nares and William Beloe.
