Personal Recollections

Personal Recollections

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Title: Personal Recollections Abridged, Chiefly in Parts Pertaining to
Political and Other Controversies Prevalent at the Time in Great Britain
Author: Charlotte Elizabeth
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8114] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 15, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERSONAL
RECOLLECTIONS ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Tonya Allen, Charles
Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
BY CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH.
ABRIDGED, CHIEFLY IN PARTS PERTAINING TO POLITICAL
AND OTHER CONTROVERSIES PREVALENT AT THE TIME IN
GREAT BRITAIN.

CONTENTS.
LETTER I.
CHILDHOOD.--Reasons--Design--Martyrs' prison--Palace
garden--Scenery-- Music--Study--Politics--A
brother--Protestantism--The Bible--Judicious plan
LETTER II.
YOUTH.--Private journals--Romance--The drama--Poetical taste--Loss
of hearing--Books--A change--Rural life--Stays--Tight-lacing--Ruinous
custom--The country
LETTER III.
EARLY DAYS.--Idling--Convictions--Anticipating evil--Mischievous
errors --Unreal estimates--Fake views--A parting--Fraternal love
LETTER IV.
YOUTH.--A grandmother--Unfashionable taste--A
bereavement--Changes-- Travels--Punctuality--Ocean scenery--False
confidence--A storm--Wonders of the deep--Recklessness--An Arab
steed--A fragment--Escapes-- Housewifery--Nova
Scotia--Indians--Cosmopolitanism--Home
LETTER V.
IRELAND.--Oxford--Irishmen--The journey--The arrival--An
escape--Dublin --St. John's eve--The
dance--Paganism--Trials--Levying distress--

Convictions--Terrors--Awakened conscience--God's teaching--Joy and
peace
LETTER VI.
RELIGIOUS PROGRESS.--The
church--Socinianism--Temptation--Metaphysics-- Athanasian
creed--An epoch--My first tract--A new friend--"Hail Mary"-- Christian
communion
LETTER VII.
KILKENNY.--A new residence--Another snare--Compromise--An
apostate--"End of controversy"--The snare broken--Another attack--An
argument-- Discussion--The result
LETTER VIII.
The dumb boy.--A pupil--Jack's commencement--Inquiry--A
dilemma--Dawning light--Seasonings--A sunbeam--A soul born--A
protester--Idolatry-- Faithfulness--Summons--Superstition--National
character--Confession-- Infernal machinery
LETTER IX.
England.--The dumb boy--Jack's adventure--Departure from
Ireland--Hannah More--A carnal
politician--Treachery--Afflictions--Jack's progress--
Prayer--Mercies--A soldier--A home--False judgment--Tranquillity
LETTER X.
Sandhurst.--A proposal--A snare--An incident--Papal
fulmination--Jack's petition--Happy
caution--Perseverance--Zeal--Testimonies--A contrast
LETTER XI.
Separation.--Prejudices--Home--Forebodings--Danger--Trying scenes--
Queries--Awful contrast--Cadets--Retrospections--A
visitation--Sympathy --True feeling
LETTER XII.
Employment.--Sabbath meetings--Boys--An
event--Forgiveness--Prejudices-- The Irish language--St. Giles's--A
project--The Irish church
LETTER XIII.
A sunset.--A termination--A sunset--Resignation--The red hand--Joy
and peace--True wisdom--Sympathy--Earnestness--A dying
protest--Sleeping in Jesus

LETTER XIV.
A removal.--An appeal--Irish schools--Literary
labors--Antinomianism-- Conclusion
SUBSEQUENT LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AUTHOR

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS

LETTER I.
CHILDHOOD.
I have given my best consideration to the arguments by which you
support the demand for a few notices of events connected with my
personal recollections of the past. That which has chiefly influenced me
is the consideration, urged on what I know to be just and reasonable
grounds, that when it has pleased God to bring any one before the
public in the capacity of an author, that person becomes in some sense
public property; having abandoned the privacy from which no one
ought to be forced, but which any body may relinquish; and courted the
observation of the world at large. Such individuals are talked of during
life, and after death become the subject, I may say the prey, of that
spirit which reigned in Athens of old, and from which no child of
Adam is wholly free--the desire to hear and to tell some new thing. No
sooner has the person withdrawn from this mortal stage, than the pen of
biography is prepared to record, and a host of curious expectants are
marshalled to receive, some fragments at least of private history. I wish
I could dissent from your remark, that even godliness itself is too often
sought to be made a gain of in such cases. Writers who are themselves
wholly unenlightened by spiritual knowledge, and uninfluenced by
spiritual feeling, will take up as a good speculation what must to them
be a mystery, and wrong the subject of their memorial while they injure
the cause in which he labored. Even among those of better
understanding in the ways of truth, we do not often meet sound
judgment, calm discretion, and refined delicacy, combined with
affection for the departed and zeal for the gospel. Private journals are
sought out, confidential letters raked together, and a most unseemly
exposure made alike of the dead and the living.
This I have always seen and lamented; and being aware that my turn
would probably come to be thus exhibited, I have abstained from

preserving even the slightest memoranda of events, thoughts, or