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
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
*** 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 feelings, that could be laid hold on as a private journal: and I have most distinctly intimated to all those friends who possess any letters of mine, that I shall regard it as a gross breach of confidence, a dishonorable, base, and mercenary proceeding on their part, if ever they permit a sentence addressed