that he had an application for a master and mistress for a new school, intended to be erected at Bristol, and as I was then contemplating marriage, he assured me he could procure me the appointment. It needed, he said, but one day's attendance in a week, and a careful study of Pestalozzi's works. I considered the matter, and at length determined to follow his advice. The school at Westminster was first supported entirely by Mr. Brougham, but after a while, and during my attendance, there was associated with him Mr. Benjamin Smith, M.P., Mr. Macaulay, Lord Dacre, and the Marquis of Lansdowne. While I was thus preparing myself, I heard glowing accounts of the success of a Mr. Samuel Wilderspin, at Spitalfields.

This

person was my brother's clerk at the chapel in Saint George's Fields, and through his interest with Mr. James Buchanan, who was a member of my brother's congregation, he had been sent to Mr. Buchanan, instructed by that gentleman in all his plans, and obtained an appointment under Mr. Wilson, at Spitalfields. I thought I would visit his school, and I did so ; but there was nothing to be seen there that I had not seen at the school of Mr. Buchanan, at Westminster. After making myself fully acquainted with the system of Pestalozzi, I was in a condition to accept of the situation at Bristol, so soon as it should be ready; so on the 11th February, 1821, I was married at St. John's Church, Westminster, to my present wife, and after the legal ceremony we proceeded to our own church in the Waterloo Road, and were married before the congregation, Mr. William Sturgeon acting as father to my bride. My brother married us, and afterwards preached a discourse on the conjugial covenant. We received the congratulations of the congregation. We had neither of us time for an excursion. I returned to my office on Monday morning, and my wife went to school to qualify herself for her new duties.

I do not stop to give a description of the person of my wife. I thought her the most beautiful little woman in

London. Dr. Churchill declared I had made a most eligib connection. Mrs. Churchill told me I had got a treasu indeed. And so indeed she has proved. My admiratio of her now is even greater than when she bestowed he hand upon me. It is impossible to speak in terms to high of her many admirable qualities. Her tact, he prudence, her economy in the management of a ver limited income, her truthfulness, her devoted attachmen to the doctrines of the New Church, all speak her a the crown of her husband. What is she faultless No, no. But those who want to know her faults wil not learn them from me. I will only say, that when sh thinks herself right, she is very determined. She is firm even to obstinacy.

Although, as I have said, I had become a member o the Swedenborgian Church, and had been married in it, I had not yet wholly given up my attendance at the Established Church. I still had a fondness for its forms, its ritual, and its beautiful music; and having been originally designed for the ministry, I had formed acquaintances (I cannot, of course, call them friends) who respected me and wished to do me good. I was known to many of the clergy connected with the Abbey, as well as to Dr. Fynes, the incumbent of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, Mr. Groves, the curate, and some others; and I found means to visit Mr. Pollard, and to exhibit a grateful deference for all he had done for me, though I did not forget his floggings.

Every Easter Monday, there was bestowed upon a certain number of newly married couples (married within the year), by the will of a maiden lady, the sum of twenty pounds to three couples in the parish of St. Margaret's, three of St. John's, and three of the parish of Hackney. The parties were required to have served an apprenticeship in their respective parishes, and to have borne good characters, to be known to the clergy, and to be residents in the respective parishes. I applied, never doubting that I should be successful; and I was so

well known that I was successful and received the twenty pounds. I continued at Mr. Thorogood's till May, 1821, when my appointment to Bristol came, and after taking a kind farewell of Mr. Hodson, and of all in Mr. Thorogood's office, I left to commence my career as a teacher, on the plan of Pestalozzi.

Fit Period:

FROM TWENTY-FIVE TILL TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF AGE. 1821 TO 1825.

'Pestalozzi may be termed the founder of "Ragged Schools." At the age of twenty-two, when he had purchased a little estate at Neuboff, in Switzerland, and determined to lead a simple country life, he became aware of the wretchedness and ignorance of the peasantry. It was then that he determined to devote his life to the benefit of the poor, and, assisted by his wife, whom he married the year after he settled at Neuboff, he began to collect poor children, and even mendicant children and outcasts, into his house, and instruct them. His efforts were treated by his neighbors and the world as all such efforts are. They were ridiculed, and pronounced to be actual folly and insanity. Every well-informed reader knows through what opposition, misfortune, and trouble, arising from the exhaustion of his own means, revolutionary disturbances of the times, and the wranglings of those who even came forward to assist in his plans for elevating the people, Pestalozzi passed his life. His plans, however, succeeded, and have spread all over the civilised world: they have been introduced, more or less, into all popular systems of education, and TO HIM THE TUITION OWES MORE THAN TO ANY MAN WHO EVER LIVED. He was born on the 12th of January, 1746, and on the 12th of January, 1846, the centenary of his birth was celebrated all over Germany and Switzerland with great festivity, and many people's schools were founded in honor of his memory. So it is: the benefactors of mankind go through the world with sorrow and misrepresentation-ruin clogs them-and the worldly wise shake their heads at them-but the seed they sow grows in spite of frost and drought, and after-ages reap the harvest which was watered with their tears. Be strong, hearts of humanity! and the blessing which Heaven sends, though it seems to come late, shall last long.' NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH.

OF THE PEOPLE

'If you would be benefited by what you read, learn to read critically. Look at the characters and see if they be natural and well drawn. Observe the morality, and see if it be true or false; examine the style, and see if it be good or bad, graceful or awkward, distinct, or vague.' MARY CHANDLER'S Elements of Character.

ON my arrival in Bristol, and going before the com

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PHRENOLOGIST.

113

mittee, I found it consisted of ladies of various denominations, of whom many were Unitarians, and several others of the Society of Friends.

I laid before them the plans requisite to be pursued, and they gave me full licence to fit up the school according to my own judgment; this took about a month, and in the beginning of June, 1821, I commenced my duties as a teacher.

On leaving London, I had received from my brother a note of introduction to the minister of the Swedenborgian Society at Bristol, whose name was Enoch, and he received me very kindly, and introduced me to the members generally. In my capacity as schoolmaster, it was thought I might occasionally deliver a discourse, and as my desire still was to become a minister, I felt no disinclination to accede to the request. Mr. Enoch, it appeared, was never appreciated in Bristol; so that, having frequently officiated for him, I was at length solicited to take the whole duties upon myself, which I did somewhere about November, 1821. Mr. Enoch, however, still continued to preach occasionally. The place of worship was situated in the lowest part of the city, and no hope was entertained by me of adding respectable persons to the Society.

During the year 1821, my duties at the school were comparatively light, and I had plenty of time for study; but I was assisted in my Sunday duties by a few manuscript sermons from my brother, and I thought I would attempt the delivery of a course of lectures on the Doctrines of the New Church. I applied to my brother for a programme, which he gave me, and I delivered, with some success, a course of six Sunday Evening Lectures, the first of which, on the Divinity of the Lord, was published, and was so very favorably received by the public that it was sold in a few months.*

In these duties passed the first six months of my

I shall have occasion, in a future part of my narrative, to say something further respecting this discourse.