"4. Periplus Rubri Maris comes with the geography, when Mr. Hoole has finished it.

"5. I remember no extracts but that from the Catena, which is six hundred and sixteen folio pages; but I think I have got the main of it into thirty quartos, which I finished yesterday, though there is no haste in sending it, for I design it for the appendix. This to May 27.

"Now to yours from the Isle of Ely, June 3, which relates to the children, and my last I leave to your mother, who writes this post if she has time; though something I have writ you already in my ult. or penult. on the subject.

"As for the Testimonia Arianorum, Tɛρɩ TOʊ Aoyoυ, it happens well that I have a pretty good copy, though not so perfect as that which is lost, and will get Mr. Horberry to transcribe it as soon as he returns from Oxford; though I think it will not come in till toward the latter end of the work, as must your collation at the very end, only before the appendix; and I shall begin to revise it to-morrow. "Blessing on you and yours, from your loving father, "S. W."

I believe the collation mentioned here is that at the end of the Dissertations, and which I have described in another place.

The appendix, of which I have a considerable portion in the author's MS. before me, does not appear to have been ever printed. It should have succeeded the collation, as stated above.

It may be seen from the accounts which have been written of the Rev. John Wesley, how earnestly his father wished him to succeed him in the rectory of Epworth; and how strongly this was pressed upon him by his elder brother Samuel. But it is not so well known that Mr. Samuel was the first object of his father's choice; however, this is sufficiently evident from the following letter, which I transcribe from the original; and Mr. Samuel had evidently endeavored to divert his father's wish, and to cause him to fix it on his brother John. The offer of Epworth to Samuel was made February, 1732; the offer of it to John, some time in the end of 1734: the letter, as referring to several family matters, is interesting and curious.

"February 28, 1732-3. "DEAR SON SAMUEL,-For several reasons I have earnestly desired, especially in and since my last sickness, that you might succeed me in Epworth; in order to which I am willing and determined to resign the living, provided you could make an interest to have it in my room.

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My first and best reason for it is, because I am persuaded you would serve God and his people here better than I have done; though, thanks be to God, after near forty years' labor among them, they grow better, I having had above one hundred at my last sacrament, whereas I have had less than twenty formerly. My second reason relates to yourself, taken from gratitude, or rather from plain honesty. You have been a father to your brothers and sisters; especially to the former, who have cost you great sums in their education, both before and since they went to the university. Neither have you stopped here; but have showed your pity to your mother and me in a very liberal manner, wherein your wife joined with you when you did not overmuch abound yourselves, and have even done noble charities to my children's children. Now what should I be if I did not endeavor to make you easy to the utmost of my power, especially when I know that neither of you have your health at London? My third is from honest interest; I mean that of our family. You know our circumstances. As for your aged and infirm mother, as soon as I drop she must turn out, unless you succeed me; which if you do, and she survives me, I know you'll immediately take her then to your own house, or rather continue her there; where your wife and you will nourish her, till we meet again in heaven; and you will be a guide and a stay to the rest of the family.

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There are a few things more which may seem to be tolerable reasons to me for desiring you to be my successor, whatever they may appear to others. I have been at very great and uncommon expense on this living-have rebuilt from the ground the parsonage barn and dovecote; leaded, and planked, and roofed a great part of my chancel; rebuilt the parsonage house twice when it had been burnt, the first time one wing, the second down to the ground, wherein I lost all my books and MSS., a considerable sum of money, all our linen, wearing apparel, and household

stuff, except a little old iron, my wife and I being scorched with the flames, and all of us very narrowly escaping with life. This, by God's help, I built again, digging up the old foundations and laying new ones: it cost me above £400, little or nothing of the old materials being left; besides new furniture from top to bottom; for we had now very little more than what Adam and Eve had when they first set up house-keeping. I then planted the two fronts. of my house with wall-fruit the second time, as I had done the old, for the former all perished by the fire. I have before set mulberries in my garden, which bear plentifully, as lately cherries, pears, &c., and in the adjoining croft walnuts, and am planting more every day. And this I solemnly declare, not with any manner of view, or so much as hopes, that any of mine should enjoy any of the fruit of my labor, when I have so long since outlived all my friends; but my prospect was for some unknown person, that I might do what became me, and leave the living better than I found it.

"And yet I might own I could not help wishing, as 'twas natural, that all my care and charge might not be utterly sunk and lost to my family, but that some of them might be the better for it; though yet I despaired of it for the reason above mentioned, till some time since the best of my parishioners pressed me earnestly to try if I could do anything in it though all I can do is to resign it to you; which I am ready frankly and gladly to do; scorning to make any conditions, for I know you better.

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"I commend this affair, and you and yours, to God, as becomes your affectionate father,

Strong characters will have enemies.

"S. WESLEY."

Mr. S. Wesley,

jun., had such; and that he treated them with contempt, not silent, his works show: but his uprightness, steady friendship, benevolence, and charity, even those enemies confessed. In those times party ran, or rather raged, high. Those who loved him were persecuted; and he manfully espoused their cause, and shared their reproach.

His high-church principles may have amounted to bigotry, but never to intolerance; for there were many among the Dissenters whom he cordially esteemed, and with

whom he lived in habits of friendship. See his poem “On the Death of a Female Friend, a Dissenter from the Church of England." By this piece he appears displeased rather with the doctrines of unconditional reprobation and election; and especially as held by those who considered all others in a state of the utmost danger who did not hold their creed, and who thought sour godliness a test of saving grace. Such persons he certainly met with; and such he points out in the following lines of the abovementioned poem :—

Wretches of every glimpse of day afraid,

Souls under cloaks, and minds in masquerade :
As if each look display'd its owner's fate;
And all that smiled were seal'd for reprobate;
As awkward sourness were a sign of grace;
And sure election blest an ugly face:

As if hell-fire were always placed in view,
Ordain'd for all men but the gloomy few.

He knew that hypocrisy and fanaticism had mingled themselves with pure religion, in days comparatively recent; he was afraid of their revival. It was this fear that caused him to oppose his brothers as he did, when he found them going so far out of the beaten path of Church regularity. Had it pleased God to spare his life but a little longer, the reader may naturally suppose, from the evidence that has been already adduced, that he would have thought and spoken differently both of their manner of preaching, and the success of their ministry. We have already seen from indisputable evidence, that in these respects, as well as in reference to the doctrine they preached, his mind was considerably changed before he died; and that he died not only in "the faith which had been common to all Christians in all ages," but in that faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which he had, not a hypothetical hope, but an assurance of his personal and eternal salvation. This subject has already been discussed. Several of his poems, written to his sisters, will be found in the memoirs of their lives: and some more of his letters in the Life of his brother John.

For a due character of his poetic excellence, see Mr. Pitt's ode To the unknown author of the BATTLE OF THE SEXES."

Mr. Samuel Wesley lies buried in Tiverton church-yard, with the following inscription on his grave-stone:

Here lye interred

The remains of the Rev. Mr. SAMUEL WESLEY, A. M.
Some time student of Christ Church, Oxon:
A man, for his uncommon wit and learning,
For the benevolence of his temper,
And simplicity of manners,

Deservedly beloved and esteemed by all :
An excellent preacher :

But whose best sermon

Was the constant example of an edifying life.

So continually and zealously employed
In acts of beneficence and charity,
That he truly followed

His blessed Master's example
In going about doing good:

Of such scrupulous integrity,

That he declined occasions of advancement in the world
Through fear of being involved in dangerous compliances;
And avoided the usual ways to preferment
As studiously as many others seek them.

Therefore, after a life spent

In the laborious employment of teaching youth,
First for near twenty years

As one of the ushers in Westminster School,
Afterward for seven years

As head master of the free-school at Tiverton,
He resigned his soul to God

November 6th, 1739, in the 49th year of his age.

MISS SUSANNAH WESLEY, THE FIRST.

MR. S. WESLEY had two daughters named Susannah. The first, who was certainly his eldest female child, was born at South Ormsby, in 1691. In the register of South Ormsby, her baptism is entered thus:-"Susannah, the daughter of Samuel Wesley, Clerk, and Susannah his wife, was baptized the 31st of March, 1691. Samuel Wesley, Rector." She died when about two years of age, as I learn from the following entry in the same church: "Susannah, daughter of Samuel Wesley, and Susannah his wife, was buried April 17, 1693."