their presence; excepting two clergymen, one of whom left the Oratorio in the midst of the performance, shocked and confounded at the abuse of holy things, and ashamed of being found there; the other is deemed by all his brethren to have acted very wrongly, and to have countenanced much evil. The spirit of the world, the pride of life, the lust of the eye, all enter into these public gaities; and their false pretensions to partial sacredness, only render them more objectionable. If young people do not learn this lesson early, they will greatly suffer in all hope of their spirituality. The less they may now, in the infancy of their Christian state, see and feel this, the more dangerous it is to yield to their ignorance and inexperience. What is morally and religiously wrong, can never become right through the error of youth. And it would be a strange departure from every moral and religious principle, to say I know an act to be wrong in itself, but my child has not grace enough to see it as I do; therefore, I may lawfully permit him to do what I know to be wrong.' Would not this open a door to every species of sin and error?

"As to examples of good people :-Sin does not cease to be sin, because some good people unhappily fall into the snares which the great enemy of souls spreads for their delusion. It is, and it shall be for a lamentation, that good men

err so deplorably, and thereby countenance what, eventually, their principles condemn, and what they may some day have deep cause to regret.

"No man in England loves music,-sacred music,-better than I do; therefore my sacrifice to principle and conscience is far greater than that of many others. I ought to have the greater credit for my self-denial; but I dare not countenance sin and danger, because it is clothed in the bewitching garb of good music and pretended sanctity. Let not my soul come into their assembly!' Tender and affectionate husband and father, as I hope I am, however I may sometimes be misapprehended, and consequently sorry to interfere with the comfort of those most near and dear to me; yet I rejoice from my heart, in having prevented the sanctioning any part of so promiscuous and unjustifiable a medley, by the attendance of any of the members of my dear family; and they will one day thank me. When the object is avowedly an act of worship, all is right, let who will sing and play; but when it is avowedly an act of amusement, religion, rightly felt and understood, forbids the profane performance of singing-men and singing-women, trifling with the things that belong to our everlasting peace, and turning them into mockery."

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388 MEMOIRS OF THE REV. LEGH RICHMOND

Leaving these remarks to the judgment and conscience of the reader, we now return to the course of our narrative.

Allusions have been made, in a preceding part of this Memoir, to Mr. Richmond's mother. Her maternal care in the days of his childhood, her early endeavours to instil into his mind the principles of religion, and the interest she manifested in some of the subsequent events of his history, have been incidentally mentioned. She died in the beginning of the year 1819. But before we enter upon the account of her decease, we shall introduce a brief memoir, from the pen of Mr. Richmond, in which the history of his family is so interwoven with his own earlier years, as to form a kind of episode, which we have no doubt will interest the reader by the simple and affecting character of its details. It is addressed to his children, as a memorial of the virtues of his mother; while his execution of it is no less the memorial of his own.

This little piece will appropriately form, by itself, the subject of our next chapter.

CHAPTER XIII.

'A Tribute of affectionate veneration for the memory of a deceased Mother;-in a series of Letters to his Children. By the Rev. Legh Richmond.'

LETTER I.

My beloved Children,

"The affecting summons which I so lately and unexpectedly received, to pay the last act of duty and love to the remains of my invaluable and revered parent, has impressed my mind with a strong desire to leave some memorial of her character, for your sakes, and for your instruction.

"I am just returned from the grave of one whom a thousand tender recollections endeared to every faculty of my soul and I wish to preserve something of that solemnity of feeling, and gratitude of heart, which such a scene was calculated to inspire. How can I better do this, than by endeavouring to convey those emotions to your bosoms, through the medium of an epistolary communication, devoted to an affectionate retro

spect of the character and disposition of the deceased? I feel myself, as it were, a debtor to two generations, between whom I now stand, as the willing, though feeble and unworthy agent, by whom benefits and consolations, derived from the one, may be transferred for the lasting advantage of the other. The solid character of her religious principles, the superiority of her mental attainments, and the singularly amiable deportment by which she was distinguished, constitute powerful claims to your regard. If any additional plea were needed, I would derive it from the deep and affectionate interest which she took in whatever concerned your welfare, both spiritual and temporal; from the prayers which she daily offered up to the throne of mercy, for your happiness; and from the unceasing watchfulness and anxiety which she manifested for your progress in every good word and work.

"Although she was far separated from you, by the distance of her residence from our own, and the opportunities of personal intercourse were thereby greatly restricted; yet her most tender and sacred affections were ever near to me and mine. We occupied her daily thoughts and her nightly meditations; and now that she is gone to rest, and her heart can no longer beat with mortal anxieties, it is highly becoming that we who loved her, and whom she so ardently loved, should give a consistency to our affection for