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MEMOIRS

OF

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF THE

REV. JAMES HERVEY, A. M.

ERHAPS few men were ever better known by their writings, or less known in the common circles of society, than the Rev. James Hervey, the subject of these Memoirs. At all times he was studious and contemplative; generally he was sequestered in a country village; and often he was confined by sickness and great languor. He had no taste for the amusements or the converse of the generality of the world. The particular events of his life were not diversified with much variety of circumstance; but the temper of the man, the course of his studies, the bent of his

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mind, and the benevolence of his heart, exhibit a most useful lesson, and may be partly discovered in his various works.

He was born, February 14, 1714, at Hardingstone, a village near Northampton, where the family had resided some time. His father was rector of Weston Favell and Collingtree, both in that neighborhood. The Herveys were an ancient and opulent family in that country, formerly having large possessions at Hardingstone and at Weston: an ancestor of their's had been a judge; and Mr. Hervey's great-grandfather represented the town of Northampton in Parliament. Mr. J. Hervey had the peculiar advantage, which never can be too much valued, of being descended from a pious and respectable family. He had two brothers and three sisters. His brothers settled in London, and deserved the characters of respectable tradesmen; one was a packer, whom he attended in his last illness; the other was a wine merchant, who survived him many years. His mother superintended the first part of his education, and taught him to read. At seven years of age he was sent, with his brother, to the free grammar school, at Northampton, of which the Rev. Mr. Clarke, vicar of St. Sepulchre's, in that town, was the master.

With a common share of school learning, with but little knowledge of the world, and with general impressions of piety, young Mr. Hervey was entered at Lincoln College, Oxford. One of the joint tutors at that time was the Rev. Richard Hutchins, afterwards rector of that college; a man of abilities, integrity and piety, reserved in his manners, but who perplexed the refinements of a strong but not a brilliant mind with philosophical necessity, and called the attention of the public to the supposed fate of children dying in their infancy, from the good or the evil which God knew or foreknew they would have done, had they been permitted to live. Ă long life and a placid old age was the reward of his temperance and regularity.

His other tutor was the Rev. J. Wesley. Few men

have ever lived who have caused more conversation, or excited more censure or applause: but now the subject is removed, and the mist of prejudice and the glare of partiality are gradually dying away. In love with a college life it is no wonder that he attracted the notice and encouraged the literary pursuits of young Hervey: he frequently read and conversed with him out of the customary hours of lecture; he prescribed to him a plan of very early rising and of strict discipline, which would not agree with every constitution.

At college Mr. Hervey became particularly attached to Kiel's Anatomy, to Derham's Astro and Physico Theology, and to the Spectacle de la Nature. He acknowledged much obligation in the improvement of his style to Spence's Essay on Pope's Odyssey. By these means he laid that foundation for a general knowledge in the various and wonderful works of nature, which he afterwards was so successful to apply in displaying the greatness of the Author of nature, and in illustrating the wisdom of his sacred Word.

About this time he attempted to learn the Hebrew language, without any other help than the Westminster Grammar; but the unexpected difficulties discouraged him; and, for a time, he relinquished the attempt rather than the intention. Afterwards he became a proficient in that ancient, if not most ancient, language: that he might thus be better enabled to teach others, and to draw purer water from the wells of salvation.

The period of ordination when a new and important character is assumed, was a season of much thought and reflection, of prayer and solemn resolutions, to fulfil the interesting obligations which he was entering into. Mr. Hervey was ordained the 19th of September, 1736, by Dr. Potter, then bishop of Oxford; when he voluntarily relinquished an exhibition of 201. per ann., which he received from college, thinking that it would be unjust to detain that necessary help to defray the academical expenses which another might stand in greater need of. At the first he assisted his father, but afterwards