し

ގރ .

MEDITATIONS

AND

CONTEMPLATIONS

BY

JAMES HERVEY, A. M.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

LONDON:

WILLIAM TEGG AND CO.,

85, QUEEN STREET, CHEAPSIDE.

MDCCCLVI.

MEMOIRS

OF

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF THE

REV. JAMES HERVEY, A. M.

PERHAPS 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 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 neighbourhood. 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 tradesman; 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