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pleasure and admiration. Though I have rea"son enough to distrust my own judgment," (yet) "I hope I am not deceived myself, and "therefore shall not mislead you if you follow my advice."

"Excepting what I have excepted, I think your book will be one of the most important, "and if the Lord pleases to give his blessing, may be one of the most useful publications "of the age (1800). I know no book that displays such an exhibition of the heart of man, or (scarcely excepting my own Narrative) such an instance of the wonderful rich grace of the mercy of God to a chief sinner. "Your reflections also are in general solid, judi

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cious, striking, and pertinent; perhaps here "and there, some of them are rather tinctured "by your lively imagination. But I have chiefly "confined my objections to those things which "would be thought indecent, especially in this "refined and sentimental age. Some regard "is due to times and circumstances, &c. I am, "dear Sir, your affectionate J. N. 12th Nov. "1796."

I would add, that in consequence of Mr. Newton's advice, this Narrative has been weeded; or, changing the figure, I may say hewed, so as scarcely to contain one half of the original mass. It also may be proper to say, that the Author is an illiterate soldier, whose Greek

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does not extend beyond the New Testament, nor his Latin beyond the common school-books now forgotten. Hence my Reader must not expect to find an eloquent captivating style. In short, perspicuity and fidelity are the chief objects aimed at in this imperfect sketch.

Lastly, I beg to assure my Reader, that (as I am not in any pecuniary distress, nor in straightened circumstances) if any profit should arise from the sale of this work (a most improbable event, no doubt!) it will be devoted as a mite to missionary purposes.

N. B. I cannot resist the temptation of lengthening my Preface a little, by an extract from the Quarterly Review of July, 1822, No. LIII. page 136; which has just met my eye, and which seems well adapted to mollify prejudices against certain novelties, that will be found in the course of the following Narrative; viz.

"All error on moral or political subjects is in itself mischievous; but such is their "difficulty, that no work, of any length, on any "of those subjects, was ever free from error; or, if "it had been free, would have been thought so, "by those, whose prejudices it contradicted. In "proportion to the originality of the work, will "its apparent and its real errors be multiplied. "It will oppose more received opinions, and "its conclusions will want the qualifications of

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"which further discussion will prove the ne"cessity; and in proportion to the practical "importance of its topics, will the injurious tendency of its errors be more glaring. In every original work, therefore, on an inportant moral or political subject, a judge "must find passages, which he thinks mischie"vous; or (which is enough for the rule) of "which he is not sure that the tendency may "not be mischievous. In proportion to its "originality and importance, it must be susceptible of this literary outlawry. We will "not waste the time, or insult the understanding of our Readers, by proving the utility of "such works, or by showing that even the "discussion of their errors leads to truths, "which might not, probably would not, other"wise have been attained."

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MEMOIRS,

&c.

PART THE FIRST.

"He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. "The field is the world. The good seed are the "children of the kingdom; but the tares are the "children of the wicked one: the enemy that sowed "them is the devil."-Matt. xiii.

As it is natural that my readers should wish to know something of the person whose narrative they are about to peruse, and whose name they may perhaps discover, I shall endeavour to oblige them by telling all I know. Indeed more than I actually know; for I only understand that my ancestors (I must have had ancestors) were originally from France. They were probably Hugonots, who settled first in the Island of Jersey or Guernsey, and afterwards in England and in Ireland. My father was a sailor, a lieutenant, originally in the navy, and afterwards commanded one of the government packets to Lisbon. My mother was the daughter of an English merchant at that place; and

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I understand from my only living relation, my sister (four or five years older than myself), that my grandmother insisted on my father's leaving the navy and getting a Lisbon packet, before she would consent to give him her favourite daughter.

My parents both died during my infancy, or nearly so that is to say, my father when I was four, and my mother when I was six years of age. Of the first I remember but little, except that he once flogged me for telling a lie, and that he probably made me a soldier, at least instrumentally, by giving me drums, swords, caps, and colours. My mother was a woman of retired piety and meekness; and I remember that she made me learn several of Watts's Hymns and some Psalms by heart, among which I particularly recollect the 139th.

My guardian, who was also my uncle by marriage, was in the East India Company's civil service at China, and upon the whole a very worthy man. He was strictly honest, and very attentive to religious duties of an external nature; but his temper and his tongue were not always so well regulated as they should have been: not that he ever swore, but he was morose, severe, and, as I thought, rather inclined to tyrannise, where he had power.

The first school to which I was sent, at about seven years of age, in 1764, was, in respect to