VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.

WHEN, in 1830, the first edition of the "Village Blacksmith " was published, the writer's hopes were so moderate as to prevent the risk of a large edition, and he was the more surprised to find a quick demand for a second. The last edition was put to press in 1861, and another was called for at the close of 1862, completing as sold, the Twenty-sixth Thousand. Being importuned to publish another edition of 2,000 copies, advanced age interposed its interdict-the writer closely verging on his seventy-ninth year-when it was flatteringly, though kindly and sincerely said, "You may gracefully allude to your age,-to the many years the work has been before the public, the undiminished interest felt in it, as proved by increased demand, and your wish to leave to the public, as a legacy, an improved edition from your own, and it may be, though hoped not-your last hand,—of a work that has met with such acceptance, and which has been so useful to the Christian Church." Acquiescence was the result.

The mind, which is as apt to look back in old age, as it is to look forward in youth, was carried to the period of the publication of the first edition, at which time the writer accompanied Dr. Adam Clarke on a visit to Ireland. They spent some days at Portstuart, where they were entertained at the house of John Cromie, Esq. On the author leaving his chamber one morning, and turning to the window, where the ocean was rolling in front of the house, he found that the Doctor, who was an early riser, had been at work on a pane of glass, cutting out with a diamond, and with a careful hand, the following lines, which he left as a memento of the visit:

The Seasons of Adam Clarke's Life,

I have enjoyed the spring of life

I have endured the toils of its summer

I have culled the fruits of its autumn

I am now passing through the rigours of its winter;
And I am neither forsaken of God,

Nor abandoned by man.

I see at no great distance the dawn of a new day,
The first of a spring that shall be eternal!

It is advancing to meet me!

I run to embrace it!

Welcome! welcome! eternal spring!

Hallelujah!

So wrote, and so felt Dr. Clarke, then in his seventieth year, who bore "fruit in old age," and entered into rest eighteen months afterwards, to sit under the shade of THE TREE OF LIFE, bearing "twelve manner of fruits." The winter apportioned to the good Doctor, whatever might be its "rigour," was not so long as that allotted to his companion in "toil" and travel; who, with him, has had the spring," the "summer," and the "autumn" of "life," and has been permitted to enjoy a little of the "fruit of well-doing,”—not in the shape of merit, but reward, through the merits of a SAVIOUR.

65

JAMES EVERETT.

January 14th, 1863.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

BIOGRAPHERS have occasionally-though, perhaps, unconsciouslyglided into opposite extremes :-they have either depreciated the character of their subjects, or over-rated their excellences. To the former extreme they have been led in various ways; and in none, among the less offensive, more than in writing far and near for character; and after securing their object, arranging the different materials in their works, like witnesses in a court of justice, to speak for the person in question. This, to say the least, is putting the subject on his trial. It is in this way that the life of that excellent man, the late Rev. William Bramwell, has been doomed to suffer, and permitted to be swelled to a useless extent, by the publication of opinions, which were never given with a view to appear in print; and which, if even given for that purpose, would have the same weigh: with the public that the "Names of Little Note," recorded in the Biographia Britannica, had with Cowper, especially in support of the character of such a MAN,~—a man who required no such adventitions aid, but who, after all the pruning and paring of those who least admired him, and with only a tithe of his wisdom, looked upon him as a weak enthusiast, would have stood a lovely tree in the vineyard of the Lord, refreshing many with his verdure, protecting them by his shade, and enriching them with the weight and luxuriance of his fruit. When an author is reduced to the necessity of going abroad in quest of character for his subject, it is but too evident that the subject has not been sufficiently at home with himself to be known; or that, in addition to a paucity of material, there is either incapability for the work, or doubts of the propriety of its execution. In the present case, either the writer has not humility to spare for such condescension, or he wishes not to degrade his subject. Having no internal misgivings, no suspicion, he considers his hero not as on his trial, but one against whom no charge is preferred, and therefore deems the witness-box unnecessary. Let him not, however, be misunderstood; for though he has gone in quest of materials, he has not gone in search of character. He has procured materials in order to form an opinion of his own; materials which rose out of a character

already formed-a character embodied in a "living epistle," before the public, 66 seen and read of all;" and but for which character, such materials would not have existed.

The other extreme into which biographers have fallen, has had its rise in an overweening anxiety and partiality, inducing them, on the one hand, to render the character as perfect as possible, in order to secure, on the other, an ample share of the good opinion of the reader. Here the writer has again to plead disinclination. He has taken up the character of Samuel Hick as it was, not as he wished it, nor as it ought to be; and has left the man as he found him—in the rough, and unadorned,—somewhat resembling the block of marble upon which the first efforts of the artist have been employed, where the human form has been brought out of the unfinished mass, in whose core are to be found all those hidden qualities which give beauty to the surface, only waiting the masterly hand of a Phidias, for the purpose of imparting grace, and polish, and finish.

The circumstances under which the following pages were commenced, carried on, and completed, are these :-The good man whose life and character they profess to portray, deposited with the writer about three years prior to the period of his dissolution, some papers, with a solemn injunction to prepare them for publication. These papers were found to comprise broken materials of personal history, such as himself alone was capable of throwing together, and such as it would fall to the lot of but few, without previous and personal acquaintance, to be able to separate and decipher. The pledge of preparation was given, without the specification of time, on either side, for its fulfilment. Such was the heterogeneal character of the papers, and such the complexion of many of the facts and incidents, that some of the former were totally useless, and some of the latter unfit to meet the public eye; the whole requiring another language, and bare allusion being sufficient in many instances where amplification had been indulged. Some time previous to the decease of the subject, a degree of impatience was expressed for the completion of the Memoir; but as no time had been originally specified, and as it was known that the good man was imprudently pushed on to request its publication during life, by injudicious friendship, the work, in mercy to himself, and for the still higher honour of the religion he professed, nor less richly enjoyed, was purposely delayed; and delayed the longer from an impression that nothing short of the publication of the whole would give satisfaction. The writer's vow being still upon him, added to which, having been urged by others to furnish the public with a biographical account of the deceased, he has employed of the papers thus referred to, together with others which have since been put into his hands by different friends, whatever was

found convertible to the purpose of affording instruction to the Christian community, as illustrative of the grace and providence of God, the whole combining to furnish a living exposition of what has proceeded from the Source of Truth, where it is affirmed that, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought the things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence.”

It may be proper to mention, that some time after the death of Samuel Hick, the writer learned, by an application being made tc him for materials, that another person had it in contemplation to prepare a Memoir; but it was too late: he had gone too far to recede ; and as he could not conceive what virtue his MS. could derive from the simple process of passing through a second person's hand to the press, or what advantage he could reap by placing the fruit of his labour at the disposal of one who had neither held the plough, nor scattered the seed into the furrows, he preferred appearing before the public in his own name, without allowing the imperfections of his pages to be charged upon others, or their merit-should they possess any-to be claimed by any but their legitimate owner.

Among the persons to whom the writer has to acknowledge his obligations for information respecting the subject of the Memoir, he would not omit his friend, Mr. William Dawson, of Barnbow, near Leeds, to whom the work is inscribed; the Rev. H. Beach, A. Learoyd, J. Hanwell, T. Harris, and J. Roadhouse, together with Robert Watson, son-in-law of the deceased, and other branches of the family —the latter furnishing him with the use of his correspondence.