To the same Letter IV Letter V Letter VI To the same .................................. To G. Harvey, Esq. To the same ...... PAGE. 4 9 13 17 21 ........... 25 ........... 28 ........... 30 35 4.0 41 44 49 .... 53 Letter VIII To Mr. W. M. Tracey Letter IX Letter X To G. Harvey, Esq. To John Kitto, from Cecil...... Letter XI To G. Harvey, Esq. Letter XV To the same A SHORT MEMOIR, &c. JOHN KITTO, the Author of the following LETTERS AND ESSAYS, was born at Plymouth, December 4, 1804, of humble parents. His father, a working mason, came from the parish of Gwennap, in Cornwall, having been attracted to Plymouth during the war, by the demand then existing for labourers of all descriptions. The circumstances of his parents do not seem to have been such as to have enabled them to give their son much education, nor do they appear to have availed themselves of the opportunities which the charity schools of the Town afforded for the instruction of poor boys in elementary knowledge. He was, however, between his eighth and eleventh year, placed for short and interrupted periods at the schools of Messrs. Winston, Stephens, Treeby, and Goss; but the time he spent at each, afforded him little opportunity for the acquisition of much learning; and his school attainments never extended farther than reading, writing, and the imperfect use of figures. His family appear to have laboured under very great pecuniary embarrassments about the year 1814, which ultimately deprived the poor boy of even the limited opportunities of improvement he had hitherto enjoyed. The same cause that prevented his continuance at school, obliged him to attend on his father then working as a mason, in bringing him mortar, stones, &c. as early as the twelfth year of his age. In February, 1817, being on the roof of a house in Batter-street, then undergoing repair, he' fell from thence and received a considerable bodily injury, particularly in the organ of hearing, which he formerly possessed in as full perfection as any other boy; but the fall produced some disorganization of the auditory nerve, so as to occasion from that moment to the present a total loss of the sense of hearing. It would be unnecessary to dwell on the consequences of this event, or on the observation often endeavoured to be impressed on the minds of men, that the evils of this life, as we perversely call those accidents by which we are assailed, and which appear to us to be injurious to our hopes and our desires, are yet often productive to us of the greatest advantage. From this moment the situation of poor KITTO, which had before been rendered painful from the poverty of his parents, and other domestic sources of disquietude, seemed to be greatly aggravated, and rendered painfully and singularly unfortunate. Surrounded by poverty, and all its baneful followers; cut off from the alleviation which friendship or the common intercourse of mankind affords; he was driven to seek some occupation for his mind, some enjoyment capable of compensating, in a measure, for the loss of every other gratification. It was then that he describes himself as first resorting to books for employment to wear away his tedious hours. But where could he procure them? It is true, thanks to the benevolent exertions of the present age, few houses can now be found, even among the lowest classes of our inhabitants, which do not contain the pages of the Holy Scriptures; inspiring all who read them with a real desire to be informed and instructed, and teaching them that the evils of this life are but temporary; that those events which we call misfortunes, and consider as painful and burthensome to us, are indeed salutary and necessary chastisements to guard us from moral evil, and guide us to moral good; that our sufferings here, be they what they may, whether arising from bodily infirmities or mental inflictions, are transient only, and, if received with religious submission, resignation, and contrition for past offences, may essentially contribute to our future and everlasting happiness, and also afford us a calm contentment even in this imperfect state |