PREFACE. WHEN I informed Dr. Martineau of my intention to prepare a Memoir of my brother, whom he had known from a child, he wrote: "I am truly glad that you propose to draw some more durable portrait of your dear brother Philip, than the slight sketches which have hitherto appeared. His rare goodness, and even the eccentricities of his thought and conscience, gave an originality and freshness to his life, which entitle it to an exceptional immunity from oblivion." To the Secretary of the Warrington Memorial he afterwards wrote of him, as a man to whose eminent gifts and goodness it is a privilege and delight to pay a heartfelt homage. Among all the best men I have known, I can find no better." He similarly impressed others in very different circles. 66 In his early ministry, he was quickened by "that spirit which roused him to great moral enterprises, and made him trample upon impossibilities." He thought it "easier to be a whole Christian than a half-Christian:" and insisted on the practical character of precepts of Jesus which Christendom usually ignores. He had singleness of aim: and, not being double-minded, he was not half-hearted. He had little regard for the opinion of the world in questions of morals and he 66 often slighted it in matters of usage: so he seemed frequently to err in judgment, and in taste. But while he sometimes suffered from thus leaving the beaten track, he reached a much wider sphere of usefulness. Like his Lord, he was among us as one that serveth;" and his chief services were in ways that had been neglected or despised. Many are following, where he was a pioneer, and it is no longer unusual to strike out new paths of duty. Much therefore that is related of him may seem commonplace, though it once awakened surprise and criticism. If he helped to make singular and devoted services common, it may be hoped that this record may help to make them still more common. "The only thing I feel specially my own," he wrote (p. 306), "is the very poor low work of shell-science." To this he gave much of his time and thought during the last twenty-five years of his life. It brought him distinction that he had not coveted; for it was his principle that "every naturalist ought to start with a feeling that it is of no consequence what becomes of his reputation." My ignorance, where he was full of knowledge, prevents me from attempting any adequate description of what he did for science, into which he carried his Christian love of truth and well-doing. Little mention is made of his fellow-labourers in this and other fields; because the book is already longer than I wish. These Memoirs are, for the most part, in his own words. The great number of his letters and papers led me to adopt this course; yet I found in them such evidence that he strove for self-renunciation, and was more willing for his faults to be exposed as warnings, than for his good actions to be praised, that I could not have continued my work, but for the hope that it might help the objects he had at heart. In addition to letters preserved by his family and friends, I have read several volumes of duplicates in his "manifolds." It was rare for him to correct or to transcribe a letter, or to take any pains in its composition. He wrote "straight on," and was often vexed to find that he had given a wrong impression by "photographing" a transient condition; but the great variety of those photographs may keep us from being misled. He liked to regard familiar letters as 66 written talk." When under pressure, he not only wrote in shorthand to those who could decipher it; but expressed himself in it (so to speak), concisely and symbolically, in a way that might seem odd and startling to staid readers. Though often very reserved as to his inner life, he sometimes let it flow out as a flood. His descriptions of his travels, etc., reveal his intense interest in nature, and his powers of observation. Some may wish that I had copied more of them, instead of painful details of loathsome evils which it was his life-work to remove or abate; but neither the pleasure of my readers, nor my own, has been my chief object in recording the life of one who sacrificed pleasure to duty. Since he was loved for what he was, even more than for what he did, it seemed best to relate his doings in his own words, if possible. Omissions and a few trifling alterations have been made in his letters; but I have not wished, for the sake of style, to prune down his characteristic and off-hand expressions. In his English ministry, he was always known as "Philip," according to the usage of the people in that part of the country, which was very congenial to him; and it would not have been natural for me to write of him, nor of his family, in any more formal way. In relating the painful controversy at Warrington, which ultimately led to his separation from his old "household of faith," it has been my aim to pass over mere personal disputes, and to show the working of principles which are still on their trial. Those sentiments and convictions of his which he adopted in later life are, I trust, fairly stated. This book is chiefly written for those who knew him in part, and wish to know more of him. Their living remembrance must help to give it life. For their sakes I have added an engraving from a photograph taken just before he left England, and pictures of his homes. BRIDPORT, December, 1879. R. L. C. POSTSCRIPT. His most important scientific work, on the Chitonidæ (see pp. 352-354), is being prepared for publication. Mr. Dall writes from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Nov. 11, 1879:-"The revision of the manuscript will now take place, and the engraving of the illustrations: a work so extensive (and expensive) that I presume it will be a year or two before the volume appears in published form." CONTENTS. Birth and parentage-Childhood-Bristol College-Bristol Institution ... Edinburgh University College at York: his tutors-Unsettlement of opinions-Friends at Leeds- The Minster-College Repository -Sunday school-Mr. W. H. Herford's reminiscences-Fire at the Minster-Declines a lucrative offer-His first preaching- His father's death-Theological studies-Removal of the College MINISTRY AT STAND: 1841-1846. ÆT. 21-26. Begins his ministry-Sermons-Travers Madge-Ordination services |