about sixteen years of age; from that time until I was twenty-one I was a sincere enthusiast, and every spare hour I enjoyed I dedicated to the study of the bible, reading methodistical books, learning hymns, hearing sermons, meeting in societies, &c. My memory was very tenacious, so that everything I read I made my own. I could have repeated several volumes of hymns; when I heard a sermon, I could have preached it again, and nearly in the same words; my bible had hundreds of leaves folded down, and thousands of marks against such texts as I thought favoured the doctrines (or whims) which I had imbibed. So that I stood forth as the champion of Methodism wherever I came.

But alas! my godly strict life at length suffered interruption. I will give you a farther account of the Methodists when I come to the time when I finally left their society.

The election for two members of parliament was strongly contested at Taunton just as I attained my twenty-first year; and being now of age, the six or seven months which I had to serve of my apprenticeship were purchased of my mistress by some friends of two of the contending candidates; so that I was at once set free in the midst of a scene of riot and dissipation.

"Present example gets within our guard,
And acts with double force, by few repell'd."

"Nor shame nor honour could prevail,

To keep me thus from turning tail."

YOUNG.

As I had a vote, and was also possessed of a few ideas above those of my rank and situation, my company was courted by some who were in a much higher sphere; and (probably what they partly intended) in such company I soon forgot my godly or methodistical connections, and ran into the opposite extremes so that for several months most of my spare hour; were devoted to the

"Young-ey'd god of wine! parent of joys!
Frolic and full of thee, while the cold sons
Of temperance, the fools of thought and care,
Lay stretch'd in sober slumbers."

MALLET'S Eurydice.

Here I had nearly sunk for ever into meanness, obscurity, and vice; for when the election was over, I had no longer open houses to eat and drink in at free cost; and having refused bribes, I was nearly out of cash.

I began the world with an unsuspecting heart, and was tricked out of about three pounds (every shilling I was possessed of) and part of my clothes, by some country sharpers. Having one coat and two waistcoats left, I lent my best waistcoat to an acquaintance, who left the town and forgot to return it.

However, I did not sink quite so low as the commonalty of journeymen shoemakers, but in general worked very hard, and spent my money in better

company.

"To know good, preferring specious ill,
Reason becomes a cully to the will;
Thus man, perversely fond to roam astray,
Hoodwinks the guide assigned to shew the way;
And in life's voyage, like the pilot fares,

Who breaks the compass, and contemns the stars."

FENTON.

Notwithstanding, at times I was very uneasy, and although I had not been at any methodistical meeting during the time that I had lived this dissipated life, yet my mind was not freed entirely from the superstitious fears I had there imbibed; so that whenever any person asked me, what would become of me (that had lived such a holy life) if I should die in the state of backsliding from "the good old way?" I always acknowledged that I should be eternally damned, were that to be the case. But I must confess that I was not much afraid of dying in such a state, as I was too

much prepossessed with the methodistical notions of free-grace, that would not let me be finally lost, presuming that I must wait as it were for a second call to repentance, justification, &c., which I had been taught to believe might take place instantaneously, and put the devil to flight in a hurry, and so matters would be all right again. And I have known many who, having these ideas, have continued to live very profligate lives to the end of the chapter.

I often privately took the bible to bed with me, and in the long summer mornings read for hours together in bed, but this did not in the least influence my conduct. As you know great events often arise from little causes, I am now going to relate a circumstance, trivial in itself, though productive of a more considerable change in my situation than any I had yet experienced.

66

I was twenty-one years of age the 11th of September 1767; the election was over the latter end of March 1768. It was in this year that my new master's wife insisted on my purchasing milk of a milk-maid who was a customer at the shop; which command I refused to comply with, as I had a smart little milk-maid of my own. But as my mistress wore the breeches," my master was obliged, by his wife's order, to inform me that I must comply with her mandate, or get another master. I left him without hesitation, and the same afternoon went to Wellington, took leave of my father and mother, and informed them of my intention to go to Bristol. After two or three days I returned to Taunton, where I stayed a day or two more. In which time I became enamoured with, or infatuated by, the beautiful Nancy Trott; and although I saw the impropriety of the measure, yet I could not resist the fair tempter, who prevailed with me to permit her to accompany me in my journey.

"Reason was given to curb our headstrong will,
And yet but shows a weak physician's skill;

Gives nothing while the raging fit does last,
But stays to cure it when the worst is past.
Reason's a staff for age, when nature's gone;
But youth is strong enough to walk alone."

DRYDEN'S Con. of Gran.

We rested a week in Bridgewater, where I worked hard and got money to convey us to Exbridge, seventeen miles on this side Bristol; and there I saw my conduct in such a point of view as made me to resolve to leave her.

"In well-feign'd accents, now they hail my ear,
My life, my love, my charmer, or my dear.

As if these sounds, these joyless sounds could prove
The smallest particle of genuine love.

O! purchas'd love, retailed through half the town,
Where each may share on paying half-a-crown;
Where every air of tenderness is art,

And not one word the language of the heart;
Where all is mockery of Cupid's reign,
Ends in remorse, in wetchedness and pain."

ART OF LIVING IN LONDON.

My finances amounted to three shillings and one penny, out of which I gave her half a crown; and with the remaining seven-pence, without informing her of my purpose, I set off for Bristol, where I arrived in a few hours, and got work the same evening.

A few days after, I went to the inn where the Taunton carrier put up, to enquire after Miss Trott, as I wanted to know if she had returned safe to Taunton. I was informed that she was in Bristol nearly as soon as I was. Knowing but little of the world, and still less of women of her description, I was quite unhappy on her account, for fear that being in a strange place she might be in want and distress; which thought induced me to offer to several of my countrymen five shillings to the first who should bring me an account where I might find her; but I did not see her until several weeks after that.

"Some foe to his upright intent
Finds out his weaker part;
Virtue engages his assent,
But pleasure wins the heart.
'Tis here the folly of the wise,
Through all his arts we view,
And while his tongue the charge denies,
His conscience owns it true.'

COWPER.

The Taunton carrier gave me a letter from my good mistress Bowden (who by marrying again had changed her name to Dingle.) The contents of this letter very much surprised me. It informed me that a day or two before I fell out with my last mistress (which was the trifling cause of my leaving Taunton) Betty Tucker, a common lass, had sworn a child to me; that the parish officers had been to my master's shop within an hour after I had left it to go to Wellington, and that they had been at Wellington just as I had left that place; and afterwards hearing that I was in Bridgewater, they had pursued me thither. But the morning on which they arrived, I had set off for Exbridge; and believing that I had intentionally fled before them, they had given over this chase for the present.

Reflecting on this affair, although my conduct was very far from entitling me to entertain such a supposition, yet I was then weak enough to imagine that, being a particular favourite of heaven, a kind of miracle had been wrought to save me from a prison, or from marrying a woman I could not bear the idea of living with a single week; and as I had not any knowledge of her being with child (not having seen her for three months before) I had not taken any measure to avoid the consequence, but put myself in the way of the officers: for, as I have just told you, after I had taken leave of my father and mother, I went back to Taunton, and walked about publicly one whole day, and part of another.