10.17.2017 THE LOST TOOLS OF LEARNING (found in 'A Matter of Eternity by Dorothy L. Sayers, 1973 )

114   ... is not the great defect of our education today - a defect traceable through all the disquieting symptoms of trouble that I have mentioned - that although we often succeed in teaching our pupils subjects', we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think?  they learn everything, except the art of learning. it is as though we had taught a child, mechanically and by rule of thumb, to play The Harmonious Blacksmith  upon the piano, but had never taught him the scale or how to read music;  so that, having memorised The Har Black, he still had not the faintest notion how to proceed from that to tackle The last Rose of Summer. why do i say, 'As though? in certain of the arts and crafts we sometimes do precisely this - requiring a child to 'express himself'  in paint before wee teach him how to handle the colors and the brush. there is a school of thought which believes this to be the right way to set about the job. but observe - it is not teach himself a new medium. he, having learned by experience the best way to economise labour and take the thing by the right end, will start off by doodling about on an odd piece of material, in order to 'give himself the feel of the tool'.

let us now look at the mediaeval scheme of education  - the syllabus of the Schools. it does not matter, for the moment, whether it was devised for small children or for older students; or how long people were supposed to take over it. what mattes is the light it throws upon what the men of the Middle Ages supposed to be the object and thee right order of the educative process.

the syllabus was divided into 2 parts: the Trivium and Quadrivium.  the second part - the Quad- consisted of 'subjects',  and need not for the moment concern us. the interesting thing for us is the composition of the Trivium, which preceded the Quad and

115  was the preliminary discipline for it. it consisted of 3 parts: Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric, in that order.
now the first thing we notice is that 2 at any rate of these 'subjects' are not what we should call 'subjects' at all:  they are only methods of dealing with subjects. grammar, indeed, is a 'subject' in the sense that it does mean definitely learning a language - at that period it meant definitely learning a language - at that period it meant learning latin. but language itself is simply the medium in which thought is expressed. the whole of the Trivium was, in fact, intended to teach the pupil the proper use of the tools of learning, before he began to apply them to 'subjects' at all. First, he learned a language;  not just how to order a meal in a foreign language, but the structure of language - A language and hence of language itself - what it was, how it was put together and how it worked. Secondly, he learned how to use language:  how to define his terms and make accurate statements; how to construct an argument and how to detect fallacies in argument (his own arguments and other people's).  Dialectic, that is to say, embraced Logic and Disputation.  thirdly, he learned to express himself in language;  how to say what he had to say elegantly and persuasively. at this point, any tendency to express himself windily or to use his eloquence so as to make the worse appear the better reason would, no doubt, be restrained by his previous teaching in Dialectic. if not, his teacher and his fellow-pupils. trained along the same lines, would be quick to point out where he was wrong; for it was they whom he had to seek to persuade. at the end of his course, he was required to compose a thesis upon some theme set by his masters or chosen by himself and afterwards to defend his thesis against thee criticism of the faculty. by this time he would have learned  - or woe betide him - not merely to write an essay on paper, but to speak audibly and intelligibly from a platform and to use his wits quickly  when heckled. the
116  heckling, moreover, would not consist solely of offensive personalities o of irrelevant queries about what Julius Caesar said in 55 BC - though no doubt mediaeval dialectic was enlivened in practice by plenty of such primitive repartee. but there would also be questions,  cogent and shrewd, from those who had already run the gauntlet of debate or were makeing ready to run it.

it is, of course, quite true that bits and pieces of the mediaeval tradition still linger or have been revived, in the ordinary school syllabus of today. some knowledge of grammar is still required when learning a foreign language - perhaps I should say, 'is again required'  for during my own lifetime we passed through  a phase when the teaching of declension and conjugations was considered rather reprehensible and it was considered better to pick these things up as we went along. school debating  societies flourish; essays are written; the necessity for 'self-expression' is stressed and perhaps even over-stressed. but these activities are cultivated more o less in detachment, as belonging to the special subjects in which they are pigeon-holed rather than as forming one coherent scheme of mental training to which all 'subjects' stand in a subordinate relation. 'Grammar' belongs especially to the 'subject' of foreign languages, and essay-writing to the 'subject' of foreign languages, and essay-writing to the 'subject' called 'English' while Dialectic has become almost entirely divorced from the rest of the curriculum and is frequently practised unsystematically and out of school-hours as a separate exercise, only very loosely related to the main business of learning. taken by and large, the great difference of emphasis between the 2 conceptions holds good:  modern education concentrates on teaching subjects. leaving the method of thinking, arguing and expressing one's conclusion s to be picked up by the scholar as he goes along; mediaeval education concentrated on fire Forging and Learning to handle the tools of learning,
117  using whatever subject came handy as a piece of material on which to doodle until the use of the tool became second nature.
'Subjects of some kind there must be, of course. one cannot learn the use of a tool by merely waving it in thee air;  neither can one learn the theory of grammar without learning an actual language or learn to argue and orate without speaking about something in particular. the debating subjects of the Middle Ages were drawn largely from theology or from the Ethics and History of antiquity. often indeed , they became stereotyped, especially towards the end of the period and the far-fetched and wire-drawn absurdities of scholastic argument fretted Milton and provide food for merriment even to this day. whether they were in themselves any more hackneyed and trivial than the usual subjects set nowadays for 'essay-writing' I should not lie to say; we may ourselves grow a little weary of 'A Day in my Holidays',  'What I should lie to Do when i Leave school' and all the rest of it. but most of the merriment is misplaced, because the aim and object of the debating thesis has by now been lost sight of.  a glib speaker in the Brains Trust once entertained his audience (and educed the late Charles Williams to helpless rage) by asserting that in the Middle agrees it was a matter of faith to know how many archangels could dance on the point of a needle. i need not say, I hope, that it never was a 'matter of faith' .  it was simply a debating exercise, whose set subject was the nature of angelic substance: were angels material and if so, did they occupy space? thee answer usually adjudged correct is, I believe, that angels are pure intelligences; not material, but limited, so that they may have location in space but not extension. an analogy might be drawn from human thought, which is similarly non-material and similarly limited. thus, if your thought is concentrated upon one thing - say,  the point of a needle - it is located thee in the sense that it is not elsewhere; but although it is 'there', it occupies no space there, and there is nothing to prevent an infinite number  of different people's thoughts being concentrated upon the same  needlepoint at the same time. the proper Subject of the argument is thus seen to to be the distinction between location and extension in space; the Matter on which the argument is exercised  happens to be thee nature of angels (although, as we have seen, it might equally well have something else); the practical lesson to be drawn from the argument is not to use words like 'there'  in a lose and scientific way, without specifying whether you mean 'located there' or 'occupying space there'.  scorn in plenty has been poured out upon the mediaeval passion for hair-splitting: but when we look at the shameless abuse made, in print and on the platform, of controversial expressions with  sifting and ambiguous connotations, we may feel it in our hearts to which that every reader and hearer had been so defensively armoured by his education as to be able to cry: DISTINGUO
for we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armour  was never so necessary. by teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word.by the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from thee incessant battery of words, words, words. (note - now IMAGES, IMAGES, IMAGES!) they do not know what the words mean;  they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them  in their intellects. we who were scandalised in 1940 when men were sent to fight armoured takes with rifles, are not scandalized when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed propaganda with a smattering of 'subjects';  and when whole classes and whole

119  nations become hypnotised by the arts of the spell-binder, we have the impudence to be astonished. we dole out lip-service to the importance of education - lip-service and, just occasionally, a little grant of money;  we postpone the school leaving - age and plan to build big and better schools; the teachers slave conscientiously in and out of school-house, till responsibility becomes a burden and a nightmare; and yet, as i believe, all this devoted effort is largely frustrated, because we have lost the tools of learning and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal  job of it.

what, then, are we to do?  we cannot go back to the Middle ages. that is a cry to which we have become accustomed. we cannot go back - or can we? DISTINGUO.  I should like every term in that proposition defined. does 'go back' mean a retrogression in time or the revision of an error? the first is clearly impossible per se; (by, of for or in itself) the second is a thing which wise men do every day. 'Cannot' - does this mean that our behaviour is determined by some irreversible cosmic mechanism, or merely that such an action would be very difficult in view of the opposition it would provoke?  'the Middle ages' - obviously the 20the century is not and cannot be the 14th; but if 'Middle Ages' is, in this context, simply a picturesque phrase denoting a particular educational theory, there seems to e no a priori reason why we should not 'go back' to it - with modifications  - as we have already  'gone back'

let us amuse ourselves by imagining that such progressive retrogression is possible. let us make a clean sweep of all educational authorities and furnish ourselves with a nice little school of boys and girls. whom
120  we may experimentally equip for the intellectual conflict along lines chosen by ourselves. we will endow them with exceptionally docile parents; we will staff our school with teachers who are themselves perfectly familiar with the aims and methods of the Trivium;  we will have our buildings and staff large enough to allow our classes to be small enough for adequate handling; and we will postulate a Board of Examiners willing and qualified to test the products we turn out. thus prepared, we will attempt to sketch out a syllabus - a modern Trivium 'with modifications' and we will see where we get to.
but first: what age shall the children be? well, if one is to educate them on novel lines, it will be better that they should have nothing to unlearn; besides, ONE CANNOT BEGIN A GOOD THING TOO EARLY ,  and the Trivium is by its nature not learning, but a preparation for learning. we will, therefore, 'catch 'em young', REQUIRING ONLY  of our pupils that they shall be ABLE TO READ WRITE AND CIPHER. (def - explain the text's meaning)  
my views about child-psychology are, I admit, neither orthodox nor enlightened. looking back upon myself (since I am the child I know best and the only child I can pretend to know from inside)  I recognise in myself 3 stages of development. these, in a rough-and- ready fashion, I will call the Poll-parrot, the Pert and the Poetic - the latter coinciding, approximately, with the onset of puberty. the Poll-parrot stage  is the one in which learning by heart is easy and, on the whole, pleasurable; whereas reasoning is difficult and , on the whole, little relished.  at this age, one readily memorises the shapes and appearances of things; one likes to recite the number plates of cars;  one rejoices in the chanting of rhymes and the rumble and thunder of unintelligible poly syllables; one enjoys the mere accumulation of things. the Pert age, which follows upon this ( and,

121  naturally, overlaps it to some extent)  is only too familiar to all who have to do with children:  it is characterised by contradicting, answering -back,  liking to 'catch people out' (especially one's elders)  and in the propounding of conundrums (especially one's elders)  and in the propounding of conundrums (especially the kind with a nasty verbal catch in them). its nuisance-value is extremely high. it usually sets in about the Lower Fourth. the Poetic age is popularly known as the 'difficult' age. it is self centered
it yearns to express itself;
it rather specialises in being misunderstood;
it is restless and tries to achieve independence and, with good luck and good guidance,
it should show the beginnings of creativeness, a reaching-out towards a synthesis of what it already knows and
a deliberate eagerness to know and do some one thing in preference to all others.
now it seems to me that the lay-out of the Trivium adapts itself with a singular appropriateness to these 3 ages:
Grammar to the Poll-parrot,
Dialetctic to the Pert and
Rhetoric to the Poetic Age.


let us begin, then with Grammar. this, in practice, means the grammar

of some language in particular and it must be an inflected language. the grammatical structure of an uninflected language is far too analytical to be tackled by any one without previous practice in Dialectic. moreover, the inflected languages interpret the uninflected, whereas the uninflected are of little use in interpreting the inflected. I will say at once, quite firmly,  that the best grounding for education is the Latin grammar . I say this , not because Latin is traditional and mediaeval, but simply because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labour and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least 50 per cent.it is the key to the vocabulary and structure of all the Romance languages and to the structure of all the Teutonic languages, as well as to the technical vocabulary of all the science was and to the literature of the

122  entire Mediterranean civilisation, together with all its historical documents. those whose pedantic preference for a living language persuades them to deprive their pupils of all these advantages might substitute Russian,  whose grammar is still more primitive.  (the verb is complicated by a number of 'aspects' - and I rather fancy that it enjoys 3 complete voices and a couple of extra aorists - but I may be thinking of basque or sanskrit.) Russian is, of course, helpful with the other Slav dialects. thee is something also to be said for Classical Greek. but my own choice is Latin. having thus pleased the Classicists among you, I will proceed to horrify them by adding that I do not think it either wise or necessary to cramp the ordinary pupil upon the Procrustean bed of the Augustan age, with its highly elaborate and artificial verse-forms and oratory. the post-classical and mediaeval Latin, which was a living language down to the end of the Renaissance, is easier and in some ways livelier, both in syntax and rhythm; and a study of it helps to dispel the widespread notion that learning and literature came to a full-stop when Christ was born and only woke up again at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
However, i am running ahead too fast. we are still in the grammatical stage. Latin should be begun as early as possible - at a time when inflected speech seems no more astonishing than any other phenomenon in an astonishing world; and when the chanting of 'amo, amas, amat' is as ritually agreeable to the feelings as the chanting of 'eeny, meeny, miney, mo'.

during this age we must, of course, exercise the mind on other things besides Latin grammar. observation and memory are the faculties most lively at this period; and if we are to learn a contemporary foreign language we should begin now, before the facial and mental muscles become rebellious to strange intonations. spoken French

123  or German can be practised alongside the grammatical discipline of the Latin.

in English, verse and prose can be learned by heart, and the pupil's memory should be stored with stories of every kind - classical myth, European legend, and so forth. I do not think that the Classical stories and masterpieces of ancient literature should be made the vile bodies on which to practise the technics of Grammar - that was a fault of mediaeval education which we need not perpetrate.  the stories can be enjoyed and remembered in English and related to their origin at a subsequent stage. recitation aloud should be practised - individually or in chorus;  for we must not forget that we are laying the ground work for Disputation and Rhetoric. 

the grammar of History should consist, I think, of dates, events, anecdotes and personalities. a set of dates to which one can peg all later historical knowledge is of enormous help later on in establishing the perspective of history. it does not greatly matter Which dates: those of the Kings of England will do very nicely, provided that they are accompanied by pictures of costume, architecture and other 'everyday things',  so that the mere mention of a date calls up a strong visual presentment of the whole period.
GEOGRAPHY will similarly be presented in its factual aspect, with maps, natural features and visual presentment of customs, costumes, flora, fauna and so on,  and I believe myself that the discredited and old-fashioned memorizing of a few capital cities, rivers, mountain ranges, etc.  does no harm.  stamp collecting may be encouraged. 
SCIENCE,  in the Poll-parrot period, arranges itself naturally and easily round collections - the identifying and naming of specimens and, in general, the kind of thing that used to be called 'natural history', or, still
124  more charmingly,  'natural philosophy'.  to know the names and properties of things is, at this age, a satisfaction in itself;  to recognise a devil's coach-horse at sight and assure one's foolish elders that, in spite of its appearance, it does not sting;  to be able to pick out Cassiopeia and the Pleiades and possibly even to know who Cassiopeia and the Pleiades were; to be aware that a whale is not a fish and a bat not a bird - all these things give a pleasant sensation  of superiority; while to know a ring-snake from an adder or a poisonous fro an edible toadstool  is a kind of knowledge that has also a practical value.
the grammar of MATHEMATICS begins, of course, with the multiplication table, which, if not learnt now, will never be learnt with pleasure and with the recognition  of geometrical shapes and the groupings of numbers.  these exercises lead naturally to the doing of simple sums in arithmetic and if the pupil shows a bent that way,  a facility acquired at this stage is all to the good. more complicated mathematical processes may and perhaps should be postponed, for reasons which well presently appear.
so far (except, of course, for the Latin)  our curriculum contains nothing that departs very far from common practice. the difference will be felt rather in the attitude of the teachers, who must look upon all these activities less as 'subjects' in themselves than as a gathering-together of Material for use in the next part of the Trivium. what that material actually is, is only of secondary importance;  but it is as well that anything and everything which can usefully be committed to memory should be memorised at this period, whether it is immediately intelligible or not. the modern tendency is to try and force rational explanations on a child's mind at too early an age, intelligent questions spontaneously asked, should of course, receive an immediate

125  and rational answer; but it is a great mistake to suppose that a child cannot readily enjoy and remember things that are beyond its power to analyse - particularly if those things have a strong imaginative appeal (as, for example Kubla Shan),  an attractive jingle (like some of the memory rhymes for Latin genders)  or an abundance of rich, resounding polysyllables (like the Quicunque Vult).
the reminds me of the Grammar of THEOLOGY. I shall add it to the curriculum, because Theology is the mistress-science,  (def - woman who has control, authority or power) ,without which the whole educational structure will necessarily lack its final synthesis. those who disagree about this will remain content to leave their pupils' education still full of loose ends. this will matter rather less than it might, since by the time that the tools of learning have been forged the student will be able to tackle Theology for himself and will probably insist upon doing so and making sense of it. still, it is as well to have this matter also handy and ready for the reason to work upon. at the grammatical age, therefore, we should become acquainted with the story of God and Man in outline - ie. the Old and New Testament presented as parts of a single narrative of Creation, Rebellion and Redemption - and  also with  'the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments. at this stage, it does not matter nearly so much that these things should  be fully understood as that they should be known and remembered. remember, it is material that we are collecting.

it is difficult to say at what age precisely, we should pass from the first to the second part of the Trivium. generally speaking, the answer is: so soon as the pupil shows himself disposed to Pertness and interminable argument (or, as a schoolmaster correspondent of mine more elegantly puts it:  'when the capacity for abstract thought (def - thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects or actual instances) begins to manifest itself') for as, in the first

126  part, the master-faculties are Observation and Memory, so in the second, the master-faculty is the Discursive Reason. in the first, the exercise to which the rest of the material was, as it were, keyed, was the Latin Grammar; in the second the key-exercise will be Formal Logic. it is here that our curriculum shows its first sharp divergence from modern standards. the disrepute into which FORMAL LOGIC (def - the branch of logic concerned exclusively with the principles of deductive reasoning (def - a logical process in which a conclusion drawn from a set of premises contains no more information than the premises taken collectively.
-all dogs are animals;
this is a dog;
therefore this is an animal.
* deduce - derive as a conclusion from something known or assumed; infer)

has fallen is the belief that it is entirely based upon universal assumptions that are either unprovable or tautological. this is not true. not all universal propositions are of this kind. but even if they were, it would make no difference, since every syllogism whose major premise is in the form 'All A is B' can be recast in hypothetical form Logic is the art of arguing correctly:  'If A, then B';  the method is not invalidated by the hypothetical character of a indeed, the practical utility of Formal Logic today lies not so much in the establishment of positive conclusions as in the prompt detection and exposure of invalid inference.
let us now quickly review our material and see how it is to be related to Dialectic. on the Language side, we shall now have our Vocabulary and Morphology (def - the patterns of word formation in a particular language, including inflection, derivation and composition) at our finger tips; henceforward we can concentrate more particularly
127  on Syntax and Analysis ( ie. the logical construction of speech) and the history of Language (ie.  how we came to arrange our speech as we do in order to convey our thoughts.)

our Reading will proceed from narrative and lyric to essays, argument and criticism and the pupil will learn to try his own hand at writing this kind of thing. many lessons  - on whatever subject - will take the form of debates;  and the place of individual or choral recitation will be taken by dramatic performances, with special attention to plays in which an argument is stated in dramatic form.

MATHEMATICS - Algebra, Geometry and the more advanced kind of Arithmetic - will now enter into the syllabus and take its place as what it really is:  not a separate 'subject' but a sub-department of Logic. it is neither more nor less than the rule of the syllogism in its particular application to number and measurement and should be taught as such, instead of being, for some, a dark mystery and for others,  a special revelation, neither illuminating nor illuminated by any other part of knowledge.

HISTORY aided by a simple system of ethics derived from the Grammar of Theology, will provide much suitable material for discussion:  was the behaviour of this stateman justified? what was the effect of such an enactment? what are the arguments for and against this  or that form of government?
we shall thus get an introduction to Constitutional History - a subject meaningless to the young child, but of absorbing interest to those who are prepared to argue and debate.

THEOLOGY itself will furnish material for argument about conduct and morals; and should have its scope extended by a simplified course of dogmatic theology (ie. the rational structure of Christian thought), clarifying the relations between the dogma and the ethics and lending itself to

128  that application of ethical principles in particular instances which is properly called casuistry (def - specious (apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible), deceptive or oversubtle reasoning, especially in questions of morality; fallacious or dishonest application of general principles; sophistry.) Geography and the Sciences will all likewise provide material for Dialectic.
but above all, we must not neglect the material which i so abundant in the pupils' own daily life. there is a delightful passage in Leslie Paul's The Living Hedge which tells how a number of small boys enjoyed themselves for days arguing about an extraordinary shower of rain which had fallen in their town - a shower so localised that it left one half of the main street wet and the other dry. could one, they argued, properly say that it had rained that day On or Over the town or only In the town? 
How many drops of water were required to constitute rain? and so on.  argument about this led on to a host of similar problems about rest and motion, sleep and waking, est and non est, and the infinitestimal division of time. the whole passage is an admirable example  of the spontaneous development of the ratiocinative (def - to carry on the process of reasoning) faculty and the natural and proper thirst of the awakening reason for definition of terms and exactness of statement. all events are food for such an appetite. an umpire's decision; the degree to which one may transgress the spirit of a regulation without being trapped by the letter; on such questions as these,  children are born cauists and their natural propensity only needs to be developed and trained and, especially, brought into an intelligible relationship with events in the grown up world. the newspapers are full of good material for such exercises: legal decisions, on the one hand,  in cases where the cause at issue is not too abstruse; on the other,  fallacious reasoning and muddle-headed argument, with which the correspondence columns of certain papers one could name are abundantly stocked.

wherever the matter for Dialectic is found, it is, of course, highly important that attention should be focused
129  upon the beauty and economy of a fine demonstration or a well-turned argument, lest veneration should wholly die. criticism must not be merely destructive; though at the same time both teacher and pupils must be ready to detect fallacy, slipshod reasoning, ambiguity, irrelevance and redundancy and to pounce upon them like rats.
this is the moment when precis writing may be usefully undertaken; together with such exercises as the writing of an essay, and the  reduction of it, when written, by 25 or 50%.

it will, doubtless, be objected that to encourage young persons at the Pert age to browbeat, correct and argue with their elders will render them perfectly intolerable.  my answer is that children of that age are intolerable anyhow;  and that their natural argumentativeness may just as well be canalised (def - to make a canal through; divert into certain channels; give a certain direction to; provide a certain outlet for)  to good purpose as allowed to run away into the sands. it may, indeed, be rather less obtrusive at home it it is disciplined in school; and anyhow, elders who have abandoned the wholesome principle that children should be seen and not heard have no one to blame but themselves.  the teachers, to be sure, will have to mind their step, or they may get more than they bargained for. all children sit in judgment on their masters; and if the Chaplain's sermon or the Headmistress's annual Speech-day address should by any chance afford an opening for the point of th critical wedge, that wedge will go home the more forcibly under the weight of the Dialectical hammer, wielded by a practised hand. that is why I said that the teachers themselves would need to undergo the discipline of the Trivium before they set out to impose it on their charges.

once again: the contents of the syllabus at this stage may be anything you like.  the 'subjects' supply material; but they are all to be regarded as mere grist for the mental mill to work upon. the pupils should be encouraged
130  to go and forage for their own information and so guided towards the proper use of libraries and books of reference and shown how to tell which sources are authoritative and which are not.

towards the close of this stage, the pupils will probably be beginning to discover for themselves that their knowledge and experience are insufficient and that their trained intelligences nee a great deal more material to chew upon. the imagination - usually dormant during the pert age - will re-awaken and prompt them to suspect the limitations of logic and reason. this means that they are passing into the Poetic age and are ready to embark on the study of Rhetoric. the doors of the storehouse of knowledge should now be thrown open for them to browse about as they will. the things once learned by rote will be seen in new contexts;  the things once coldly analysed can now be brought together to form a new synthesis; here and there a sudden insight will bring about that most exciting of all discoveries:  the realisation that a truism is true.
it is difficult to map out any general syllabus for the study of Rhetoric: a certain freedom is demanded. in literature, appreciation should be again allowed to take the lead over destructive criticism and self expression in writing can go forward, with its tools now sharpened to cut clean and observe proportion. any child that already shows a disposition to specialise should  be given his head: for,  when the use of the tools has been well and truly learned it is available for any study whatever. it would e well, i think, that each pupil should learn one  or two subjects really well, while taking a few classes in subsidiary subjects so as the keep his mind open to the inter-relations of all knowledge. indeed, at this stage, our difficulty will be to keep his mind open to the inter-relations of all knowledge. indeed, at this stage, our difficulty will be to keep 'subjects'  apart; for as Dialectic will have shown all branches of learning to  e inter-related, so Rhetoric will tend to

131  show that all knowledge is one. to show this, and show why it is so, is pre-eminently the task of the Mistress-science.  but whether Theology is studied or not, we should at least insist that children who seem inclined to specialise on the mathematical and scientific side should be obliged to attend some lessons in the Himanities and Vice Versa. at this stage also, the latin  Grammar, having done its work, may be dropped for those who prefer to carry on their language studies on the modern side; while those who are likely never to have any great use or aptitude for mathematics might also be allowed to rest, more or less, upon their oars. generally speaking: whatsoever is Mere apparatus may now be allowed to fall into the background, while the rained mind is gradually prepared for specialisation in the 'subjects' which, when the Trivium is completed, it should be perfectly well equipped to tackle on its own.  the final synthesis of the Trivium - the presentation and public defence of the theses - should be restored in some form; perhaps as a kind of 'leaving examination' during the last term at school.
the scope of Rhetoric depends also on whether the pupil is to be turned out into the world at the age of 16 or whether he is to proceed to public school and/or university. since, really, Rhetoric should be taken at about 14, the first category of pupil should study Grammar from about 9 to 11, and Dialectic from 12 to 14; his last 2 school years would then  be devoted to Rhetoric, which, in his case, would be of the second category would finish the Dialectical course in his Preparatory School and take Rhetoric during his first 2  years at his public School. at 16, he would be ready to start upon those 'subjects' which are proposed for his later study at the university: and this part of his education will

132  correspond to the mediaeval Quadrivium. what this amounts to is that the ordinary pupil, whose formal education ends at 16, will take the Trivium only; whereas scholars will take both Trivium and Quadrivium.
is the Trivium, then a sufficient education for life?  properly taught,  I believe that it should be. at the end of the Dialectic, the children will probably seem to be far behind their coaevals (def - equally old; the same age) brought up on old-fashioned 'modern' methods, so far as detailed knowledge of specific subjects is concerned. but after the age of 14 they should be able to overhaul the others had over fist. indeed, I am not at all sure that pupil thoroughly proficient in the Trivium would not be fit to proceed immediately to the university at the age of 16, thus proving himself the equal of his mediaeval counterpart, whose precosity (def - unusually advanced or mature in development; 'baked early') astonished us at the beginning of this discussion. this, to be sure, would make hay of the public school system and disconcert the universities very much - it would, for example , make quite a different thing of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat-race. but I am concerned only with the proper training of the mind to encounter and deal with the formidable mass of undigested problems presented to it by the  modern world. for the tools of learning are the same, in any and every subject ; and the person who knows how to use them will, at any age, get the mastery of a new subject in half the time and with  a quarter of effort expended by the person who has not the tools at his command. to learn 6 subjects without remembering how they were learnt does nothing to ease the approach to a seventh; to have learnt and remembered the art of learning makes the approach to every subject an open door.
it is clear that they successful teaching of this neo-mediaeval curriculum will depend even more than usual
133  upon the working together of the whole teaching staff towards a common purpose. since no subject is considered as an end in itself, any kind of rivalry in the staff-room will be sadly out of place. the fact that a pupil is, unfortunately, obliged, for some reason, to miss the History period on fridays or the Shakespeare class on Tuesdays or even to omit a whole subject in favour of some other subject, must not be allowed to cause any heart-burnings - the essential is that he should acquire the method of learning in whatever medium suits his best. if human nature  suffers under this blow to one's professional pride in one's own subject, there is comfort in the thought that the end-of-term examination results will not be affected; for the papers will be so arranged as to be an examination in method, by whatever means.
I will add that it is highly important that every teacher should, for his or her own sake, be qualified and required to teach  in all 3 parts of the Trivium; otherwise the Masters of Dialectic, especially, might find their minds hardening into a permanent adolescence. for this reason, teachers in Preparatory Schools should also take Rhetoric classes in the Public Schools to which they are attached; or, if they are not so attached, then by arrangement in other schools in the same neighbourhood.  alternatively, a few preliminary classes in Rhetoric might be taken in Preparatory Schools from the age of 13 onwards.

before concluding these necessarily very sketchy suggestions, I ought to say why I  think it necessary, in these days, to go back to a discipline which we had discarded. the truth is that for the last 300 years or so we have been living upon our educational capital.  the post-Renaissance world, bewildered and excited by the profusion of new 'subjects' offered to it. broke away from the old discipline (which had, indeed, become sadly dull and
134  stereotyped in its practical application)  and imagined that henceforward it could, as it were, disport (def - divert or amuse oneself) itself happily in its new and extended Quadrivium without passing through the Trivium. but the scholastic tradition, though broken and maimed, still lingered in the public schools and universities: Milton, however much he protested against it, was formed by it - the debate of the Fallen Angels,  and the disputation of Abdiel with Satan have the tool-marks of the Schools upon them and might, incidentally, profitably figure as set passages for our Dialectical studies. right down to the 19th century,  our public affairs were most managed and our books and journals were for the most part written, by people brought up in homes and trained in places, where that tradition was still alive in the memory and almost in the blood. just so, many people today who are atheist or agnostic in religion, are governed in their conduct by a code of Christian ethics which is so rooted in their unconscious assumptions that it never occurs to them to question it. but ONE CANNOT LIVE ON CAPITAL FOREVER. a tradition, however firmly rooted, if it is never watered, though it dies hard, yet in the end it dies. and today a great number -perhaps the majority - of the men and women who handle our affairs, write our books and our newspapers, carry out research, present our plays and our films, speak from our platforms and pulpits - yes and who educate our young people. have never, even in a lingering traditional memory, undergone the scholastic discipline. less and less do the children who come to be educated bring any of that tradition with them. we have lost the tools of learning - the axe and the wedge, the hammer and the saw, the chisel and the plane - tat were so adaptable to all tasks. instead of them, we have merely a set of complicated jigs, each of which will do but one task and no more , and in using which eye and hand receive no training, so that no man ever sees the
135  work as a whole or 'looks to the end of the work'. what use is it to pile task on task and prolong the days of labour, if at the close the chief abject is left unattained?  it is not the fault of the teachers - they work only too hard already. the combined folly of a civilisation that has forgotten its own roots is forcing them to shore up the tottering weight of an educational structure that is built upon sand. they are doing for their pupils the work which the pupils themselves ought to do. for the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.

10.15.2017 CYRUS THE PERSIAN (1941) by Sherman A. Nagel

(note - this entry focuses on Daniel, Darius and Cyrus during the years following the reign of Nebuchadnezzar using passages from the Bible along with, it would seem, secular historical accounts of the Middle East which focus on the Israelite population in exile, along with contemporary Babylonians, Medes and Persians. my focus will be on the author's use of aphorisms (terse sayings embodying general truths and astute observations)...the authors use of contemporary sources and, probably a bit of his own 'piecing things together' makes for a very blessed addition which fills out  the few Biblical words we have concerning this part of history.
notes - Astyages, king of the Medes, ruling under authority of the King of Babylon, wanting wanting to have his own son rule after him, uses covert means to put Cyrus, the rightful heir, being the son of his daughter, Princess Mandane, to death....he thinks. but God overrules and Cyrus ends up, first,  becoming the King of the Medes and the Persians and then defeating Nebucadnezzar's wicked grandson, Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon. God's goodness and sovereignty over the affairs of men Shines Through! and gives great confidence expectation of GOOD even in Face of the seeming Boiling Inferno of our current raging and lawless, wicked nations...starting with our own America and, by her turn away from the Creator of all men, the Leader of, seemingly, all the nations into the Pit of Destruction. 

I may be a little off on the above sequence and details...my real focus here is to record Only the godly aphorisms that flow from the pen of dear, godly Mr. Nagel...to focus on mankind's only hope...the Lord Jesus Christ who  came, was rejected, suffered and died and ROSE AGAIN TO REIGN ALL FROM HIS FATHER'S RIGHT HAND... to set us free in spite of the self-enslavement of mankind at this time and to bring us into His Everlasting Kingdom, Amen.

27  '..love is a very rare quality. so many emotions are mistaken for love. of all the counterfeits, lust has always been love's strongest opponent. nothing is so wonderful, so conducive to happiness, so health-producing, as the heart union of 2 lives, whee true love reigns and lust has no power.'

32  the celebration of the birth of Cyrus in Ecbatana (ie. Hamadan..in western Iran) came to the ears of the Jews in Babylon. traveling tradesmen carried thee news hither. to the world in general his birth was no more than the birth of any other prince, but the captive Hebrews saw in him their promised deliverer. great rejoicing filled the hears of all the loyal ones at this revelation of the working of providence. special service were held; grateful prayers offered. a new hope dispelled gloom.

within the city of Bab herself, they were also to see the marvelous outworking of that power which punishes, sooner o later, all transgression,  but grants mercy to the humble and penitent.

King Nebuchadnezzar had grown increasingly proud of his achievements. having been given 2 very marked instances of Jehovah's wisdom and power, he must be called to account for this refusal to walk in the light given. not even age frees one from thee temptation to make a fool of oneself. up until now Neb would see and approve of the better couse, but follow the worse. he had to be given one more lesson before his heart inclined fully toward the true God.

if there is one thing heaven hates in man it is pride. not self-respect, but that quality of pride which causes a man to  think more highly of himself than he ought...

33  ...would that today some of earth's proud, ambitious rulers might heed the lesson the king of Babylon was taught.  (ie. mind taken away..eating grass like an animal.)..

36  and at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me. and I blessed the Most High and I praised and honored Him, that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and His kingdom is from generation to generation...
and all the inhabitants of earth are reputed as nothing and He doeth accoring to His will in the Army of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth: and

10.12.2017 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS (THE COURT YEARS 1939-1975) VOL. 2 (1980)

337   ..337 in my time it seemed as if the costs of public office were running so high that an officeholder had  to be very rich  or very poor to hold it. if he was rich, his predilections would usually run with his investments. if he was poor, he might be sorely tempted to become an adventurer. that is why I felt the salaries for public officials should be high, not miserly, but every effort to get a pay raise stirred up momentous opposition.
there probably has always been some corruption in Washington, DC. when  I was there, the lobbies were well financed and active. big Business promised large sums to political parties and pretty much had their way - whether the Republicans or Democrats were in power. by the 1970s the industrial interests had 3.200 advisory committees in Washington and they were the watchdogs over the federal agencies. they waxed particularly strong under Richard Nixon, who upped the secret levy on corporate givers, who in turn exacted their prices.
one of the most powerful of these behind-the-scenes corporate advisory committees sa with the Bureau of the Budget, it would, for example, slash funds that would serve he conservation cause by cleaning up the rivers because of the increase in the costs of the industrial polluters. the control of that committee was so great that for years we had no monitoring of industrial poisons entering our waterways.
338   another device was the infiltration of industrial personnel into agency positions, one of the most notorious being the staffing of the pesticide Division of the Department of Agriculture with chemical company employees.
other, more subtle practices prevailed. Pentagon officials on retirement became officers of companies doing doing a big procurement business with the United States. how can a government official be vigilant to protect the public interest against these contractors if he knows that as a reward for friendly behavior he may one day become vice president of such a company and draw a huge salary in addition to his federal retirement pay?  Forrest Service employees on retirement frequently become officers of lumber companies. how can an agency employee adequately represent 'We, the People'  if his reward on retirement is to go with a company over which he is supposed to be a watchdog?

I debated this subject on television with General Omar Bradley after WW II. in the discussion I submitted that an officer who took such a post should give up his retirement pay. Brad held the opposite view. Bread, an honest person, saw absolutely nothing wrong with the practice. at the time he himself was retired and was a high officer in a company making large sales to the pentagon. I thought it was as wrong for him to do that as it would be for a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission to resign to become president of the New York Stock Exchange or for a commissioner on the Interstate Commerce Commission to leave his job to head a railroad or a member of the Federal Aviation Agency or the Civil Aeronautics Board to depart government service to head an airline. GOVERNMENT  SERVICE, TO HAVE INTEGRITY, CAN NEVER BE THE STEPPING STONE TO PROFESSIONAL ADVANCEMENT.  it is an end in and of itself.

General Bradley was hurt to the quick by my jibes....the system that regards men for serving 2 masters is inherently wrong.
in 1346 in England a law was passed that required judges to take an oath that they would not take a 'gift nor reward by themselves, nor by other privily nor apertly (def - openly, publicly), of any Man that hath to do before them by any Way, except Meat and Drink and that of small Value'.  Canon 5 (C) (4) of the American Bar Association's Code of Professional Ethics reflects the same philosophy.

in the days of Queen Elizabeth, public officials were paid nominal

339  salaries and were expected to make up the difference on their own. the end result was that officials levied taxes, so to speak, on those wealthy enough to have favors to ask. consequently,  the custom evolved of having in Parliament only members of the upper classes. endowed with riches. but a legislator with interests in commercial enterprises and financial institutions often has conflicting interests, for a bill regulating his empire might be good for the people but a setback to him and his investments.
the Nixon-Agnew regime reflected both crude and subtle corruption. the Agnew activities were those of a common crook  - receiving kickbacks from contractors and not reporting the revenues as income. the Nixon activities, among others, ran to cutting income tax corners to profit a President. beyond that was the use of the Office of the President not 'to execute the laws faithfully',  as required by the Constitution, but to badger, beat and destroy anyone who asserted a First Amendment right to disagree with the Administration or register a protest against its policies or acts. this was the first time in history that both President and Vice President polluted and desecrated their high positions of trust and public confidence.
Roger Cramption, a law clerk for Justice Burton in 1956 and 1957,  was bright, conscientious, principled lawyer with a conservative cast of mind. he headed the Administrative Conferences for a few years and did a commendable job. he worked hard for the election of Nixon and especially for this re-election  in 1972.  he was rewarded by a position as Assistant Attorney  General in the Department of Justice. after serving a few weeks, he was relieved of his job and in due course became Dean of the law school at Cornell. I asked him why he had been let go. he said that he was told that he was not sufficiently 'malleable' to suit the Administration..  principled men are not 'malleable' when it comes to questions of the proprieties of morality and of honesty. Nixon could not fulfill his manifest destiny if those around him were not 'malleable'  enough to carry through his clandestine and unethical projects. the example of hones Roger Crampton is, in miniscule, the entire story of Nixon's life.
I first knew Nix in the 30s when he was a law student at Duke University. I had gone there on invitation to give a lecture to the law school. I talked about predatory practices in finance, with special emphasis upon the disclosures that emerged after the many autopsies of companies and syndicates following the 1929 crash, some years later

340 Nix told me that I had been an inspiration to him, that my lecture had affected his life. I did not ask in what way, for the uneasy thought crossed y mind that predatory practices had inspired him.

at the beginning of world War II Nix was an obscure lawyer in a vast pool of attorneys who worked for the Office of Price Administration. the person in charge was David Ginsburg, who has no recollection of the young lawyer shortly to start his climb up the political ladder. in 1946 the Republican candidate for Congress from the 12th District of California died and the committee called Nix to see if he was interested - and he was. his opponent in the race was Congressman Jerry Voorhis, a staunch liberal.
the Bill of Rights and the Jeffersonian tradition were a part of his very being. he had served on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and, as a member, had protested some of its most extreme and shocking tactics. in Congress from 19376,  he had promoted Social Security, unemployment insurance, legislation protective of labor, First Amendment rights of witnesses called before investigative committees, and the right of those people to have and enjoy due process of law as respects the mode of the investigation, the right of counsel and the like.

RMN took his political formula from Murray Chotiner, a Los Angeles lawyer. the Murray Chotiner method was,
first, to discredit one's opponent in every possible way;
 second, to associate one's opponent with a subversive or treasonous program;
third, always to attack , never defend and
fourth, if your opponent tries to defend  himself against untrue charges, whimper and accuse him of using unfair political tactics when he calls you a liar.

356  prior to my time, impeachment proceedings as respects members of the Court had been started only against Chase - and these failed. 2 attempts against me also failed. I do not attribute predestination to this line of Justices. but i do suggest that if my record is to be broken, the successor will have to be prepared to turn back 3 times the assaults on him. I would remind him that the cause is great - the independence of the judiciary that in many ways sets us apart.

368  ...I told the Conference what my principles were:
1. I would not speak to an industry group for expenses or for a fee, because they would be apt to have cases coming to the Court.
2. University groups or lecture forums  were different - they were not litigants; the propriety or what a Justice did was dependent on what he said.
369  3. some members of eh Court - notably Warren, Stewart and Marshall - went overseas at the State Department's expense. I thought that was improper, as it implicated a Justice in the Executive's overseas policies. I traveled at my own expense.

the Court was divided and decided to defer action. I had prepared a dissent that read as follows:

'I have long favored full disclosure by all elected or appointed federal officials of the amount of their income and the source of it. I have never owned any stocks or bonds or other securities - apart from federal government bonds - since I have been on the Court. I indeed disposed of the small amount of government bonds I owned, as the Government is the largest litigator in the federal courts. the full disclosure requirements of the Judicial Conference therefore meet with my approval.

I strongly oppose the permit system by which one group of judges determines whether it is in the 'public interest' for a judge to write a book or article or give a lecture or make a speech.

that system of surveillance is plainly unconstitutional for the reasons stated by Mr. Justice Black dissenting in Chandler V. Judicial Council, 382 US 1003, 1004.

I have no plan or project which would collide with the new permit system. but I protest with all my being the principle of surveillance, control and censorship now saddled on judges. apart from constitutional procedures for disciplining them, judges can no more be controlled respecting their thoughts and ideas than can preachers, editors, or authors. what judges do with their private lives is their own business.
while the Court did not adopt Warren's recommendation, the Judicial Conference  (representing the circuit and district judges)  did adopt it in substance. each circuit and district judge was to disclose his income twice a year. from stocks and bonds? No. from trust funds? No. from real estate or other market transactions? No. the only disclosure required was of income from lectures or income from book royalties. (note - Douglas had written many books.)

370  Hugo Black (another Justice), true to principle, refused to file I felt philosophically the same way, but i was under attack and the whole Nix power was out to remove me.  So I compromised -I did file; but with each filing I protested the discrimination being shown against some judges and the favor being shown the rich judges who fattened on dividends from stocks, on interest from bonds, on capital gains and on real estate investments.
when in June 1975, I received the John Muir Award from the Sierra Club I raise the question of whether acceptance of that award should disqualify me from sitting as a judge in any future Sierra Club case. I said,
I have resolved that it should not, so long as I have had nothing whatsoever to do with any of these cases. at times in the past Mrs. Douglas and I have hiked or in other ways protested certain government projects. in such cases the protester should not sit as judge because he has at least a partial commitment on the merits. the question of conflict of interest is not always easy to resolve. the disclosure rules covering federal judge's income from stock investments, in trading in securities, or in interest in banks. he must, however, disclose all income for books, articles, reviews and the like. what rational difference can be made between the two is difficult to state. income, whether in royalties or in dividends from a particular company would be relevant only if the judge contemplated sitting in the case.
if we turn the clock back 100 years and find the future of a federal judge in the slave trade, disclosure of that fact would have had an acute bearing on his fitness to sit in slave cases. I know a judge whose family owned practically the entire equity in a railroad, yet he sat in cases involving that railroad and so far as is apparent he did a fair and impartial joy. but the present disclosure rules do not require disclosure  of the nature of the interest in business or industrial enterprises - only the amount of income from them regardless of their number or size.
if the target is the prejudices of the judge, what he writes or puts into speeches is relevant, but producing a Zane Grey movie would hardly be revealing in that respect. if prejudice

371  of the judge were the target, then the category of his investments would be the most revealing. I was once a director of the Sierra Club. I received no salary and I ceased being a member because the meetings were usually in San Francisco and I could not attend many meetings.

being a director made me realize that my views as to policy in environmental matters do not always jibe with those of others, but my views are patterned after models. John Muir was a powerful influence in my early years, so were Gifford Pinchot, Clarence Darrow, Hiram Johnson, and William Borah. but I would not dream of stepping out of a case merely because Borah's name or Darrow's name was on the brief. a lawyer who is friendly with someone on the bench carries a heavy burden of proving he is right on the merits. for a friend on the bench bends over backwards to take that factor out of his decision.
the appearance of fairness is to me as important as fairness itself. for example, television and radio programs often pay small fees to those who appear on them. my practice has been not to accept them, no matter how small. the Court sits in judgment on FCC orders that are very important to the industry and it is important that no one with the power of final decisions have a financial interest with the applicant.
the New Testament was a powerful influence in my life;  so was Thorstein Veglen, such prejudices are the reason why confirmation by the Senate is important in the federal system. they are often components in the forces leading to a particular decision. yet it would have been a gross erosion of judicial independence to have undertaken to drive Hugo  Blackout of a case involving First Amendment rights merely because he felt passionately that the First Amendment was the heart of our constitutional system.

10.9.2017 - John Wesley Journal Volume 2 (12.2.1745-11.17.1746) 1-37complete

*1  - 12.2 the alarms still increased in London, on account of the nearer approach of the rebels. but how easy are all these things to them who can commit both soul and body to a merciful and faithful Creator!
about this time I received some farther accounts from the army; the substance of which was as follows:
Rev. Sir,                                                                                                               Oct 10, 1745

'I shall acquaint you with the Lord's dealings with us, since April last. we marched from Ghent to Allost on the 14th, where I met with 2 or 3 of our brethren in the fields and we sung and prayed together and were comforted. on the 15th I met a small company about 3 miles from the town and the Lord filled our hearts with love and peace. on the 17th we marched to the camp near Brussels. on the 18th I met a small congregation on the side of a hill and spoke from those words, 'Let us go forth, therefore, to him without the amp, bearing his reproach'. on the 28th I spoke from those words of Isaiah, 'Thus saith the Lord concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. on the 29th we marched close to the enemy and when I saw them in their camp, my bowels moved toward them in love and pity for their souls. we lay on our arms all night. in the morning, April 30, the cannon began to play, at half an hour after 4; and THE LORD TOOK AWAY ALL FEAR FROM ME,  SO THAT I WENT INTO THE FIELD WITH JOY. . the balls flew on either hand and men fell in abundance;  but nothing touched me till about 2 o'clock.  then i received a ball through my left arm and  and rejoiced so much the more. soon after I received another into my right, which obliged me to quit the field. but i scarce knew whether I was on earth or in heaven. It was one of the sweetest days I ever enjoyed. Wm. C

                                                                                                Leare, near Antwerp, Oct. 21, 1745

'since I wrote to you last I have gone through great trials. it was  not the least that I have lost my dear brother Clements for a season, being shot through both the arms. to try me farther, J. Evans, and Bishop we were both killed in the battle, as was C. Greenwood, soon after, 2 more who did  SPEAK BOLDLY IN THE NAME OF JESUS, are fallen into the world again. so I am left alone;  but I know it is for my good. seeing iniquity so much abound and the love of many wax cold, adds wings to my devotion and my faith grows daily as a plant by the waterside.

4.30  the Lord was pleased to try our little flock, and to show them His mighty power. some days before, one of them, standing at his tent door, broke out into raptures of joy, knowing his departure was at hand and was so filled with the love of god, that he danced before his comrades. in the battle, before he died, he openly declared, 'I am going to rest from my labours in the bosom of Jesus. I believer nothing like this was ever heart of before, in the midst of so wicked an army as our. some were crying out in their  wounds,  'I am going to my Beloved', others, 'Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!'  and many that were not wounded, crying to their Lord, to take them to Himself. there was such boldness in the battle among this little despised flock, that it made the Officers, as well as common soldiers, amazed, and they acknowledge it to this day.  as to my own part, I stood the fire of the enemy for above 7 hours. then my horse was shot under me, and I was exposed both to the enemy and our own horse.  but that did not discourage me at all, for I knew the god of Jacob was with me. I had a long way to go, the balls flying on every side and thousands lay bleeding, groaning, dying, and dead on each hand. surely I was as in the fiery furnace, but it never singed one hair  of my head. the hotter it grew the more strength was given me. I was full of joy and love, as much as I could well bear. going on, i met one of our brethren, with a little dish in his hand, seeking for water. He smiled and said he had bot a sore wound in his leg. I asked, 'Have you gotten Christ in your heart? he answered, 'I have and I have had Him all the day. Blessed by god that I ever saw your face.  - Lord, what ma I, that I should be counted worthy to set my hand to the gospel plough? LORD, HUMBLE ME AND LAY ME IN THE DUST! J.H.

*3  12.8  I took my leave of poor J.C., just embarking for Germany. I admire the justice of God! he who  would never long be advised by any who treated him as a reasonable creature, is at length fallen among those who will make him as passive a tool as ever moved upon wire.
12.18  being the day of the national Fast, we met at 4 in the morning I preached on Joel 2.12 etc...

we had within a short time given away some thousands of little tracts among the common people. and it pleased god hereby to provoke others to jealousy.  insomuch that the Lord mayor had ordered a large quantity of papers, dissuading  from cursing and swearing, to be printed and distributed to the Train bands. and this day, 'An Earnest Exhortation to Serious Repentance' was given at every church door, in or near London, to every person who came out and one left at the house of every householder who was absent  from church...
 it was on this very day that the Duke's army was so remarkably preserved in the midst of the ambuscades at Clifton Moor. the rebels fired many volleys upon the King's troops, from the hedges and walls, behind which they lay. and yet, from first to last, only 10 or12 men fell, the shot flying over their heads. 
12.25  I talked with a young man, who seemed to be under strong convictions, but, I fear, only seemed. I am surprised that, in so many years, this is the first hypocrite of the kind I have met with..the first who appeared to have deliberately put on the mask of religion, purely to serve a secular end.
12.27  having received a long letter from Mr. Hall, earnestly pressing my brother and me to renounce the Church of England, (or not complying with which advice he ...renounced us) I wrote to him as follows:

*4  Dear Brother,
'Now you act the part of a friend. it has been long our desire, that you would speak freely. and we will do the same. what we know not yet, may God reveal to us!
you think, First, that we undertake to defend some things which are not defensible by the word of God. you ... in 3; on each of which we will explain ourselves as clearly as we can.

1. that the validity of our ministry depends on a succession supposed to be from the Apostles and a commission derived from the Pope of Rome and his successors or dependents.
We believe it would not be right for us to administer either Baptism or the Lord's Supper, unless we had a commission so to do from those Bishops whom we apprehend to be in a succession from the apostles. and yet we allow these Bishops are the successors of those who were dependent on the Bishop of Rome.
but we would be glad to know, on what reasons you believer this to be inconsistent with the word of God?
2. that there is an outward priesthood and consequently an outward sacrifice, ordained and offered by the Bishop of Rome and his successors or dependents, in the Church of England, as Vicars and Vicegerents (def - an officer appointed as a deputy BY and TO a sovereign or supreme chief.) of Christ.
we believer there is and always was, in every christian church (whether dependent on the Bishop of Rome or not) an outward priesthood, ordained by Jesus Christ and an outward,  sacrifice offered therein, by men authorized to act as ambassadors of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

on what grounds do you believe that Christ has abolished that priesthood or sacrifice?

3. that this Papal hierarchy and prelacy, which still continues in the Church of England, is of Apostolical institution and authorized thereby, though not by the written word.

we believe that the threefold order of Ministers, (which you seem to man by Papal hierarchy and prelacy (def - office of a high church official ie. a bishop, archbishop..) is not only authorized by its Apostolical institution, but also by the written word.
yet we are willing to hear and weigh whatever reasons induce you to believe to the contrary.

*5  you think, Secondly, that we ourselves give up some things as indefensible, which are defended by the same law and authority that establishes the things above mentioned  such as are many of the laws, customs and practices of the Ecclesiastical Courts.
we allow, I. that those laws, customs and practices are really indefensible.

2. that there are Acts of Parliament in defence of them and also of the threefold order.

but will you show us how it follows, either,
1. that those things and these stand or fall together?  or
2. that we cannot sincerely plead for the one, though we give up the other?
 do you not here quite overlook one circumstance, which might be a key to our whole behaviour?  namely, that we no more look upon these filthy abuses which adhere to  our Church as part of the building, than we look upon any filth which may adhere to the walls of Westminster Abbey as a part of that structure.
you think, Thirdly, that there are other things which we defend and practise, in open contradiction to the orders of the Church of England. and this you fudge to be a just exception against the sincerity of our professions to adhere to it. 
compare what we profess with what we practise and you will possibly be of another judgment.


we profess,
1. that we will obey all the laws of that Church, (such we allow the Rubrics (def - a direction for the conduct of divine service  or the administration of the sacraments, inserted in liturgical books) to be, but not the customs of the Ecclesiastical Courts) so far as we can with a safe conscience.

2. that we will obey, with the same restriction, the Bishops, as executors of those laws. but their bare will, distinct from those laws, we do not profess to obey at all.

now point out, what is there in our practice which is an open contradiction to these professions?

is field-preaching?  not at all. it is contrary to no law of which we profess to obey.
the allowing Lay Preachers? we are not clear that this is contrary to any such law. but if it is, this is one of the exempt cases; one wherein we cannot obey with a safe conscience. therefore, be it right or wrong on other accounts, it is, however, no just exception against our sincerity.

*6  the rules and directions given to our societies? which, you say, is a discipline utterly forbidden by the Bishops.
when and where did any Bishop forbid this? and if any did, by what law? we know not either the man who ever Did forbid or the law by which he Could forbid it.

the allowing persons (for we require none) to communicate at the chapel, in contradiction (you think) to all those rubrics which require all to attend always on their own parish-church and Pastor and to receive only at his table?
which Rubrics are those? we cannot find them. and till these are produced, all that is so frequently said of parochial unity etc., is merely gratis dictum consequently neither is this any just exception against the sincerity of any of our professions.
Dec. 30, 1745                                                                                                                         J.W.

1.1.1746  I preached at 4 in the morning, on, 'I am the Almighty
God: walk before me and be thou perfect. we dined with poor John Webb, now thoroughly poisoned by Robert Barclay's 'apology', which he was sure would do him no hurt, till all his love to his brethren was swallowed up in dotage about questions and strife of words.

1.8  I waited on Mr. B, Rector of ---, who had sent to me, as soon as he had read the 'Farther Appeal.  he said, 'Sir, all this is sad truth, but what can we do to help it?  I went afterwards to another Clergyman, who had likewise sent and desired to speak with me. how is this? I thought the publication of this tract would have enraged the world above measure.  And, on the contrary, it seems nothing ever was published which softened them so much!

1.13  I had a visit from Mr. S.,  an honest, zealous Anabaptist Teacher. finding he Would dispute, I let him dispute and held him to the point till between 11 and 12 o'clock. by that time he was willing to take breath. perhaps he may be less fond of dispute for the time to come.

1.20  I set out for Bristol. on the road I read over Lord King's Account of the Primitive Church. in spite of the vehement prejudice of my education, I was ready to believe that this was a fair and impartial drought;  but if so, it would follow that Bishops and Presbyters are (essentially)

*7  of one order; and that originally every christian congregation was a Church independent on all others!...
 ..1.18  we pushed on through thick and thin and with much difficulty got to Stanley. thence, after an hour's stop, we hastened on. the brooks were so swollen with the late rains, that the common roads were impassable;  but our guide, knowing the country, carried us round about through the fields, so that we escaped the dangerous waters and soon after sunset came (wet and dirty enough) to Evesham. 
1.19  we rode to Birmingham, where many of our brethren from several parts met us in the evening.

1.20 we set out as soon as it was light. before we came to Aldridge-Heath, the rain changed into snow, which the northerly wind drove full in our faces and crusted us over from head to foot in less than an hour's time. we inquired of one who lived at the entrance of the moors, which was our best way to Stafford.  'Sir, said he, ' tis a 1000 pound to a penny, that you do not come there today. why, 'tis 4 long miles to the far side of this common and in a clear day, I am not sure to go right across it, and now all the roads are covered with snow and it snows so, that all the roads are covered with snow and it snows so, that you cannot see before you'.  however, we went on and I believe did not go 10 years out of the way till we came into Stafford...
...1.22  to Leeds. I preached at 5. as we went home a great mob followed,

*8  and threw whatever came to hand. I was struck several times, once or twice in the face, but not hurt at all. I walked on to the Recorder's and told him the case. he promised to prevent the like for the time to come.
1.23  I preached at 8 without any interruption; in Birstal at one and again at 5

1.24  I preached at Skircoat-Green, near Halifax, to a whole company of Quakers. the good man of the house, about 80 years old, had formerly been a speaker among them. but from fear of man, he desisted and so quenched the Spirit, that he was in darkness for near 40 years; till hearing John Nelson declare the love of god in Christ, light again sprung up in his soul.

1.28  I took my leave of Katy Parks, calmly  waiting till her change should come. a day or 2 after she had her desire, sweetly giving up her soul to God.
of the same spirit was the writer of the following letter:
Dear Sir,                                                                                                                Feb. 22, 1745

'you may remember to have seen me at Oxford once. since then, by walking somewhat different from the ways of the world, I have incurred the displeasure of the world and I have gone through many trials. my friends and nearest relations have done their utmost to separate me from God and His children, but, blessed be our dear lord, all their attempts have hitherto been in vain. of late they have seemed resolved on other measures; namely, to separate me from themselves; but, notwithstanding all their threats, I hope, by the power of god, to remain unshaken to the end. I would willingly suffer the loss of all things, rather than deny the Lord that bought me. and I am persuaded, that neither life nor death shall ever separate me from His love.
the sum of all my desires and hopes in this world, for many years, has been this: to be regularly sent forth as an ambassador of Christ. I long to spend and be spent for the best of masters, but I doubt my relations have disappointed me of this,  for Oxford knows my place no more.

my uncle sees that nobody can do his business better,

*9  or perhaps so well as myself; but he can't bear a Methodist in his house. he wants to have me of his own taste, but as I have been washed, I cannot, I dare not, I will not, by the grace of God, turn to my former wallowing in the mire.
Dear Sir, you see my case. there is nothing I so much long for, as to be employed in the Lord's vineyard, though utterly unworthy. I should be glad to be advised and directed by you, what to do. I will do whatsoever you judge most proper toward the promoting our Saviour's interest. I am happy in His love and
Your most obedient servant,                                                                               John Bosworth

but there was no need for his taking thought for the morrow, for in a few weeks God took him to Himself.
3.1  I visited the sick, who increased daily in every quarter of the town. it is supposed that 2000 soldiers only, have died since their encampment. the fever or flux sweeping them away by troops, in spite of all the Physicians could do.
3.8  in the Square at Placey...a vehement storm began in the middle of the sermon, which was driven full upon us by the northeast wind, but the congregation regarded it not.

3.9  was a day of solemn joy, yet, in the afternoon, I felt a great damp, occasioned by my neglecting to speak plainly to some who were deceiving their own souls. I do not wonder at the last words of St. Augustine and Archbishop  Usher, 'LORD, FORGIVE ME MY SINS OF OMISSION.

...3.12  ...in the afternoon, being at Mrs. Fenwick's and seeing a child there of 10 or 12 years old, I asked,  'Does your daughter know Christ or know she has need of Him? she replied, with much concern,  'I fear not: nothing has ever affected her at all. immediately that word came into my mind  'Before they call, I will answer'.  I was going to say,  'Come let us call upon God to show her she had need of a Saviour';  but, before the words were pronounced, the child turned away her face and began crying as if she would break her hear. I could get no word from her but, 'My sins, my sins! we then besought God to carry on His own work.  

*10 ..3.17  ..when Mr Shepherd and I left Smeton, my horse was so exceeding lame that I was afraid I must have lain by too. we could not discern what it was that was amiss and yet he would scarce set his foot to the ground.  by riding thus 7 miles, I was thoroughly tired and my head ached more than it had done for some months.  (what I here aver is the naked fact: let every man account for it  as he sees good.) I then thought, 'Cannot God heal either man or beast, by any means or without any?  immediately my weariness and head-ache ceased and my horse's lameness in the same instant. nor did he halt any more either that day or the next. a very odd accident this also!

..on 3.20..at Sheffield. I was glad of having an opportunity here of talking with a child I had heard of  she was convinced of sin some weeks before by the words of her elder brother, (about 8 years of age) dying as an hundred years old, in the full triumph of faith. I asked her abruptly, 'Do you love God? she said, 'Yes, I do love Him with all my heart.  I said,  'Why do you love Him?  she answered, 'Because He has saved me.'  I asked, 'How has He saved you?  she replied 'He has taken away my sins.  I said , 'How do you know that? she answered,  'He told me Himself on Saturday, Thy Sins Are Forgiven Thee;  and I believe Him and I pray to Him without a book. I was afraid to die, but now I am not afraid to die, for if I die, I shall go to Him'.
3.21  I came to Nottingham.  I had long doubted what it was which hindered the work of God here. but upon inquiry the case was plain. so many of the society were either triflers or disorderly walkers, that the blessing of God could not rest upon them; so I mad short work, cutting off all such as a stroke and leaving only that little handful who (as far as could be judged) were really in earnest to save their souls...

*11  ...in the evening I preached at Birmingham. here another of their pillars, J---W...d,  came to me and, looking over his shoulder, said, 'Don't think I want to be in your society,  but if you are free to speak to me, you may.  I will set down the conversation, dreadful as it was, in the very manner  wherein it passed;  that every serious person may see the true picture of Antinomianism full grown and may know what these men mean by their favourite phrase, of being 'perfect in Christ, not in themselves.
'Do you believe you have nothing to do with the Law of God?
"I have not: I am not under the Law: I live by faith.
have you, as living by faith, a right to every thing in the world. I have: all is mine, since Christ is mine.
May you, then, take any thing you will any where?
suppose, out of a shop, without the consent or knowledge of the owner?
I may, if I want it: for it is Mine. only I will not give offence.
Have you the right to all the women in the world?
Yes if they consent.
and is not that a sin?
Yes, to him that thinks it is a sin,  but not to those Whose Hearts Are Free.
...the same thing that wretch, Roger Ball, affirmed in Dublin. surely these are the first-born children of Satan!...

*13  (part of a letter from John Nelson, whom I had left at Birmingham)...'..upon this he led me to the Alderman's. when we were brought in, he said,  'Sir, I have brought you another Methodist Preacher. He asked my name and then said,
'I wonder you cannot stay at home;  you see the mob won't suffer you to preach in this town.
I said, 'I did not know this town was governed by the mod; most towns are governed by the Magistrates.
He said 'what, do you expect us to take your parts, when you take the people from their work?
I said,  'Sir, you are wrong informed;  we preach at 5 in the morning and 7 at night., and these are the hours when most people are in their beds in the morning and at night, either at play or at the alehouse.
then he said, I believer you are the cause of all the evil that is fallen upon the nation.
I said, 'What reason have you to believe so?
can you prove that one Methodist in England did assist the reels, with either men, money or arms?
He answered, 'No, but it has been observed, that there has been always such a people, before any great evil fell on the land.
I said, 'It hath been as you say,  but that people was not the cause of the evil, no more than we are at this time. but these mobbers and swearers and drunkards and whoremongers and extortioners and lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God;  these are the cause why God afflicteth both man and beast, not we. we are sent to persuade them to break off their sins by repentance, that the heavy judgments of God may not consume such a people and if there be not a general reformation, God will be avenged of such a nation as this.
then he said ,  'Do not preach here.
But God opened my mouth and I did not cease to set life and death before him.
the Constable began to be uneasy and said, 'What must we do with him?
well, he said, I understand he is for leaving the town tomorrow;  I think you must take him to your house.  but he desired to be excused.
they the Justice said, 'you may go where you came from.
when i had gone a little way through the mob, he came to the door and called, 'Mr. Nelson, stop a little.
then he ordered the Constable to conduct me to the house he fetched me from and take care that the mob did not hurt me. this seemed to be a great mortification to him, but he was obliged to do it. so he brought me to our brethren again and left us to give thanks to God for all His mercies.

*14  5.12  I dined with a gentleman who is fully persuaded, that there is no such thing as either virtue or happiness upon earth:  'having found, he said , by repeated experiments that, notwithstanding a 1000 fair appearances, every man living was, at the bottom, wholly selfish and truly miserable. I should not wonder, if every rational Deist were of the same mind. may, they must, if consistent with themselves.for it is sure, all men are both miserable and selfish, whatever show they may make,  who have not faith; even that 'evidence of things not seen',  the very being whereof they question.

5.19  I saw an amazing instance of distress. a sensible young woman, (no Methodist) constantly attending her church, had all her life long believed herself to be a right good Christian. and in this persuasion she continued during a violent fever, till the Physician told her brother, she must die; on which she cried out, 'so my brother and you are going to heaven and I am going to hell. her brother said, from that hour she was in the agony of despair, saying she was in hell already, she felt the flames; the devil had her soul and body and was now tearing her in pieces. if she swallowed anything, she cried out she was swallowing fire and brimstone and for 12 days she took nothing at all; for above 20, nothing but water. she had no sleep, day or night; but lay cursing and blaspheming, tearing her clothes and whatever she could reach, in pieces. the sins which lay heaviest upon her were, the having no knowledge or love of God;  the not believing in Christ and yet having persuaded herself and others, that she was a good christian. she was quieter from the time we prayed with her first and left off cursing and blaspheming. in a few days after she began to drink a little tea, though still remaining in settled despair; but afterwards God turned her heaviness into joy.

*15  5.30  I light upon a poor, pretty, fluttering thing, lately come from Ireland and going to be a singer at the playhouse. she went in the evening to the chapel and thence to the watch-night and was almost persuaded to be a Christian. her convictions continued strong tor a few days; but then her old acquaintance found her and we saw her no more.

...6.7 in the afternoon, an old friend (now with the Moravians) laboured much to convince me, that I could not continue in the Church of England, because i could not implicitly submit to her determinations;  'for this, he said, was essentially necessary to the continuing in any Church'.  not to the continuing in any, but that of the Brethren; if it were, i could be a member of no church under heaven. for i must still insist on the right of private judgment.  i dare call no man Rabbi. I cannot yield either implicit faith or obedience to any man or number of men under heaven.

6.13  I was desired to visit a poor sinner, who had just made his fortune on board a privateer and was preparing to enjoy it, when he was summoned of God, to arise and go hence. I found God had shown him terrible things and had afterwards cut the work short in his soul.  for he already knew in whom he had believed and a few days after slept in peace.

*16  6.28 I inquired more particularly of Mrs. Nowens concerning her little son. she said, he appeared to  have a continual fear of God and an awful sense of His presence;  that he frequently went to prayers by himself and prayed for his father and many others by name; that he had an exceeding great tenderness of conscience, being sensible of the least sin and crying and refusing to be comforted, when he thought he had in any thing displeased God; that a few days since, he broke out into prayer aloud and then said, 'mamma, I shall go to heaven soon and be with the little angels. and you will go there too and my papa; but you will not go so soon' that the day before, he went to a little girl in the house and said, 'Polly, you and I must go to prayers. don't mind your doll: kneel down now: I must go to prayers, God bids me. when the Holy Ghost teaches, is there any delay in learning?  this child was then just 3.! a year or 2 after he died in peace.
7.2  Rev. and Dear Sir,                                                                Northampton, July 29, 1746

'I am truly glad that the long letter I last sent you was agreeable to you. I bless God that my prejudices against the writers of the Establishment were so early removed and conquered. and I greatly rejoice when  I see in those whom, upon other accounts, I must highly esteem as the excellent of the earth, that their prejudices against their brethren of any denomination are likewise subsided and that we are coming nearer to the harmony in which i hope we shall ever be one in Christ Jesus.

I have always esteemed it to be the truest act of friendship to use our mutual endeavours to render the character of each other as blameless and as valuable as possible. and I have never felt a more affectionate sense of my obligations, than when those worthy persons who have honoured me with their affection and correspondence, have freely told me what they thought amiss in my temper and conduct. this therefore, dear Sir, is an office which you might reasonably expect from me, if I had for some time enjoyed an intimate knowledge of you.

*17   it has always been a maxim with me, not to believe any flying story, to the prejudice of those whom I had apparent reason,  from what I knew of them, to esteem. and consequently, as I should never make this a foundation, you must be contented to wait longer, before you will be likely to receive that office of fraternal love which you ask from,
Rev. and dear Sir,
Your obliged and affectionate brother and servant, P. Doddridge

Your caution has suggested a thought to me, whether it be modest to call ourselves humble.  if the expression means, a real readiness to serve in love, in any thing low, as washing the feet of another, I  hope I can say, 'I  am your humble servant', but if it means one who is in all respects as humble as he could wish, God forbid I should arrogate so proud a title. in what can I say, i have already attained? only I love my divine Master and I would not have a thought in my heart that he should disapprove. I feel a sweetness in being assuredly in His gracious hand, which all the world  cannot possibly afford and which, I really think, would make me happier in a dark dungeon, that 10,000 worlds could make me without it. and therefore I love every creature on earth that bears his image. and I do not except those who, through ignorance, rashness or prejudice, have greatly injured me.'

7.6 after talking largely with both the men and women Leaders, we agreed it would prevent great expense, as well of health as of time and of money, if the poorer people of our society could be persuaded to leave off drinking of tea. we resolved ourselves to begin and set the example. I expected some difficulty in breaking off a custom of 26 years' standing. and, accordingly, the three first days, my head ached, more or less, all day long and i was half asleep from morning to night. the third day, on Wed, in the afternoon, my memory failed, almost entirely. in the evening I sought my remedy in prayer. on Thurs. morning my head-ache was gone. my memory was as strong as ever. and I have found no inconvenience, but a sensible benefit in several respects, from that day to this.

7.17  I finished the little collection which I had made among my friends for a lending-stock.  it did not amount to 30 pounds,  which a few persons afterwards made up 50.

*18  and by this inconsiderable sum, above 250 persons were relieved in one year.

7.21 ..about this time i received a melancholy letter from abroad;  part of which I have subjoined:

                                                                                      Meerkerk, in Holland, July 29, 1746
'I have for some years endeavoured to keep a conscience void of offence,toward God and toward man. and for above 2 years I  have known that God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven me all my sins. I lived in the full assurance of faith, which made me all my sins. I lived in the full assurance of faith, which made me rejoice in all states. wet or weary, cold or hungry, I could rejoice. and faith and love did increase so fast, that it was my soul's delight to do good to them that hated me, to bless them that cursed me and to call all those that were in a perishing condition, to accept of life and salvation. but, O! 'how are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished!' April 6, 1746, I was overcome by a great temptation. it came as quick as lightning. I know not if I was well in my senses, but i fell. I rose the same moment and called upon my offended God and so I have done ever since. but, notwithstanding, His Spirit has departed from me. I have wounded my conscience exceedingly. I am fallen into the spirit of bondage and fear and i often cry out,
Who shall tell me, if the strife
in heaven or hell shall end?

8.4  I received a letter from Yorkshire, part of which was in these words:

'on Wed. July 16 i called on good old Mr. Clayton. he was exceeding weak and seemed like one that had not long to continue here. I called again on Mon, 21 and found him very ill. he told me no one else should have been admitted; that he had much to say to me to tell You and desired me to send his kind respects to you and wished you prosperity in your pious undertakings. finding he was no able to talk much, I took my leave, not thinking

*19  it would be the last time. but when I returned into these parts on Sat last, I found he died that morning between 2 and 3.  on Mon. last I went to his burial and I was unexpectedly made mourner for my good old friend.  I followed his corpse to the ground, where I saw it solemnly interred. many of his parishioners dropped tears, he having been a father to the poor. he died very poor, though he had an estate of 40 pounds a year and a living of near 300,  of which he had been Rector 43 years.

8.6  I preached at Oak-Hill. how is this? I have not known so many persons earnestly mourning after god, of any society of this size in England and so unblamable in their behaviour and yet not one person has found a sense of the pardoning love of God, from the first preaching here to this day!

when I mentioned this to the society, there was such a mourning, as one would believe should pierce the clouds. my voice was quickly drowned. we continued crying to God with many loud and bitter cries, till I was constrained to break away between 4 and 5 and take horse for Shepton.

here the good Curate ( I was informed) had hired a silly (def - weak minded or lacking good sense; stupid or foolish; : see 'seely' insignificant or feeble; poor)  man, with a few other drunken champions, to make a disturbance.  almost as soon as I began,k they began screaming out a psalm,  but our singing quickly swallowed up theirs. soon after, their orator named a text, and (as they termed it)preached a sermon.  his attendants mean time being busy (not in hearing him, but) in trowing stones and dirt at our brethren.  those of them, I mean, who were obliged to stand at the door. when I had done preaching, I would have gone out to them, it being my rule confirmed by long experience, always to look a mob in the face.  but our people took me up, whether I would or no and carried me into the house. the rabble melted away in a quarter of an hour and we walked home in peace.

8.7 that venerable old man, Mr. Tindal, called upon me once more. how strange is it, to find one of foujrscore and ten, as humble and teachable as a little child!

*20  8.13  I preached at Lanzufied. as soon as we came out of the church, a poor woman met us, whom Satan had bound in an uncommon manner for several years. she followed us to the house where our horses were, weeping and rejoicing and praising God. 2 Clergymen were there besides me and the house was full of people. but she could not refrain from declaring before them all, what God had done for her soul. and the words which came from the heart went to the heart. I scarce ever heard such a Preacher before. all were in tears round about her, high and low, for there was no resisting the spirit by which she spoke.
the odd account she gave of herself was this:  (concerning which let every one judge as he pleases) that near 7 years since she affronted one of her neighbours, who thereupon went to Francis Morgan ( a man famous in those parts) and gave him 14 shillings to do his worst to her that the next night,as soon as she was in bed, there was a sudden storm of thunder, lightning and rain, in the midst of which she felt all her flesh shudder and knew the devil was close to her, that at the same time a horse whe had in the stable below which used to be as quiet as a lamb leaped to and fro and tore in such a manner, that she was forced to rise and turn him out;  that a tree which grew at the end of the house, was torn up by the roots;  that from thenceforth she had no rest day or night, being not only in fear and horror of mind, but in the utmost torment of body, feeling as if her flesh was tearing off with burning pincers;  that till this day, she had never had any respite or ease, but now she knew God had delivered her and she believed He would still deliver her body and soul and bruise Satan under her feet.

*21  8.15  I preached at 5 to a large company of willing hearers. we breakfasted with a lovely old woman, worn  out with sickness and pain, but full of faith and love and breathing nothing but prayer and thanksgiving.
about 10 we came to Kington, 3 hours' ride (which they call 8 miles) from Leominster. I preached at one end of the town. the congregation divided itself into 2 parts. one half stood near, the other part remained a little way off and loured (def - 'lower', sullen; become dark, gloomy and threatening) defiance,  but the bridle from above was in their mouth;  so they made no disturbance at all.

at 4 we had another kind of congregation at Maesmennys; many who had drank largely of the grace of God. I examined them, 'Do ye now believe? and the word was as a 2 edged sword. after taking a sweet leave of this loving people,  we rode with honest John Price, of Mertha, to his house. we had 4 hours' rain in the morning, but a fair mild afternoon; in the close of which we came to Cardiff...

8.18  I rode with Mr. Hodges to Neath. here I found 12 young men, whom I could almost envy. they lived together in one house and continually gave away whatever they earned above the necessaries of life. most of them (they told

*22  me) were Predestinarians, but so little bigoted to their opinion, that they would not suffer a Predestinarian to preach among them, unless he would lay all controversy aside. and on these terms they gladly received those of the opposite opinion.

the multitude of people obliged me to preach in the street, on, 'Repent ye and believe the Gospel'. one man would fain have interrupted and had procured a drunken fiddler for his second; but finding none to join them, they were ashamed; so the gentleman stole away on one side and the fiddler on the other.
8.19   I preached again at 5.  whatever prejudice remained, now vanished away as a dream and our souls took acquaintance with each other, as having all drank into one spirit.

...at one we came to Bridge-End, where I preached on a small Green, not far from the church, on,  'Jesus Christ, made of God unto us wisdom, righteouness, sanctification and redemption'.  it being  the time of the yearly revel,  we had many strangers from all parts, but none behaved unseemly. none opened his mouth for the fear of God was amongst them. in the evening i preached at Fonmon Castle, on the fruits of the Spirit. I concluded the day with the little society there, rejoicing and praising God.

8.20  I preached near Wilton, a little town about a mile from Cowbridge and, on Thurs, at Lanmais, 4 miles from Fonmon, to a people of a simple loving, childlike spirit.

8.22 I returned to Cardiff and spoke plain to those who were wise in their own eyes. this, however, was a matter of joy.  they were willing to receive reproof.  otherwise I should have feared that, with regard to them, I had laboured in vain.
8.23  Returning to Bristol, I found poor C.G. there, proclaiming open war. he had preached at S-----G-----'s once or twice,   but I believe had done neither good nor harm. I invited him to lodge at our house, but he did not choose it.O poor head and honest heart!

8.29  I talked largely with S-----F-----, and took from her the following account:
on Sat. July 15,1743, S----T-----, then about

*23  10 years and three-quarters old, waked in perfect health. she had never had any fits of any kind, nor any considerable sickness. about 6 in the morning she was rising and inwardly praying to God,  when on a sudden, she was seized with a violent trembling. quickly after she lost her speech; in a few minutes her hearing; then her sight ' and, at the same time, all sense and motion.

her mother immediately sent for Mrs. Designe, to whom she then went to school. at the same time her father sending for Mr. Smith, Apothecary, who lived near.  at first he proposed bleeding her immediately and applying a large blister, but upon examining her farther, he said, 'It signifies nothing, for the child is dead'. 
about 12 o'clock she began to stir;  then she opened her eyes and gave the following account:

'As soon as I lost my senses, I was in a dismal place, full of briers and pits and ditches; stumbling up and down and not knowing where to turn, or which way to get either forward or backward and it was almost quite dark, there being but a little faint twilight, so that i could scarce see before me. I was crying, ready to break my heart and a man came to me and
'Child, where are you going? I said, I could not tell. He said,
'What do you want? I answered, 'I want Christ to be my refuge'.  He said,
'What is your name? and I told him, but I did not tell him S-----T-----.  I told him a name which i never heard before. he said,
'You are the child for whom I am sent. You are to go with me.
I saw it grew lighter as he spoke. we walked together, till we came to a stile. he went over and bid me stay a little. I stayed about half a quarter of an hour and then I observed his clothes. they reached down to his feet and were shining and white as snow.

'then he came back and kneeled down and prayed. you never heard such a prayer in your life. afterward he said 'Come with me.
I went over the stile and it was quite light.
He brought me through a narrow lane, into a vast broad road and told me,
'This leads to hell, but be not afraid, you are not to stay there.
at the end of that road a man stood, clothed like the other, in white, shining clothes, which reached down to the ground. no could pass in or out, without his knowledge, but he had not the key. the man that was with me carried the key and unlocked the door and we went in together.

*24  For a little way we walked straight forward, then, turning to the left hand,  we went down a very high, steep hill.  I could scarce bear the stench and smoke of brimstone. I saw a vast many people that seemed to be chained down, crying and gnashing their teeth. the man told me, the sins they delighted in once, they are tormented with now. i saw a vast number who stood up cursing and blaspheming God and spitting at each other and many were making balls of fire, and throwing them at one another. I saw many others, who had cups of fire, out of which they were drinking down flames.  and others, who held cards of fire in their hands and seemed to be playing with them.

we stayed here, I thought, about half an hour. then my guide said, 'Come,  I will show you now a glorious place. I walked with him, till we came into a narrow road, in which we could hardy walk abreast. this brought us into a great broad place and i saw the gate of heaven, which stood wide open,  but it was so bright, I could not look at it long. We went straight in and walked through a large place, where I saw saints and angels and through another large place where were abundance more. they were all of one height and stature and when one prayed, they all prayed. when one sung, they all sung. and they all sung alike, with a smooth, even voice, not one higher or lower than another.

we went through this into a third place. there I saw God sitting upon His throne. it was a throne of light, brighter than the sun. I could not fix my eyes upon it. I saw 3, but all as one. Our Saviour held a pen in His hand. a great book lay at His right side; another at His left and a third partly behind him. in the first he set down the prayers and good works of his people. in the second He  set down all the curses and all the evil works of the wicked. I saw that he discerns the whole earth at a glance and he discerns the whole heavens.  at once he beholds earth and heaven with one look.

then our Lord took the first book in His hand and went and said, 'Rather, behold the prayers and the works of My people.  and He held up His hands and prayed and interceded to His Father for us. I never heard any voice like that , but I  cannot tell how to explain it. and His Father said, 'son, I forgive Thy people, not for their sake, but Thine. then our Lord wrote it down in the third book and returned to His throne, rejoicing with the host of heaven.

*25  It seemed to me, as if I stayed here several months, but i never slept all the while. and there was no night, and I  saw no sky or sun, but clear light everywhere.

then we went back to a large door, which my guide opened and we walked into pleasant gardens, by brooks and fountains. as we walked, I said I did not see my brother here.  (who died some time before.) he said, 'Child, thou canst not know thy brother yet, because they breath remains in they body. Thy spirit is to return to the earth. Thou must watch and pray and when they breath leaves they body, thou shalt come again hither and be joined to these and know every one as before. i said, 'When is that to be? he said 'I know not, nor any angel in heaven, but God alone.

'then he took me into another pleasant garden,where were all manner of fruits. he told me, 'this garden bears fruit always. here I saw a glorious place, which had large gold letters writ over the door. he bid me read and I read,  'this is a fountain for sin and uncleanness for My people. at what time sover they will return, they shall be cleansed from all their idols. the door stood open and I looked in, and i saw, as it were, a great cistern full of water, white as milk. we seemed to walk up and down in this garden fro some weeks and he told me what every thing meant. I never wanted to eat or drink, nor felt any weariness.
'while we were walking, he said, 'sing'.  I said, 'What shall I sing? and he said,  'Sing praises unto the King of the place'.  I sung several verses. then he said, 'I must go'.  I would have fain gone with him, but he said, 'Your time is not yet. you have more work to do upon the earth. immediately he was gone and i came to myself and began to speak.
her mother told me farther,  'As soon as ever she recovered her speech, she gave me just the same account, adding, 'I  have learned the finest hymn you ever heard in your life'.  she then sang 3 verses, the most solid, awful (def - inspiring fear, dreadful, terrible) words with many sighs and tears, till, about 3 in the afternoon, she fell into a slumber, which continued till 7.  she then spoke the same things to Mrs. Designe, after which she was silent, till about 5 in the morning.

'she received remission of sins when she was 9 years old and was very watchful from that time. since this trance

*26  she has continued in faith and love, but has been very sickly and weak in body.

9.1  I rode with T. Butts to Middlesey and preached to a small earnest congregation. we set out early in the  morning and were thoroughly wet by noon. in the evening we reached Sticklepath.

9.3 about one we came to Plymouth. after dinner i walked down to Herbert Jenkins and with him to the Dock. in the way we overtook Mr. Mignon,  Then a pattern to all that believed. Herbert preached a plain, honest sermon, but the congregation was greatly displeased and many went away as soon as he began, having come on purpose to hear me.
9.4 abundance of people from Plymouth were at the room by half-hour after 4.  i was much refreshed in applying those words to them, 'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing' and many of us found our hears knit together in that love which never faileth.

as many as the  room could well contain followed me to Mr. Hide's  and importuned me much to call against, in my return from Cornwall. we dined at Looe,  (a town near half as large as Islington, which sends only 4 Burgesses to the Parliament) called at Grampound in the afternoon and just at 7 reached Gwennap. the congregation waiting, I began without delay and found no faintness or weariness, while i expounded, 'We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.

9.5  I  inquired concerning John Trembath's late illness. it was a second relapse into the spotted fever, in the height of which they gave him sack, cold milk and apples, plums, as much as he could swallow. I can see no way to account for his recovery, but that he had not then finished his work. in the evening I preached at St. Ives.
9.6  I rode to Trewellard, in the parish of St. Just.  I found no society in Cornwall so lively as this: Yet a few of them I was obliged to reprove for negligence in meeting, which is always the forerunner of greater evils.
I preached in the evening in the Green-Court, which was well filled with earnest hearers. I thought  the house would have contained the congregation at 5 (sun, 7) but it would not. at 8 i preached to a large congregation at Morva,

*27  and rode on to Zennor before the Church Service began. as soon as it was ended, I began near the church-yard (and surely never was it more wanted) to expound,  'whom ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.  I preached at St. Ives about 5, to a more understanding people, on,  'Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.
on Mon, 8, I wrote the following letter to Mr.-----

My Dear Brother,

'on tuesday last i light upon a letter of yours in Devonshire, which I understand has been a great traveller.  I think it is the part of brotherly love to mention to you some points therein, wherein  I doubt whether you are not a little mistaken. If I mistake, you will set me right. you say,

1. First,as to Stillness:  the  thing meant hereby is, that man cannot attain to salvation by his won wisdom, strength, righteousness, goodness, merits, or works; that therefore, when he applies to God for it, he is to cast away all dependence upon everything of his won and trusting only to the mercy of God, through the merits of Christ, in true poverty of spirit, to resign himself up to the will of God and thus quietly wait for his salvation'.  I conceive this to be the first mistake. I have nothing to object to this Stillness. I never did oppose This in word or deed. but this is not 'the thing meant thereby', either by Molther or the  Moravians or the English Brethren, at the time that I  (and You, at Mr. Bowers's) opposed them.
2. that the Brethren teach, that people who are seeking after salvation, are all the while to sit still and do nothing, - that they are not to read, hear, or pray -is altogether false. this I apprehend to be a second mistake. whatever The Brethren do now, they did teach thus and that explicitly, in the years 1739 and 1740. in particular, Mr. Brown, Mr Bowers, Mr. Bell, Br. Bray and Mr. Simpson, then with the Moravians. many  of their words I heard with my own ears. many more I received from those who did so. and Mr. Molther himself, on Dec 31, 1739, said to me, in many and plain words, that the way to attain faith is, 'to be still; that is,
'not to use (what we term) the means of grace
not to go to church
not to communicate
not to fast

*28  not to uses So Much private prayer
not to read the Scriptures
not to attempt to do spiritual good
these things I myself heard him speak, as I am ready to give upon oath whenever required. you ought not, therefore, to say,  'this is altogether false',  on the bare denial of Mr. Molther or any other.

3. some of Fetter-lane society, when the difference broke out, spoke and acted very imprudently. but then to lay the blame on the Moravian Church, as if it were their fault, is quite wrong'.  I think so too and have said  so in my answer to Mr. Church, published some time before you sent your letter. if, therefore, you imagine that I lay the blame of the Moravian Church, you are under a mistake her also or if you think I 'lay the fault of one man upon a whole community'.

4. as to the English that really were to blame, they confessed their faults and asked Mr. W's pardon. and some of them, if I mistake not, did it with tears'.  I really think you do mistake again. i remember no such thing. 50 persons and more,  spoke bitter things concerning me. one or tow asked my pardon for so doing, but in so slight and cursory a manner, that i do not so much as know who were the men; neither the time or place where it was done;  so far were they from doing it with tears or with any solemnity or earnestness at all. as for the rest, if they were ever convinced or ashamed at all, it is secret to me to this day.
5.  therefore to publish things which ought to have been buried in eternal oblivion, is what I do not like. this while mater of asking pardon you seem to mistake, as Count Z did before. I wish you would consider the answer i gave him:  'they asked my pardon for using me ill. I replied, that was superfluous:  I was not angry with them, but i was afraid of 2 things:  A. that there was error in their doctrine.  B. that there was sin (allowed in their practice'.  this was then and is at this day, the one question between them and me. now, this cannot be buried in oblivion. that error and sin have spread too far already and it was my part, after private reproof had been tried again and again to no purpose, to give public warning thereof to all the world, that, if possible,they might spread no farther.

6.  Mr. W. is partial throughout his Journal'. I want to

*29  know the particular instances. 'in what he mentions of me, he does not represent our conversation rightly'.  then it is the fault of my memory. but be so kind as to point out the particulars that are not rightly represented.  He has done the cause of our saviour more mischief, than any one else could have done'.  till me how? unless you mean the Antinomian cause, by The Cause Of Our Saviour.  'I have several times gone to Mr. W to explain matters and to desire him to be reconciled'.
Several Times! when and where? you surprise me much! either my memory or yours fails strangely.  'in truth, it is he that has stood out' Alas, my brother! what an assertion is this? did not I come 3 years ago (before that Journal was published) in all haste, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and my brother, in 5 days , from the Land's End, to a supposed conference in London? was this standing out? but with what effect? why, Mr. Spangenberg had just left London.  none besides had any power to confer with us. and to cut us off from any such expectation, James Hutton said they had orders, not to confer at all, unless the archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London, were present.

there cannot be under heaven a greater mistake than this, that I ever did stand out or that i do so now. there has not been one day for these 7  years last past, wherein my soul has not longed for union. and they have grossly abused your honest credulity, whoever have made you believe the contrary.

7.  'since Mr. Wesleys have published such stuff and inconsistencies, I cannot agree with them'.  my brother, make some of those inconsistencies appear and it will be an act of solid friendship. but, 'time will manifest matters, and what is of god will stand and what is of man will come to nought'. most true and according to this sure rule, it has already appeared, whose work is of God,  both at Bradford, at Horton and in several towns not far from your own neighbourhood.

8. the account you give of the Moravians in general, is the very same i had given before; viz.,  that next to those of our own Church,  'who have the faith and love which is among them, without those errors either of judgment o practice, The Body of the Moravian Church, however mistaken Some of them are, are In The Main, of all whom I have seen, the best christians in the world' in the same tract I sum up my latest

*30  judgment concerning them in these terms:  'I believe they love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and have a measure of the mind  that was in Him. and I am in great earnest when i declare once more, that i have a deep, abiding conviction, by how many degrees the good which is among them over-balances the evil
(foot I speak of the simple and artless part of their congregations. as for the Teachers in their Church, it is my solemn belief,  (I speak it with grief and reluctance) that they are no better than a kind of Protestant Jesuits.)
and that I cannot speak of them but with tender affection,were it only for the benefits I have received from them and that at this hour, I  desire union with them (were those stumbling-blocks once put away, which have hitherto made that desire ineffectual) above all things under heaven'.

9. in what respects the Brethren are Antinomians, in what sense they lean to Quietism, I have spoken at large. if they can refute the charge, i shall rejoiced more than if i had gained great spoils.

'My brother, I heartily wish both you and them the genuine open Gospel simpilicity,  that you may always use that artless plainness of speech in which you once excelled and that, by manifestation of the truth,you may commend yourself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. I am,
                                                                                             Your affectionate brother,  J.W.
9.9  I preached at Crowan. the night came upon us while I was speaking, but none offered to go away. Wed, 100. I preached at Porkellis, in Wendron, to many more than the house could contain. W------T-----m,  of Sithney, rode  with me to gwennap, a constant companion of Mr. N-----'s, so long as he would join with him in riot and drunkenness. but with his drunkenness ended Mr.N----'s friendship.

when he heard that one John O----, a tinner, was preaching, he went on purpose to make sport. but the word