The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
could ever fancy a spoiled child, who had scarcely matured into a
petulant girl. And as the mirage melted, and Clarinda again resolved
into Kitty, other realities began to show themselves in a sedater and
truer light to the awakened dreamer. As an excuse for an attachment at
which Doddridge himself soon learned to smile, it is fair to add that
love was in this instance prophetic. Clarinda turned out a remarkable
woman. She married an eminent dissenting minister, and became the mother
of Dr. John Aiken and Mrs. Barbauld, and in her granddaughter, Lucy
Aiken, her matrimonial name still survives; so that the curious in such
matters may speculate how far the instructions of Doddridge contributed
to produce the "Universal Biography," "Evenings at Home," and "Memoirs
of the Courts of the Stuarts."
His biographers do not mark it, but his arrival at Northampton is the
real date of Doddridge's memorable ministry. He then woke up to the full
import of his high calling, and never went to sleep again. The sickness,
the wounded spirit, the altered scene, and we may add seclusion from the
society of formal religionists, had each its wholesome influence; and,
finding how much was required of him as a pastor and a tutor, he set to
work with the concentration and energy of a startled man, and the first
true rest he took was twenty years after, when he turned aside to die.
Glorying in such names as Goodwin, and Charnock, and Owen, it was the
ambition of the early Nonconformists of England to perpetuate among
themselves a learned ministry. But the stern exclusiveness of the
English Universities rendered the attainment of this object very
difficult. It may be questioned whether it is right in any established
church to inflict ignorance as a punishment on those dissenting from it.
If intended as a vindictive visitation, it is a very fearful one, and
reminds us painfully of those tyrants who used to extinguish the eyes of
rebellious subjects. And if designed as a reformatory process, we
question its efficiency. The zero of ignorance is unbelief, and its
_minus_ scale marks errors. You cannot make dissenters so ignorant
thereby to make them Christians; and, even though you made them savages,
they might still remain seceders. However, this was the policy of the
English establishment in the days of Doddridge. By withholding education
from dissenters, they sought either to reclaim them, or to be revenged
upon them; and had this policy succeeded, the dissenting pulpits would
soon have been filled with fanatics, and the pews with superstitious
sectaries. But, much to their honor, the Nonconformists taxed themselves
heavily in order to procure elsewhere the light which Oxford and
Cambridge refused. Academies were opened in various places, and, among
others selected for the office of tutor, his talents recommended Mr.
Doddridge. A large house was taken in the town of Northampton, and the
business of instruction had begun, when Dr. Reynolds, the diocesan
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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