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Article BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EMINENT (DECEAS... ← Page 8 of 11 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Biographical Sketches Of Eminent (Deceas...
the world . Nor would the scandal interest our brethren , or be conducive to abetter understanding how one of the most signally endowed of God ' s creatures should have lived a life so unhappy as was the fate of our late lamemted brother . For these reasons , then Ave shall only touch on matters of general interest , such as have come to our knowledge through the remembrance of friends of the deceased
. Before the subject of our sketch attained his majority , he became a thorough good classical scholar , and his knowledge of Greek was of the most profound character , insomuch that it was said that Samuel Wesley ranked only second to Person . We before alluded to his teaching himself to read and write from a copy of Handel ' s " Samson ; " and from this cause his writing always , to the day of his death , was of a peculiar nature , for at the time alluded to / he taugh t himself to write a print hand , and this being modified by his after lessons , left such a germ that , to any one seeing his correspondence it Avould appear as if it had been a labour of much difficulty to have written his letters , so beautifully easy are they to read .
In his early life he met with a very serious accident ; returning from a meeting at the house of one of the old members of the Madrigal Society , he fell into the cellar of an unfinished house and was not discovered until the next morning , when he was taken up insensible , with his head seriously fractured , and by his medical advisers it was thought that the nature of his injuries would be lessened by the operation of trepanning ; but fco this he was strongly opposed , and it is believed that from this accident the aberrations of his mind which twice occasioned personal restraint , might be traced . '
In appearance he was rather below the middle height , with features strongly resembling his uncle , John Wesley , and almost a counterpart of those of the late Duke of Wellington . His frame was delicate with feet and hands both remarkably small and handsome . His constitution was of iron . He rose early , always at five o ' clock and
this notwithstanding the lateness of the hours of a previous convivial night . He was restless , and required occupation , standing at a desk when he composed , and at home seldom sitting down to his dinner and never to breakfast . Like Mozart , many of his finest productions were composed under the most painful circumstances of distress ¦ but in the case of our lamented brother , this distress was of a mental
character , brought about by domestic unhappiness . When he was thirty-five years of age , he first studied Sebastian Bach ; and as there had been a prejudice raised against that wonderful
writer by Dr . Burney and others , Wesley had uphill work to bring the works of that master into notice ; but with his energy and his talent they won their way to that first position in this country , which is their due ; and he had also the gratification to hear their old opponents one by one , give up their position as unjust and untenable . Passin g
by many years of his life , which to our general readers would only he a series of records pertaining to music unknown to them , but
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Biographical Sketches Of Eminent (Deceas...
the world . Nor would the scandal interest our brethren , or be conducive to abetter understanding how one of the most signally endowed of God ' s creatures should have lived a life so unhappy as was the fate of our late lamemted brother . For these reasons , then Ave shall only touch on matters of general interest , such as have come to our knowledge through the remembrance of friends of the deceased
. Before the subject of our sketch attained his majority , he became a thorough good classical scholar , and his knowledge of Greek was of the most profound character , insomuch that it was said that Samuel Wesley ranked only second to Person . We before alluded to his teaching himself to read and write from a copy of Handel ' s " Samson ; " and from this cause his writing always , to the day of his death , was of a peculiar nature , for at the time alluded to / he taugh t himself to write a print hand , and this being modified by his after lessons , left such a germ that , to any one seeing his correspondence it Avould appear as if it had been a labour of much difficulty to have written his letters , so beautifully easy are they to read .
In his early life he met with a very serious accident ; returning from a meeting at the house of one of the old members of the Madrigal Society , he fell into the cellar of an unfinished house and was not discovered until the next morning , when he was taken up insensible , with his head seriously fractured , and by his medical advisers it was thought that the nature of his injuries would be lessened by the operation of trepanning ; but fco this he was strongly opposed , and it is believed that from this accident the aberrations of his mind which twice occasioned personal restraint , might be traced . '
In appearance he was rather below the middle height , with features strongly resembling his uncle , John Wesley , and almost a counterpart of those of the late Duke of Wellington . His frame was delicate with feet and hands both remarkably small and handsome . His constitution was of iron . He rose early , always at five o ' clock and
this notwithstanding the lateness of the hours of a previous convivial night . He was restless , and required occupation , standing at a desk when he composed , and at home seldom sitting down to his dinner and never to breakfast . Like Mozart , many of his finest productions were composed under the most painful circumstances of distress ¦ but in the case of our lamented brother , this distress was of a mental
character , brought about by domestic unhappiness . When he was thirty-five years of age , he first studied Sebastian Bach ; and as there had been a prejudice raised against that wonderful
writer by Dr . Burney and others , Wesley had uphill work to bring the works of that master into notice ; but with his energy and his talent they won their way to that first position in this country , which is their due ; and he had also the gratification to hear their old opponents one by one , give up their position as unjust and untenable . Passin g
by many years of his life , which to our general readers would only he a series of records pertaining to music unknown to them , but