and papers, which, as soon as I am dead, I desire may be delivered
to Mr. Anthony Barlow, a near relation of my worthy master, Mr.
Owen Parry.
This Mr. Anthony Barlow was an old contemplative Welsh gentleman,
who, being under some difficulties in his own country, was forced
to come into Cornwall and take sanctuary among the tinners.
Dickory, though he kept himself as retired as possible, happened to
meet him one day upon his walks, and presently remembered that he
was the very person that used frequently to come to visit his
master while he lived in Pembrokeshire, and so went to him, and by
signs made him understand who he was.
The old gentleman, though at first surprised at this unexpected
interview, soon recollected that he had formerly seen at Mr.
Parry’s a dumb man, whom they used to call the dumb philosopher, so
concludes immediately that consequently this must be he. In short,
they soon made themselves known to each other; and from that time
contracted a strict friendship and a correspondence by letters,
which for the future they mutually managed with the greatest
exactness and familiarity.
But to leave this as a matter not much material, and to return to
our narrative. By this time Dickory’s speech began to falter,
which his sister observing, put him in mind that he would do well
to make some declaration of his faith and principles of religion,
because some reflections had been made upon him upon the account of
his neglect, or rather his refusal, to appear at any place of
public worship.
“Dear sister,” says he, “you observe very well, and I wish the
continuance of my speech for a few moments, that I might make an
ample declaration upon that account. But I find that cannot be; my
speech is leaving me so fast that I can only tell you that I have
always lived, and now die, an unworthy member of the ancient
catholic and apostolic church; and as to my faith and principles, I
refer you to my papers, which, I hope, will in some measure
vindicate me against the reflections you mention.”
He had hardly finished his discourse to his sister and her two
friends, and given some short directions relating to his burial,
but his speech left him; and what makes the thing the more
remarkable, it went away, in all appearance, without giving him any
sort of pain or uneasiness.
When he perceived that his speech was entirely vanished, and that
he was again in his original state of dumbness, he took his pen as
formerly and wrote to his sister, signifying that whereas the
sudden loss of his speech had deprived him of the opportunity to
speak to her and her friends what he intended, he would leave it
for them in writing, and so desired he might not be disturbed till
the return of his fit, which he expected in six hours at farthest.
According to his desire they all left him, and then, with the
greatest resignation imaginable, he wrote down the meditations
following:
PART II
An Abstract of his Faith, and the Principles of his Religion &c.,
which begins thus:
Dear Sister; I thank you for putting me in mind to make a
declaration of my faith, and the principles of my religion. I
find, as you very well observe, I have been under some reflections
upon that account, and therefore I think it highly requisite that I
set that matter right in the first place. To begin, therefore,
with my faith, in which I intend to be as short and as
comprehensive as I can:
1. I most firmly believe that it was the eternal will of God, and
the result of his infinite wisdom, to create a world, and for the
glory of his majesty to make several sorts of creatures in order
and degree one after another; that is to say, angels, or pure
immortal spirits; men, consisting of immortal spirits and matter,
having rational and sensitive souls; brutes, having mortal and
sensitive souls; and mere vegetatives, such as trees, plants, &c.;
and these creatures so made do, as it were, clasp the higher and