way from Nairn to Hull.* Add to this, personal visits of reproof and comfort, prayers beside the sick, special journeys to cheer the dying; conferences, rebukes, encouragements to Societies and preachers. The only change in his habits was, that, after riding 100,000 miles,+ having in his sixty-ninth year suffered an operation, he resorted more than before to a chaise, but he was always ready to get on horse-back or travel by coach, in order to reach his home. In these journeys he was never idle. Three hours in the day, often ten or twelve, being thus spent alone, he devoured an enormous amount of reading. There was hardly a book, grave or gay, which he did not examine, poetry, philosophy, history and divinity, local history and classics, histories of Norwich, Pennant's Scotland, Warner's Ireland and Zetland, Cave's Antiquities, voyages of Cook, Byron, and Dr. Johnson; poems of Blackmore, Ossian, and Young; the writings of Lord Kames, of Swift, and Skelton, Hutchinson's metaphysics, the speculations of Parsons, the works of good Lord Lyttleton, of the scoffing Voltaire, of Walpole, Chesterfield, Rousseau and Hume, the Decalogues of Lucian, the Cyropædeia of Xenophon. "History, poetry, and philosophy, I commonly read on horse-back, having other employments at other times."

Books of Physics, histories of Witchcraft, books of Mythology, histories of India and Europe by Raynal *Journal, iv. p. 149. + Ibid. p. 374.

and Robertson, Hooke's history of Rome, Bonavici's Italy, Burnet's Geology, Swedenborg's reveries, the tracts of Dáillé, the works of 'one W. Dell,' all sorts of Theology, ranging from the writings of the Quaker Barclay and the Presbyterian Erskine to those of Pascal and Fenelon.

Wesley retained through life his fondness for the classics. He was apt in quotation. With French he was familiar. His conversation was rich and full. Long travels, and constant observation had given him a store of knowledge, and he poured this forth in familiar intercourse. The greatest thinker and talker of his day, Dr. Johnson, admired Wesley, and the note, in which he thanked him for his Commentary on the Bible, is a tribute. The great philosopher had long desired to enjoy his conversation, and at last, through the intervention of his sister, he accomplished it. Wesley dined with him in Salisbury court at the early hour of three. With his usual precision, Wesley had assigned two hours to this meal, and he rose as soon as these had passed. Dr. Johnson was greatly disappointed; but on Wesley's sister saying, "Why, Doctor, my brother has been with you two hours." He replied; "Two hours, Madam! I could talk all day and all night too with your brother." Wesley's precision as to time was exact, from which he was enabled to accomplish so much. Forced to wait one day ten minutes for his chaise, he was overheard to *Moore's Life, ii. p. 432.

say to himself, I have lost ten minutes for ever. But in all this there was no bustle-every thing was done with the utmost quietness. "You need not," said one to him, "be in a hurry, Sir." "A hurry," was his reply,-"No, I have no time to be in a hurry."

But neither of course did he know leisure. All his day was assigned to work. This was Dr. Johnson's complaint. "John Wesley's conversation is good, but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man, who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out, as I do."

Wesley wrote much. Besides pamphlets innumerable in defence of Methodism, he wrote his elaborate Commentary; Lessons for Children-Grammars, Hebrew and Latin; abridgments of Potter's and Kennet's Antiquities; Greek and Roman Histories for Schools, quotations collected from English poets- and a Book on Medicine. He wrote slowly, but, as he never went back on his writings for revision, he wrote much.

He kept his accounts with rigorous exactness. Every penny is recorded. It was thus he was able to gratify his charitable feelings, for his charities were great-his kindness to the poor knew no bounds.* Dr. Johnson liked the conversation of Wesley; another man, not less famous, understood his character. John Howard had first heard Wesley preach at his seat in Bedfordshire, and he never forgot the impression of that sermon-the *Moore, ii. p. 435.

text was; "Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." It was one of the turning-points in Howard's life. In 1787 Howard met Wesley in Dublin, and of his conversation with him on that occasion we have a record by Alexander Knox. When Howard visited Mr. Knox, he was full of the meeting which he had had with John Wesley. "I was encouraged by him," he said, "to go on vigorously with my own designs. I saw in him how much a single man might achieve by zeal and perseverance, and I thought, Why may not I do as much in my own way, as Mr. Wesley has done in his,—if I am only as assiduous and persevering." Once again, before his last visit to the East, Mr. Howard called at Wesley's house in the City Road, carrying his volume upon Jails under his arm, to present to him, and to take his leave of him. Wesley was absent, and they did not meet-but he left his respects and love, and bade him be told that "he had hoped to have seen him once more, but that, if they did not meet again in this world, they would meet, he trusted, in a better."

It is pleasant to read that one, so competent to judge as Alexander Knox, should have left it as his opinion, that Wesley and Howard realized his idea of angelic goodness.* "Very lately (in 1789)," Mr. Knox writes;-"I had an opportunity for some days together, of observing Mr. Wesley with attention. I endeavoured to consider him not so much with the eye of a friend, as with the *Moore, ii. p. 455.

impartiality of a philosopher; and I must declare that every hour I spent in his company, afforded me fresh reasons for esteem and veneration. So fine an old man I never saw. The happiness of his mind beamed forth in his countenance: every look shewed how fully he enjoyed 'the gay remembrance of a life well spent.' Wherever he went, he diffused a portion of his own felicity. Easy and affable in his demeanour, he accommodated himself to every sort of company, and shewed how happily the most polished courtesy may be blended with the most perfect piety. In his conversation we might be at a loss, whether to admire most his fine classical taste, his extensive knowledge of men and things, or his overflowing goodness of heart. While the grave and serious were charmed with his wisdom, his sportive sallies of innocent mirth delighted even the young and thoughtless; and both saw in his uninterrupted cheerfulness the excellency of true religion. No cynical remarks on the levity of youth embittered his discourses, no applausive retrospect to past times marked his present discontent. In him even old age appeared delightful, like an evening without a cloud, and it was impossible to observe him without wishing fervently 'May my latter end be like his !' But I find myself unequal to the task of delineating such a character. What I have said may to some appear as panegyric; but there are numbers, and those of taste and discernment too, who can bear witness to the truth, though by no means to