'I was born in the village of Paulerspury, in Northamptonshire, August 17, 1761. My education was that which is generally esteemed good in country villages, and my father being schoolmaster, I had some advantages which other children of my age had not.* In the first fourteen years of my life I had many advantages of a religious nature, but was wholly unacquainted with the scheme of salvation by Christ. During this time I had many stirrings of mind occasioned by my being often obliged to read books of a religious character; and having been accustomed from my infancy to read the Scriptures, I had a considerable acquaintance therewith, especially with the historical parts. I also have no doubt but the constant reading of the Psalms, Lessons, &c., in the parish church, which I was obliged to attend regularly, tended to furnish my mind with a general scripture knowledge.

'Of real experimental religion I scarcely heard any thing till I was fourteen years of age; nor was the formal attendance upon outward ceremonies, to which I was compelled, the matter of my choice. I chose to read books of science, history, voyages, &c., more than any others. Novels and plays always disgusted me, and I avoided them as much as I did books of religion, and perhaps from the same motive. I was better pleased with romances; and this circumstance made me read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress with eagerness, though to no purpose.

His father, Mr. Edmund Carey, in a letter to Mr. Thomas Blundell, dated Paulerspury, August 9, 1815, says, that he was always attentive to learning when a boy, and was a very good arithmetician.'

'My companions were at this time such as could only serve to debase the mind, and lead me into the depths of that gross conduct which prevails among the lower classes in the most neglected villages: so that I had sunk into the most awful profligacy of conduct. I was addicted to swearing, lying, and unchaste conversation; which was heightened by the company of ringers, psalm-singers, foot-ball players, the society of a blacksmith's shop, &c., &c.: and though my father laid the strictest injunctions on me to avoid such company, I always found some way to elude his care.

'A very painful disease paved the way for my being brought under the gospel sound. From about seven years of age, I was afflicted with a very painful cutaneous disease, which, though it scarce ever appeared in the form of eruption, yet made the sun's rays insupportable to me. This unfitted me for earning my living by labour in the field, or elsewhere out of doors. My parents were poor, and unable to do much for me; but being much affected with my situation, they with great difficulty put me apprentice to a shoemaker at Hackleton.'

His account to Dr. Ryland is a little more explicit, and discredits the report, somewhat current in Northamptonshire, that he was a very incompetent workman.

'At about fourteen years of age I was bound apprentice to Clarke Nichols, of Hackleton, a shoemaker. He died when I had been with him about

two years. I engaged to pay his widow a certain sum for the remainder of the time for which I was bound, and from that time worked as a journeyman with Mr. T. Old, of Hackleton, till his death. The childish story of my shortening a shoe to make it longer is entitled to no credit, though it would be very silly in me to pretend to recollect all the shoes I made. I was accounted a very good workman, and recollect Mr. Old keeping a pair of shoes which I had made in his shop, as a model of good workmanship. But the best workmen sometimes, from various causes, bad work out of their hands, and I have no doubt but I did so too.

put

'My master was a strict churchman, and, what I thought, a very moral man. It is true he sometimes drank rather too freely, and generally employed me in carrying out goods on the Lord's-day morning till near church time; but he was an inveterate enemy to lying, a vice to which I was awfully addicted: he also possessed the qualification of commenting upon a fault till I could scarcely endure his reflections, and sometimes actually transgressed the bounds of propriety. A fellow-servant was the son of a dissenter; and though not at that time under religious impressions, yet frequently engaged with me in disputes upon religious subjects, in which my master frequently joined. I was I was a churchman; had read Jeremy Taylor's Sermons, Spinker's Sick Man Visited, and other books; and had always looked upon dissenters with contempt. I had, moreover, a share of pride sufficient for a thousand times my knowledge: I

therefore always scorned to have the worst in an argument, and the last word was assuredly mine. I also made up in positive assertion what was wanting in argument, and generally came off with triumph. But I was often convinced afterwards that, though I had the last word, my antagonist had the better of the argument, and on that account felt a growing uneasiness, and stings of conscience gradually increasing. The frequent comments of my master upon certain parts of my conduct, and other such causes, increased my uneasiness. I wanted something, but had no idea that nothing but an entire change of heart could do me good.

"There was a place of worship and a small body of dissenters in the village; but I never attended it, and thought myself to have enmity enough in my heart to destroy it. As As my uneasiness increased, my fellowservant, who was about this time brought under serious concern for his soul, became more importunate with me. I was furnished by him now and then with a religious book, and my opinions insensibly underwent a change, so that I relished evangelical sentiments more and more, and my inward uneasiness increased.

'Under these circumstances I resolved to attend regularly three churches in the day, and go to a prayer-meeting at the dissenting place of worship in the evening, not doubting but this would produce ease of mind, and make me acceptable to God. I also resolved to leave off lying, swearing, and other sins to which I was addicted, and sometimes when alone I

tried to pray; but was at present unacquainted with the wickedness of my heart, and the necessity of a Saviour.

'A circumstance, which I always reflect on with a mixture of horror and gratitude, occurred about this time, which, though greatly to my dishonour, I must relate. It being customary in that part of the country for apprentices to collect christmas-boxes from the tradesmen with whom their masters have dealings, I was permitted to collect these little sums. When I applied to an ironmonger, he gave me the choice of a shilling or a sixpence: I of course chose the shilling, and, putting it into my pocket, went away. When I had got a few shillings, my next care was to purchase some little articles for myself; I have forgotten what. But then, to my sorrow, I found that my shilling was a brass one. I paid for the things which I bought by using a shilling of my master's. I now found that I had exceeded my stock by a few pence. I expected severe reproaches from my master, and therefore came to the resolution to declare strenuously that the bad money was his. I well remember the struggles of mind. which I had on this occasion, and that I made this deliberate sin a matter of prayer to God as I passed over the fields home. I there promised, that if God would but get me clearly over this, or, in other words, help me through with the theft, I would certainly for the future leave off all evil practices; but this theft and consequent lying appeared to me so necessary, that they could not be dispensed with.