Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel Parr
Ch. XXII. 1794-1795
Joseph Gerrard to William Philips, 16 May 1795
“My dear Mr.
Philips—I know not how to express the rising sentiments of my
heart, for your unbounded kindness to me. The best return, the only return I
can make, is, to convince you, by the virtue and energy of my conduct, that I
am not
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altogether unworthy of your friendship. A parade of
professions neither suits you, nor me, nor the occasion. You know my feelings,
and will, therefore, do justice to them: and with this simple observation, I
close the subject. I have repeatedly attempted to write to my ever honoured and
loved friend and father, Dr. Parr; but it
is impossible. The tender and filial affection which I bear to him, the
recollection of the many endearing scenes which we have passed together, the
sacred relation which subsists between Joseph
Gerrald and that Samuel Parr, who poured
into my untutored mind the elements of all, either of learning or morals, which
is valuable about me; whose great instructions planted in my bosom the seeds of
magnanimity, which I trust I now display, and at which persecution herself must
stand abashed; all these, my friend, rush at once upon my mind, and form a
conflict of feeling, an awful confusion, which I cannot describe; but which he,
who is the cause, I know can feel, and feel in the most full and virtuous
extent. To the greater part of my friends, I have written—to Dr.
Parr I have not written; but to his heart my silence speaks. The
painter who could not express the excessive grief, covered with a veil the face
of Agamemnon. Tell him, then, my dear
Mr. Philips, that if ever I have spoken peevishly of
his supposed neglect of me, he must, nay, I know he will, attribute it to its
real cause—a love, vehement and jealous, and which, in a temper like
Gerrald’s, lights its torches at the fire of the
furies. And when my tongue uttered any harshness of expression, even at that
very period my ![]()
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heart would have bled for him; and the
compunction of the next moment inflicted a punishment far more than adequate to
the guilt of the preceding one. Tell him to estimate my situation not by the
tenderness of his own feelings, but by the firmness of mine. Tell him that if
my destiny is apparently rigorous, the unconquerable firmness of my mind breaks
the blow, which it cannot avert; and that, enlisted as I am in the cause of
truth and virtue, I bear about me a patient integrity, which no blandishments
can corrupt, and a heart which no dangers can daunt. Tell him, in a word, that
as I have hitherto lived, let the hour of dissolution come when it may, I shall
die the pupil of Samuel Parr.” &c. &c.
Joseph Gerrald (1763-1796)
Political radical and member of the London Corresponding Society; born in the West
Indies, he was a pupil and friend of Samuel Parr who was convicted of sedition and died in
Botany Bay.
Samuel Parr (1747-1825)
English schoolmaster, scholar, and book collector whose strident politics and assertive
personality involved him in a long series of quarrels.
William Joseph George Phillips (1778 c.-1855)
After study with Samuel Parr, he was educated at Trinity College, Oxford and at Gonville
and Caius College, Cambridge. He was vicar of Eling, Hampshire (1808-55) and rector of
Millbrooke (1812-55).
