The Works of James Meikle
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UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Uarlington JVLeinoriai J_/ibrary 3 1735 060 395 849 C^ozbH r^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Pittsburgh Library System http://www.archive.org/details/worksofjamesmeik02meik THE „ Jc or JAMES MEIKLE, CONTAINING SOLITUDE SWEETENED, THE TRAVELLER, SELECT REMAINS, METAPHYSICAL MAXIMS, AND OTHER. MISCELLANEOUS WORKS3 WRITTEN IN DISTANT PAR-TS OF THE WORLJl. IN FOUR VOLUMES VOL. IL PITTSBURGH. PUBLISHED BY R. PATTERSON & LAMBDIN. BUTLER & LAMBDIA^, PBIKTEES. 1818. THE I TRAVELLER OR, MEDITATIONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECT9i WRITTEN ON BOARD A MAN OF WA . TO WHICH IS ADDED, ^ CONVERSE WITH THE WORLD UNSEEN ,^^ C!!-=-!!-!-!!!-!--!--^^. BY JAMES MEIKLB, H Late Surgeon at Carnwath. ^ TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. r* PITTSBURGH, I ^ PUBLISHED BY R. PATTERSON &LAMBDIN. Butle^^ ^ Lambdin Printers, 1818. — THE LIFE OF .TJLJL1,»R. JAJVIES MEIKLE. JHERE are perhaps few perons who have perused anf au- thor's writings v/ith much pleasure and advantage, who feel not a desire to know the character and history of one who has contributed so largely to their entertainment and instruction. The biogrophy, therefore, of favourite authors, if not barren ci m cidents, or aivkwardly executed, is a species of writing wliich will always be well recieved. It introduces us to familiarity with persons whom we are disposed to revere, and exhibits our instruc- tors in the interesting light of acquaintances and friends. Be- sides, when we find, by authenticated records of their life, that they were good men, we sit down to the perusal of their writings with the most favourable dispositions for deriving benefit from what we read, and are edified by the pleasing persuasion that they lived as they wrote, and felt on their own hearts the inesti- mable value of that religion which they so clearly teach, and so warmly recommend. The writings of a few men require information respecting their author more than those of Mr. Meikle. They consist chiefly of short, detatched essays written in haste, and commonly finished at one sitting ; or are a record of the impressions made on his mind at the instant by the objects with v^hich he was surrounded, or the incidents which had occurred. They seldom assume a di- dactic form, or profess a regular discussion of any particular point : they rather express the author's own persuasion and feel- ings on the subject, the resolutions of duty which, under their in- fluence, he formed, or the hopes by which he was animated. A knowledge of the man becomes necessary, therefore, not only t^ enable us to appreciate his merits as a VN^riter, but to quahfy us for understanding many passages of his writings, or at least for entering fully into his sentiments and feelings. How far the following ^ account of Mr. Meikle will contribute either to the entertainment or the edification of those who may be pleased to peruse it, the writer of it is unable to predict. He can say, howe^^er , with confidence, that he has not been deficient in his inquiries respecting his author, and that although in several iV THE LIFE OF JAIMES MEIKLE. instances his diligence has been unsuccessful, in others it has Befen rewarded by disco\-enes which he hopes have not been unprofit- able to himself, and which may, through the divine blessing, be useful to others. He has presumed to affirm nothing at random, his or on mere conjecture ; and the piincipal source from which information has been drawn, is a variety of memorandums and loose papers found in the author's ovfn repositories. IVIr. Ja3iesO*Ieikle was born at Carnwath, a village in the upper part of Clydesdale, on the 19th of May O. S. 17S0. It was his uniform custom, during at least the last forty years of his life, to observe the aniverGary of his birth ; and the 30th of N. S. appears frequently, both in his published and manuscript papers as a season in which he sought retirement from the world, and -5 devoted the hours which he could command fi'om business to of grateful recollections of the care of Providence, to the review , eternity, ills past life, to meditation on death, and preparation for j This method of commemorating the day of his entrance on life | be justly considers as more suited to the condition of a cre?dure | who is born to die, and who expects to live after death, than the methods v.^hich are more generally in use ; and he recommends It to others, from the conviction that it had not been wihout pro- fit to himself. His father Mr, George INleikle, appears to have been a very pious, but very poor man. He practised at Carnwath as a sur- in poor and geon and druggist ; but his business, at that period, a thinly-peopled country, cannot be supposed to have yielded such profits as to enable him with ease to support a family of ten chil- dren, the greater part of whom were delicate, and cut off before their aged parent. Besides, the small savings of a veiy insuffici- ent income were unprofitably wasted in honest, but unsuccessful attempts to obtain possession of a considerable property in the to have been s neighbourhood of Hamilton, of which he appears bore very heavy rightful heir ; and debts were contracted which en him in the dechne of life, when the necessities of his family in- creased, and, through his freqent incapacity to visit patients at a diminished. It cannot distance, his means of supplying them ; any valuable purpose to be more particular on this now serve .^ subiect. I'he estate is in the undisputable possession of another ) family, altliough the greater part of the titles are still in the pos- -1 Meikles descendants. It is only proper to remark, session of Mr. j that various attempts were made by his son to recover it, which ' excited hopes, and issued in disappointments, to which the accu- : to : rate reader of his writings will observe many allusions ; and add, that the loss or abstraction of an essential paper defeated all his attempts, till it became too late to disturb the possessor by j challenging his right. 1 James the subject of this Memoir, was the fifth child of the fam- j' ilv, three sons and a daughter having been bom before him. When reviewing the care of Providence over him, he remarks, that his life during infancy w^as often in jeopardy, and piously adopts the THE LIFE OF JAIVIES MEIKLE. v *' Psalmist's words I am as a wonder imto many ; my praise shall be continually of tliee." At the age of four, he narrowly escaped perishing in a deep well into which he had fallen ; and besides, he suffered so severely, and was so enfeebled by the small pox, measles, ciiincongh, and other diseases incident to childhood, that it was not till the ninth year of his age that he could be sent to school. Of this early period of his life, he observes, in one of his papers, that he can recollect little, except that his parents had taught him to pray twice a-day ; that he thought even his child- ish games would not go right with him, if he should neglect his prayers ; and that therefore, when it occurred to him at play that he had omitted them, he sometimes broke off from his compan- ions, and after ha\ing said them, returned with more confidence to his amusements. He expressed his gratitude to his parents for their instructions, and warmly recommends it to others to teach tiieir children to pray ; but notwithstanding this symptom, as some would style it, of early piety, produced by their means, he states it as the conviction of his maturer judgment, that he had then no right notions of divine things. " I was taught to pray," he says, " and prayed, when I knew not what prayer was ; but now I would not give over prayer for the universe." At schoool he made considerable proficiency in his education, till the death of his teacher. A nev/ teacher succeeded, who does not appear to have been equally attentive to his pupil, for a reason which must always have great weight with selfish men, because his parents were poor. Other employment was found for " him than the lessons of the diiy : I was much toiled by running his errands, which I was necessitated to do through poverty."— M'lien he afterwards reflected on this period of life, he concluded with Solomon, th^it " childhood and youth are vanity," and de- plored the waste of it in thoughtlessness and sin. " It can afford me," he says, " nothing but melancholy reflections, did not the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse from all sin. PIov/ many m.onths were spent without one serious thought of God, or one prayer t^v the God of my life ? In what scenes of vanity and folly did I spend T%iy youth ? God ar,d my own heart were and are conscious of as much sin as might damn me, thouh I was preserved fi^om anv gross outbreakings. When I look back, this is a proper confes- sion for me, " Lord, thou knowest my folly, and my sins are not hid from thee. Remember not the errors of my youth, but par- ^ don mine iniquity, for it is great." After he had arrived at tlie age of fsirteen cr fi-pjrteeen, he be- gan to relish religion more than ever he had done before. Three tilings in particular are remarked by him concerning himself at this period.