The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-02-18
Lindley Murray.

He was born in l745, at Swetara, Pa, the eldest of the twelve children of a prosperous Quaker, who was at once miller, A ship owner and mer- chant, Early in life Lindley devel- oped wild and manageable tem- perament, and when little more than an infant clambered out on the root and refused to return until guaranteed against punishment. At school he was smart and intelligent rather than diligent and industrious. He had no disinclination to study in itself, but the acquisition of knowledge inter- fered with amusement, and he often played truant. Boy like, he had & fondness for teasing animals, though without any cruel intention, and this propensity remained with him until, in matured years, he was cured of 1t by the following occurrence: Being in London in i77i, he went to see some elephants kept in the royal sta- bles at Buckingham palace, and while there managed to abstract some of the food placed before one of them some weeks after he paid second visit, having forgotten all about the mat ter but the elephants memory was more retentive, and he aimed with his trunk furious blow at the future grammarian, which the latter with great difficulty avoided.
 He acquired a beautiful house on the Hudson, a few miles from the city, and was looking forward to future of happy ease, close to his friends, freed from business anxieties, and fur nished with occupation and amuse- ment by his gun, his garden and his boat. Such dreams, however, he was never permitted to realize. His health began to decline and his limbs to lose their power. The air at his riverside paradise" did not agree with him; medicinal springs and country resorts proved equally inctlicacious. and finally his doctors declared that his best prospect of health lay in resi- dence in England, recommending the air of Yorkshire as the most suitable to his constitution.
 Accordingly, i'll the year l7sl he left America, and after some time spent in looking out tor suitable house he finally fixed hiihselfat Hold gate, within mile of York. from which lie never afterward removed. His bodily health was fairly good, but his power of motion grew weaker and weaker, aid before long entirely taiio,t. Confined thus to the house, princi- pally to single room, he naturally turned to study, and at length to authorship as d resource, and in l7S7 he produced his finest book This was n series of sketches intended to show the power of religion over the mind, especially in time of misfortune or at the approach of death, and was illustrated by examples ranging from Socrates, Confucius and St. Paul to Richelieu, Casar, Borgia and Dr. Doddridge. This he published anony- mously and distributed 1t gratuitously among his neighbors; but the book thus modestly introduced became very popular, and eventually ran through eighteen editions.
 For his grammar, abridgement, ex- ercises and key he obtained 800 pounds; for his reader, introduction and se- quel, 750; for his French books, 700, and for his spelling book and primer, 500. He at one time contemplated kind of expurgated edition of the poets; but, happily, perhaps, for his reputation, never attempted to carry 1t into effect. His means being sufficient for his simple mode of lie, and having no family, he devoted all his literary income to charitable and benevolent objects. He furnished brief auto- biographical sketch in series of let ters, which comprise the history of his life down to 1909, and this forms the basis of the volume of memoirs pub lished after his death.