hought proper to insert it,
as the major (for that was the office he bore then,) by thus interweaving
it with his letter, makes it his own, and as it seems to express in a
very lively manner the principles which bore him on to a conduct so truly
great and heroic, in circumstances that have overwhelmed many a heart
that could have faced danger and death with the greatest intrepidity.

I return now to consider his character in the domestic relation of a
master, on which I shall not enlarge. It is, however, proper to remark,
that as his habitual meekness and command of his passions prevented
indecent sallies of ungoverned anger towards those in the lowest state
of subjection to him, by which some in high life do strangely debase
themselves, and lose much of their authority, so the natural greatness of
his mind made him solicitous to render their inferior stations as easy as
he could: and so much the rather, because he considered all the children
of Adam as standing upon a level before their great Creator, and had
also a deeper sense of the dignity and worth of every immortal soul, how
meanly soever it might chance to be lodged, than most persons I have
known. This engaged him to give his servants frequent religious
exhortations and instructions, as I have been assured by several who
were so happy as to live with him under that character. One of his first
letters, after he entered on his Christian course, expresses the same
disposition; in which, with great tenderness, he recommends a servant,
who was in a bad state of health, to his mother's care, as he was well
acquainted with her condescending temper; mentioning at the same time,
the endeavours he had used to promote his preparations for a better
world, under an apprehension that he would not continue long in this.
We shall have an affecting instance of the prevalence of the same
disposition in the closing scene of his life, and indeed in the last
words he ever spoke, which expressed his generous solicitude for the
safety of a faithful servant who was then near him.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONDUCT AS AN OFFICER.

As it was a few years after his marriage that he was promoted to the rank
of lieutenant-colonel, in which he continued till he had a regiment of
his own, I shall, for the future, speak of him by that title; and I may
not, perhaps, find any more proper place in which to mention what it is
proper for me to say of his behaviour and conduct as an officer. I shall