reigned in Athens of old, and from which no child of Adam is wholly
free--the desire to hear and to tell some new thing. No sooner has the
person withdrawn from this mortal stage, than the pen of biography is
prepared to record, and a host of curious expectants are marshalled to
receive, some fragments at least of private history. I wish I could
dissent from your remark, that even godliness itself is too often sought
to be made a gain of in such cases. Writers who are themselves wholly
unenlightened by spiritual knowledge, and uninfluenced by spiritual
feeling, will take up as a good speculation what must to them be a
mystery, and wrong the subject of their memorial while they injure the
cause in which he labored. Even among those of better understanding in
the ways of truth, we do not often meet sound judgment, calm discretion,
and refined delicacy, combined with affection for the departed and zeal
for the gospel. Private journals are sought out, confidential letters
raked together, and a most unseemly exposure made alike of the dead and
the living.

This I have always seen and lamented; and being aware that my turn would
probably come to be thus exhibited, I have abstained from preserving
even the slightest memoranda of events, thoughts, or feelings, that
could be laid hold on as a private journal: and I have most distinctly
intimated to all those friends who possess any letters of mine, that I
shall regard it as a gross breach of confidence, a dishonorable, base,
and mercenary proceeding on their part, if ever they permit a sentence
addressed by me to them to pass into other hands. Indeed, to such an
extent have I felt this, that for many years past I have kept some
friends under a solemn pledge, that immediately after my death, they
will proclaim my having so guarded my correspondence, in order, if
possible, to shame the individuals from a course with regard to me which
I have never been inveigled into with regard to others. Looking on