Memoirs of Mrs. Hawkes, late of Islington. By Catharine Cecil [pp. 239-271]

Memoirs of Mrs. Hawkes.
sidiously vanity works, we shall not be surprised at the
suggestion, that the record which a man keeps of his own
thoughts and feelings, is not always perfectly honest. He
is cautious about writing down the very worst that he even
feels stirring within him, lest some other eye should happen
to light upon it; and under the same influence, he gives as
fair a colouring as he can, to his own motives and actions;
mentioning only such as if they should ever come to light,
will not dishonour him. In some published memoirs, we
have thought, that we could plainly discern the insidious
working of this secret vainglory. And often, the only
reason why the biography of one is published, rather than
that of his neighbour, is, that the materials of such a memoir
are found among thie papers of the deceased, in the one case,
and not in the other. As we have too many biographies, so
they are commonly much too long. Nobody now thinks of
comprehending the memoirs of any person within any less
compass than a volume. To swell the work to the due size,
a great deal of matter is often introduced, which had much
better been left out; and of that which is truly excellent, we
often have much more than is necessary, to exhibit the true
lineaments of the character intended to be portrayed. That
must be, indeed, a person of uncommon character, whose
Christian experience requires more than a few pages to set
it forth, in all the variety of forms and oxercises of which
he may have been the subject. Too often, the publication
of journals or diaries, for years, is a tiresome repetition of
the same thing. The writer of memoirs seldom exercises a
sound judgment in selecting the things which should be
presented to the public. The partiality of friendship leads
him to think, that the public will feel the same interest in
the private concerns of the subject of the memoir, which is
felt by the writer. And very frequently, private concerns
are disclosed which ought never to have seen the light. It
is to us matter of astonishment, that so little regard is paid,
by surviving friends, to what would be the wish of the deceased, if he could be consulted. Retiring, modest persons,
who shunned the public gaze, are by their indiscreet friends,
dragged before the public, and their most private and confidential papers exposed. This has induced some distinguished
persons to take care, to have all their papers, which they are
unwilling to have published, destroyed, before their death.
The observations which have been made above, do not
apply to public men, whose biography is intimately con
1839.]
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