|
See also:FOSTER, See also:JOHN (177o-1843) , See also:English author and dissenting See also:minister, generally known as the " Essayist," was See also:born in a small farmhouse near See also:Halifax, See also:Yorkshire, on the 17th of See also:September 1770. Partly from constitutional causes, but partly also from the want of proper companions, as well as from the See also:grave and severe habits of his parents, his earlier years were enshrouded in a somewhat gloomy and sombre See also:atmosphere, which was never afterwards wholly dissipated. His youthful See also:energy, finding no proper outlet, See also:developed within him a tendency to morbid intensity of thought and feeling; and, according to his own testimony, before he was twelve years old he was possessed of a " painful sense of an awkward but entire individuality."
The small income accruing to Foster's parents from their See also:farm they supplemented by See also:weaving, and at an See also:early See also:age he began to assist them by See also:spinning See also:wool by the See also:hand See also:wheel, and from his fourteenth See also:year by weaving See also:double stuffs. Even" when a See also:child," however, he had the feelings of a foreigner in the See also:place and though he performed his monotonous task with conscientious See also:diligence, he succeeded so indifferently in fixing his wandering thoughts upon it that his See also:work never without difficulty passed the See also:ordeal of inspection. He had acquired a See also:great See also:taste for See also:reading, to gratify which he sometimes shut himself up alone in a See also:barn, afterwards working at his See also:loom " like a See also:horse," to make up for lost See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time. He had also at this See also:period " a See also:passion for making pictures with a See also:pen." Shortly after completing his seventeenth year he became a member of the Baptist See also:- CHURCH
- CHURCH (according to most authorities derived from the Gr. Kvpcaxov [&wµa], " the Lord's [house]," and common to many Teutonic, Slavonic and other languages under various forms—Scottish kirk, Ger. Kirche, Swed. kirka, Dan. kirke, Russ. tserkov, Buig. cerk
- CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN (1826-1900)
- CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910)
- CHURCH, RICHARD WILLIAM (1815–189o)
- CHURCH, SIR RICHARD (1784–1873)
church at Hebden See also:Bridge, with which his parents were connected; and with the view of preparing himself for the ministerial See also:- OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")
office he began about the same time to attend a See also:seminary at Brearley See also:- HALL
- HALL (generally known as SCHWABISCH-HALL, tc distinguish it from the small town of Hall in Tirol and Bad-Hall, a health resort in Upper Austria)
- HALL (O.E. heall, a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. Halle)
- HALL, BASIL (1788-1844)
- HALL, CARL CHRISTIAN (1812–1888)
- HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS (1821-1871)
- HALL, CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN (1816—19oz)
- HALL, EDWARD (c. 1498-1547)
- HALL, FITZEDWARD (1825-1901)
- HALL, ISAAC HOLLISTER (1837-1896)
- HALL, JAMES (1793–1868)
- HALL, JAMES (1811–1898)
- HALL, JOSEPH (1574-1656)
- HALL, MARSHALL (1790-1857)
- HALL, ROBERT (1764-1831)
- HALL, SAMUEL CARTER (5800-5889)
- HALL, SIR JAMES (1761-1832)
- HALL, WILLIAM EDWARD (1835-1894)
Hall conducted by his pastor Dr See also:Fawcett.
After remaining three years at Brearley Hall he was admitted to the Baptist See also:College, See also:Bristol, and on See also:finishing his course of study at this institution he obtained an engagement at Newcastleon-See also:Tyne, where he preached to an See also:audience of less than a See also:hundred persons, in a small and dingy See also:room situated near the See also:river at the See also:top of a See also:flight of steps called Tuthill Stairs. At See also:Newcastle he remained only three months. In the beginning of 1793 he proceeded to See also:Dublin, where, after failing as a preacher, he attempted to revive a classical and mathematical school, but with so little success that he did not prosecute the experiment for more than eight or nine months. From 1797 to 1799 he was minister of a Baptist church at See also:Chichester, but though he applied himself with more earnestness and perseverance than formerly to the See also:discharge of his ministerial duties, his efforts produced little apparent impression, and the See also:gradual diminution of his hearers necessitated his resignation. After employing himself for a few months at See also:Battersea in the instruction of twenty See also:African youths brought to See also:England by Zachary See also:Macaulay, with the view of having them trained to aid as missionaries to their See also:fellow-countrymen, he in 1800 accepted the See also:charge of a small See also:congregation at Downend, Bristol, where he continued about four years. In 1804, chiefly through the recommendation of See also:Robert Hall, he became pastor of a congregation at See also:Frome, but a swelling in the See also:thyroid gland compelled him in ,8o6 to resign his charge. In the same year he published the See also:volume of Essays on which his See also:literary fame most largely if not mainly rests. They were written in the See also:form of letters addressed to the See also:lady whom he afterwards married, and consist of four papers,—" On a See also:Man See also:writing See also:Memoirs of himself "; " On Decision of See also:Character "; " On the Application of the Epithet Romantic and " On some Causes by which Evangelical See also:Religion has been rendered unacceptable to Men of Cultivated Taste." The success of this work was immediate, and was so considerable that on resigning his charge he determined to adopt literature as his profession.
The Eclectic See also:Review was the only periodical with which he established a connexion; but his contributions to that See also:journal, which were begun in 1807, number no fewer than 185 articles. On his See also:marriage in May 18o8 he removed to Bourton-on-the-See also:Water, a small See also:village in See also:Gloucestershire, where he remained till 1817, when he returned to Downend and resumed his duties to his old congregation. Here he published in 182o his See also:Essay on Popular See also:Ignorance, which was the enlargement of a See also:sermon originally preached on behalf of the See also:British and See also:Foreign School Society. In 1821 he removed to Stapleton near Bristol, and in 1822 he began a See also:series of fortnightly lectures at Broadmead See also:chapel, Bristol, which were afterwards published. On the See also:settlement of Robert Hall at Bristol this service was discontinued, as in such circumstances it appeared to Foster to be " altogether superfluous and even bordering on impertinent." The See also:health of Foster during the later years of his See also:life was somewhat infirm, the result chiefly of the toil and effort of literary See also:composition; and the See also:death of his only son, his wife and the greater number of his most intimate See also:friends combined with his bodily ailments to lend additional sombreness to his manner of regarding the events and arrangements of the See also:present world—the " visage of death " being almost his " one remaining luminary." He died at Stapleton on the 15th of See also:October 1843.
The See also:cast of Foster's mind was meditative and reflective rather than logical or metaphysical, and though holding moderately Calvinistic views, his See also:language even in See also:preaching very seldom took the See also:mould of theological forms. Though always retaining his connexion with the Baptist See also:denomination, the evils resulting from organized religious communities seemed to him so great that he came to be " strongly of See also:opinion that churches are useless and mischievous institutions, and the sooner they are dissolved the better." The only See also:Christian observances which he regarded as of any importance were public See also:worship and the See also:Lord's Supper, and it so happened that he never administered the See also:ordinance of See also:baptism. His cast of thought is largely coloured by a See also:constant reference to the " endless future." He was a See also:firm believer in supernatural appearances, and cherished a longing See also:hope that a See also:ray of See also:light from the other See also:world might sometimes in this way be vouchsafed to mortals. As a writer he was most painstaking and laborious in his choice of diction, and his See also:style has its natural consequent defects, though the result is eloquent in its way.
Besides the See also:works already alluded to, Foster was the author of a Discourse on See also:Missions (1818) ; " See also:Introductory Essay " to See also:Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion (1825) ; " Observations on Mr Hall's Character as a Preacher," prefixed to the collected edition of Hall's Works (1832) ; an " Introduction " to a pamphlet by Mr See also:Marshman on the Serampore Missionaries; several See also:political letters to the See also:Morning See also:Chronicle, and contributions to the Eclectic Review, published posthumously in 2 vols., 1844. His Life and See also:Correspondence, edited by J. E. See also:Ryland, was published in 1846.
End of Article: FOSTER, JOHN (177o-1843)
Additional information and Comments
There are no comments yet for this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.
|
del.icio.us it!