JANUARY 28
When I had been a member of the University about ten years, I wrote and talked much as you do now. But then I talked to plain people in the Castle or the town, I observed they gaped and stared. This quickly obliged me to alter my style and adopt the language of those I spoke to. And yet there is a dignity in this simplicity, which is not disagreeable to those of the highest rank. … You are a Christian minister, speaking and writing to save souls. Have this end always in your eye, and you will never designedly use a hard word. Use all the sense, learning and fire you have; forgetting yourself, and remembering only these are souls for whom Christ died.
to the Reverend Samuel Furly, 1764
I would do just as I do now – all the good I can while I live.
Journal, 26th October, 1771
