340 OUR HYMNS I
alliance of the Hobarts and Seymours. Favoured with intellectual parents and a thorough education, Mr. Seymour was early dis tinguished. He early wrote in verse, and all his numerous compositions of that period were exclusively of a religious cha racter. " When quite a youth he was providentially led to a chapel, which had formerly belonged to the Countess of Hun tingdon, and there for the first time heard an unvarnished tale of Him who died upon the cross to save the chief of sinners."
When just arriving at manhood, Mr. Seymour was seriously afflicted hy the bursting of a vessel in the lungs. While thus afflicted, and obliged to lie on his back, he composed a work which contains some of his hymns and poetical compositions. It is entitled, " Vital Christianity exhibited in a Series of Letters on the most Important Subjects of Religion, addressed to Young Persons," 1810. This work was followed by the publication of Dr. Gillies " Life of Whitefield." This was an improved and enlarged edition, with the addition of sketches of Whitefield s eminent contemporaries. It did good service in Ireland, where at that time earnest ministers of the Gospel scarcely dared to declare themselves. In 1816, Mr. Seymour prefixed a memoir to the " Beliques of Ancient Irish Poetry, by Miss Charlotte Brooke." In preparing this work he was assisted by Miss Edgeworth and some other eminent writers, and by it he was introduced to Mrs. Hannah More and other literary celebrities.
" In conjunction with a younger brother, long since deceased, and another young friend, graduates in the University of Dublin, he was instrumental in collecting a band of the students to meet together for the purpose of praying, reading, and expounding the Scriptures, and singing hymns. In a very short time the number amounted to nearly forty, nearly all of whom entered the ministry in the Established Church, and filled posts of usefulness in various parts of the kingdom." Mr. Seymour is the venerable survivor of that useful band.
His last, but most laborious work, was the " Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon," two volumes, 1839, which
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