Susanna Wesley

222 SUSANNA WESLEY.
Martha Wesley, Mrs. Hall, so closely resembled her
brother John in personal appearance, that Dr. Adam
Clarke declared that no one would have known which was
which if they had only been dressed alike. Her handwriting,
also, was very much like his, and this must
have arisen from the fact that when she was about
nineteen she wrote "miserably," to quote her own
expression, and felt very far inferior to Emilia and
Hetty. John, therefore, set her some copies, which
she imitated most carefully, and thus modelled her
calligraphy by his.
We have already seen that she lived with her husband
at Salisbury, and that Mrs. Wesley spent a good
deal of time with them before her removal to the
Foundry. During her residence in that city, Mrs.
Hall had ten children, only one of whom lived beyond
infancy. Mr. Hall was a strange, and, as it proved, an
immoral man. He possessed all the qualifications
necessary for a Mormon elder, and had he lived
in these days, would very probably have joined that
body. A good many of his shortcomings resulted
from reaction after the strain and tension of religious
fervour in his youth he
; began to think for himself,
and to entertain doubts which, though common enough
now, were then regarded with horror. In a word, Mr.
Hall became unorthodox and refused to believe in a
great many doctrines which are now passed over in
silence except by very ardent religionists. This was
the true head and front of his offending in the estimation
of many of John and Charles Wesley's coadjutors,
who condemned him in stronger terms than the
brothers did themselves. Human nature is
prone to
these extremes.
There is a certain hardness about the following letter