LIFE
 

OF

JOHN KITTO, D. D., F. S. A.
 
BY

JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.D.

 I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor hate a jot
Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer
Right onward. (Milton)
 

FIFTH THOUSAND.
 
EDINBURGH: WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND SONS.
LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.

MDCCCLVIII.

JOHN KITTO, the eminent self-taught biblical scholar, was born at Plymouth, 4th December, 1804. Through the intemperance of his father his childhood was passed in poverty, so that he got no schooling worthy of the name. Having, however, through his grandmother’s kindness learned to read, he devoured all the nursery literature within his reach. When he was about ten years of age he was set to work as assistant to his father who was a mason. On the 13th February, 1817, the little drudge, who was engaged carrying mortar and slates, missed his footing and fell from the roof of a house, down thirty-five feet, into the court beneath. Long he lay in bed afterwards, and by the accident his sense of hearing was completely extinguished.

The poor boy resorted to various contrivances to gain a livelihood, groping for bits of rope and iron in Sutton pool, painting heads and flowers, and preparing labels to replace such as were thus spelled—“Logins for singel men.” The love of reading still grew upon him, victim though he was of hunger and nakedness, and at length the starved and ragged lad was admitted into Plymouth workhouse.

In the workhouse he began to keep a journal—a curious record of his history and privations; his learning to be a shoemaker; his fights with the other boys who teased him; his lamentations over his grandmother’s death; his moralizings on passing events; his being indentured out to a man named Bowden, who made his life so utterly wretched that he twice attempted suicide; and his return a second time to the poorhouse. But the various writings of the pauper youth began to attract attention; a subscription was made for him; and he left the hospital in which he had been an inmate for about four years.

Mr. Groves, then a dentist in Exeter, took him under his charge as an apprentice; and during his stay at Exeter, and in his twentieth year, he published a small volume of essays. Kitto then went to the Missionary college in Islington to learn printing, with a view to mission work abroad. Malta was selected as his field of labour, and there he resided eighteen months. On his return he found Mr. Groves preparing to go as a missionary to the East, and he at once agreed to go with him as tutor to his children—a strange occupation for a deaf and rather feeble and self-willed stripling.

Mr. Groves and his party reached Bagdad on the 6th December, 1829, and Kitto remained till September, 1832. During his stay in Bagdad the city was besieged; the plague broke out and carried off fifty thousand of the population in two months; and the river overflowed its banks, throwing down seven thousand houses. Kitto came home by way of Constantinople, and arrived in England, June, 1833, having kept a pretty full journal of his eastern travels.

He began at once to write in the Penny Magazine, and Mr. Knight engaged him for the Penny Cyclopedia. He had always been fond of theology; his travels had furnished him with a knowledge of oriental customs and peculiarities, and he projected the Pictorial Bible, which was published in monthly parts, and finished in May, 1838. It rose at once into high popularity, and has been several times reprinted. The work was published anonymously, and its success decided what should be the labour of his subsequent years. The “Pictorial History of Palestine” followed; the “Christian Traveller,” of which a few parts only were published; the “History of Palestine:” the “Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature;” the “Pictorial Sunday Book;” and various smaller pieces, the best of which are the “Lost Senses,” the first volume of which is virtually an autobiography, and one of great interest. Then came the “Journal of Sacred Literature,” to which he gave much of his time; and finally the “Daily Bible Illustrations,” in eight volumes, and dedicated to the queen. This work is the most popular of all his productions, as it justly deserves to be. But before this work was concluded he had fallen into bad health. Headaches had plagued him through life; and probably his skull had received some internal injury from the fall in his youth. To secure him some relaxation a sum of money was raised among his friends—a pension of £100 from the civil list having been previously conferred upon him. Broken down and exhausted from constitutional debility and excessive labour, he repaired to Germany and finally settled at Canstatt on the Neckar.

Recovery was hopeless, his days were clouded by family bereavement, and after some hours of severe convulsions he died on the morning of the 25th of November, 1854. A handsome monument, erected by the publisher of his last work, marks the spot where he now sleeps, in the new cemetery of Canstatt. The university of Giessen conferred upon him, though a layman, the degree of D.D. in 1844, and in the following year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries. Dr. Kitto was short in stature, and became rather corpulent in advanced life. His speech, unregulated by his ear, was a kind of guttural thunder. He owed no little of his marvellous success to his religious principle, and to his hopeful and unwearied diligence and perseverance. A few years before his death he was supporting a wife and ten children by his pen; the result being that sometimes for six weeks together he did not leave his house. His was a long and manful struggle against poverty, deafness, and every variety of unpropitious circumstances; but he gained the victory and rose at length to great eminence and extensive usefulness, realizing the self-chosen motto upon his seal—per ardua—JOHN EADIE.

PDF BOOK (2.8mb) "LIFE OF JOHN KITTO" by Rev. John Eadie published 1858AD

  CONTENTS  docx rtf pdf
  PREFACE  docx rtf pdf

I. BIRTH AND BOYHOOD.  docx rtf pdf
II. THE WORKHOUSE.  docx rtf pdf
III. EXETER.  docx rtf pdf
IV. ISLINGTON. docx rtf pdf
V. MALTA.  docx rtf pdf
VI. JOURNEY TO THE EAST.  docx rtf pdf
VII. RESIDENCE IN BAGDAD.  docx rtf pdf
VIII. RETURN FROM THE EAST.  docx rtf pdf
IX. LONDON—FIRST LITERARY ENGAGEMENTS—MARRIAGE—PICTORIAL BIBLE.  docx rtf pdf
X. BIBLICAL AND LITERARY LABOURS—SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC HABITS.  docx rtf pdf
XI. DAILY BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONS—LAST DAYS—DEATH.  docx rtf pdf
XII. GENERAL REVIEW OF CHARACTER AND CAREER. docx rtf pdf