In Nicholas Ferrar himself, " the Levite in his own house," we have the rare spectacle of a man whose one end in life " was to make himself or others better ;" by his veneration for saints and martyrs entitling himself to like veneration; " spending eighteen hours out of the twenty four in useful business, serious study, devout prayers, or heavenly meditations;" comforting and supporting his companions in every trial; on his death-bed "passing the days and nights in heavenly counsels to all the family;" reprobating the fatal and still prevalent delusion that literary power atones for an author's want of moral purpose...- Introduction to the Life of Nicholas Ferrar