rance of the language. They quarrelled; he nursed them through the small-pox and saved their lives in a boat accident on the Rhône. A letter, however, from Day himself at Avignon to Edgeworth (R. L. Edgeworth, i. 220), giving a very favourable account of their temper and his contentment with the experiment, throws a doubt upon these stories. On his return Lucretia, being ‘invincibly stupid,’ was placed with a milliner, where she did well and ultimately married a ‘respectable linendraper.’ He left Sabrina with Bicknell's mother while he settled his affairs at home, and in the spring of 1770 brought her (then aged thirteen) with him to Lichfield. Edgeworth had there introduced him to the circle of which Erasmus Darwin [q. v.] was the great literary light.
He took a house at Stow Hill, near Lichfield, and tried experiments upon Sabrina. As she screamed when he fired pistols (only loaded with imaginary ball) at her petticoats, and started when he dropped melted sealing wax on her arms, he judged her to fall below the right standard of stoicism. She betrayed secrets meant to test her reticence, and cared little for books or science. These stories again rest upon the very doubtful authority of Miss Seward. After a year Day placed Sabrina in a boarding school at Sutton-Coldfield, for the sensible reason, according to Edgeworth, that her age made it undesirable that she should continue to live with him ‘without a protectress’ (Edgeworth, i. 240). Day now became attentive to Honora Sneyd, the object of Major André's early attachment. Honora would not consent to his proposed plan of complete seclusion, and he turned to her sister Elizabeth. Both ladies objected to the want of refinement due to his philosophical prejudice against the corruptions of a luxurious society. Day's love induced him to compromise with his principles, and he went to Paris with Edgeworth, where they saw Rousseau. They passed the winter at Lyons, where Day studied dancing and fencing to fit himself for Elizabeth Sneyd. Edgeworth describes him reading a book with his legs screwed up between two boards in the vain hope of straightening them. It is said that the poor of Lyons had received so much from him that when he left they held a meeting and requested him to leave money to supply their wants during his absence. He returned to Lichfield with his new accomplishments, but Elizabeth Sneyd unkindly declared that she preferred the ‘blackguard’ (as he had called himself before) to the ‘fine gentleman.’ Sabrina had now developed into a charming young lady, and Day again turned to her, until some trifling deviation from his system convinced him that she wanted strength of mind (Edgeworth, i. 334). She afterwards lived with a lady in the country, retained her respect for Day, and finally, with his reluctant consent, married Bicknell, then a fairly prosperous barrister. Day paid the promised portion of 500l., and on Bicknell's death three years later allowed the widow 30l. a year. She became the housekeeper of Dr. Charles Burney, the Greek scholar [q. v.] Honora and Elizabeth Sneyd became the second and third wives of his friend Edgeworth. Day now took up his residence in London. He made some continental tours, and he became an author. His first publication was ‘The Dying Negro,’ a poem of which Bicknell had suggested the plan. The third edition was dedicated to Rousseau, and denounces the inconsistency of the American patriots in maintaining slavery. Two later poems are devoted to a denunciation of the American war. Day advocated the same principles in prose, denouncing American slavery in some ‘Reflections on the Present State of England and the Independence of America.’ Meanwhile he had been attracted by a Miss Esther Milnes of Wakefield, who was known to his friends, especially to Dr. Small, one of the Lichfield set, and was a woman of considerable culture, who had herself written juvenile poems, and appreciated Day's writings. He was deterred from offering himself by her possession of a fortune and his consequent doubt of her willingness to submit to his conditions. She loved him, however, devotedly; Small encouraged him to come forward, and after two years they came to an understanding. She was to live as ascetically as he wished. At his desire her fortune was placed beyond his control, that she might retreat from the experiment if it proved too painful, and they were married at Bath 7 Aug. 1778.
They passed the winter at Hampstead, where Edgeworth found Mrs. Day exemplifying her husband's principles by walking upon the heath in the snow, and so successfully curing her supposed delicacy. In 1779 Day bought a house at Abridge in Essex. Mrs. Day was allowed no servants, and had to give up her harpsichord. ‘We have no right to luxuries,’ said Day, ‘while the poor want bread.’ He studied architecture, and astonished the builder by having a wall made first and windows knocked out afterwards. He took an ardent part in the politics of the day, denouncing sinecures, and delivering addresses which were published by the Constitutional Society. He declined, however, to put himself forward for a seat in parliament, preferring to take Cincinnatus for his
