ad some serious impressions, and God's Spirit began to operate upon
his mind, and when he was six, he often wished that he was a toad or a
serpent, because they had no soul, and were not in danger of being
lost forever. Again he says, that many times before he was ten years
old, he "would have overturned God's government and dethroned the
gracious Author of my being." He enumerates his early vices and lashes
his soul in despair. Such religious sentiments in one so young seem to
mark him as one who had in his soul the elements of a monk, and we
should not have been surprised had he become a zealous disciple of
Saint Francis of Assisi.

Like John Wesley, whose escape from perishing in the burning of the
Epworth parsonage is noted as a remarkable providence, William Black
had a narrow escape from drowning in a large trough when a child, and
this circumstance made a lasting and favorable impression on his mind.
In his mature years he recalled the event with gratitude to God.

Several years of his childhood were spent with his maternal uncle, Mr.
Thomas Stocks, at Otley, where he was placed at school. There he
remained until he was about thirteen years of age, when the
disciplinary rules of the school, and very likely a severe
castigation, so annoyed him, that he left his uncle's care and
returned to his father's home. His father was at that time making
preparations for his voyage to Nova Scotia, and deemed it prudent to
allow the lad to remain with his mother, though he had decided
objections to his apparent ingratitude and stubbornness, in leaving
the home of his uncle. Under the influence of his mother's teaching
and prayers, his religious impressions were deepened, but the jests of
his companions at school made him stifle his convictions, and continue
his career of youthful carelessness and sin.

In April 1775, the whole family, consisting of the father and mother,
with four sons and one daughter, sailed from Hull, and after a
prosperous voyage arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they remained
a fortnight, proceeding afterward to Cumberland, which they reached in
June. A serious blow fell upon the family in their new home, by the
death of Mrs. Black, about a year after they had settled in the
province, she having been seriously injured when boarding the vessel
at Hull. Unfortunately for the lad of sixteen, so sadly bereft of his
good mother's care and influence, he was thrown among gay companions,
who in a new coun