1797
[Thomas Twining to Richard Twining, Colchester, 14 December 1797]
[on sermon writing] Of all the tasks in the world, that of being obliged to write upon a certain thing, upon a certain subject, by a certain day, is to me the most irksome. […] At last, however, I get hold of a text, & then a text gets hold of me. Then, as Handel used to say, “I have-a de taught.” One thing brings another.[1]
[1] A Selection of Thomas Twining’s Letters, 1734–1804: The Record of a Tranquil Life, ed. by Ralph S. Walker, 2 vols. (Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991), 2:501.