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who like myself had been afflicted with great illness in his Childhood – it happened that in my Search for an Electrical Machine to try its medical powers on Mrs Unwin I became acquainted with a good Woman & her Son who had an illeg [?possibly 'decayed'?] \old electrical/ apparatus which She had used for a Complaint in her Legs – the Youth brought this for our Service to Cowpers [sic] & daily acted there as my Electrical assistant. His Father whom Cowper described to me as a very worthy intelligent but unfortunate Man had repeatedly failed in business & was then engaged on a distant Excursion to sell Lace for different Merchants – the Lad asked if I could recommend Him to a post as a Clerk in London as He writes a very good Hand & is deep in Arithmetic – it struck me that He might be very useful in teaching Tom what He had learned so well & by a literary Commerce might acquire a little more Latin & some Greek from his little disciple – I could not afford to give him any Salary as a Secretary above