PREFACE. It was not, at first, in my contemplation, to give any biographical sketch of my deceased relative, as he was, during his life, no candidate for popular favour; neither was he ambitious of posthumous fame. I expressed an earnest desire, about six years ago, that he would leave to his surviving friends some literary or theological memorial of himself, and prepare it also for the press,—not committing the selection and arrangement of his manuscripts to the discretion of others: he replied “ that he had no writings whatever in his possession which he intended for publication." I renewed my request, but could obtain no promise of a compliance with it. As, however, this expression of his mind terminated in himself, being accompanied with no prospective restrictions, I felt at liberty to exercise my own judgment, and have, from a vast accumulation of loose miscellaneous papers, (the memoranda chiefly of his own private thoughts), inserted such of them as best accorded with the principal design and limits of this narrative. I need scarcely observe, that if any profit should arise from the sale of this work, it will be appropriated to the use of his family. Peckham Rye, April. |