and to have recovered my usual good state of health, I am now again, I thank God, pretty well, and nearly as busy as formerly. I have received a letter from Mr. Jefferson on the subject of my pamphlet about Socrates, which I will copy, and send it you the next post. I wish I could send you all his letters; but they are rather too long to copy, and a specimen or two may be sufficient.* DEAR FRIEND, TO THE SAME. Northumberland, April 23, 1803. In my last, I promised to send you a copy of Mr. Jefferson's letter, on reading my pamphlet, entitled, "Socrates and Jesus compared." The abovet is that copy. He is generally considered as an unbeliever. If so, however, he cannot be far from us, and I hope in the way to be not only almost but altogether what we are. He now attends public worship very regularly, and his moral conduct was never impeached. I should on several accounts be glad to make the visit he proposes, but my business will not admit of it. I am at present employed in composing an Alphabetical Index to the Bible, a work that I have often wanted myself, and I know of nothing of the kind besides Pilkington's rational Concordance, which is a very imperfect work. I have often wondered that when there is such a demand for Concordances, so little has been done in this way. If a particular text be wanted, and a principal word in it be recollected, a Concordance will answer the purpose, but not when a subject is wanted, and no particular word recollected, as in the prophetical and historical articles, as well as many others. * Orig. MS. ↑ Supra, p. 508. Dr. Priestley's opinion is obviously founded on the sentiments expressed by the President, confirmed by his public and private deportment. Yet "he cannot be far from us," when separated from these considerations, was an expression too well adapted to serve an insidious purpose, to have escaped the handling of polemics, skilled to misrepresent, if not to calumniate, rather than to draw fair conclusions from correct premises. Dr. Hutton has very lately exposed and confuted a gross perversion of Dr. Priestley's language on this subject. See "Unitarian Christianity Vindicated," p. 143. We are printing the index to the fourth volume of the Church History, and in this we proceed very slowly. I hope we shall do better when we begin the Notes on the Scriptures.* TO THE SAME. DEAR FRIEND, Northumberland, June 4, 1803. I HAVE been made very happy by the receipt of yours of Jan. 16, written almost wholly with your own hand, though closed by Mrs. Lindsey, on account of your suffering by the influenza, which seems to have been almost universal with you. Here, too, we have had a great deal of sickness, more than any person remembers in any former time. This day fortnight I got a dangerous fall on my left hip, with a strain of the muscles of that thigh, in consequence of which I have been very lame, and obliged to use crutches. Now, however, I can walk with a stick, though with pain. I have no fear but I shall get gradually better, though I shall probably never recover the perfect use of the left thigh. In other respects I am better than I have been for a long time, and do as much of such work that I am capable of, as ever, for which I am very thankful. I cannot indeed at present do any thing in my laboratory, but this I could not expect to do much longer. Having finished my Notes on the Scriptures, I have now nearly completed an alphabetical index to them. It has been a very laborious work. I first made the index from the Bible as I would for any other book, and then added whatever I thought valuable from Pilkington,† which is very valuable in several respects, but exceedingly defective in others. My pamphlet entitled "Socrates and Jesus compared," has been answered by a Mr. Linn, pastor of the first Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, a young man of considerable ability, in which he has introduced the doctrines of the divinity of Christ and the atonement. I have just printed a reply to him,‡ by which I hope to procure a public discussion of those subjects, which is much wanted here. He has, from his ignorance * Orig. MS. + "Rational Concordance, 1749." See W. XXV. 196. Dr. Linn died, 1804, aged 26. of the subjects, given me all the advantage that I could wish. His letter is very respectful to me, and mine is as much so to him, so that I hope the controversy will be conducted in the best manner. I close my Notes on the Pentateuch with a dissertation,* in which I shew, in about twenty different articles, the impossibility of Moses having derived any of his institutions from Egypt, or any other nation, or from any superior wisdom of his own. Of this I mean to print some copies as a pamphlet,† which I hope will be of some use. I thank Mrs. Lindsey for the various articles of news she has sent me. P. S. The noble benefaction of 100+ Mr. William Vaughan has mentioned to his brother here. The 401. from the Duke always appears in his account. I wish I better deserved the many favours I receive; but I can truly say, that I do not fail to do every thing in my power; and the studies they wish me to pursue are those that I apply to, con amore. § My philosophical benefactors are all dropped off; but in this I can do all that I am now capable of, which is not much.¶ DEAR FRIEND, To THE SAME. Northumberland, July 11, 1803. BEFORE this time I hope you will have seen the three first volumes of the Church History, and the fourth was to follow the first opportunity. * W. XI. 15. + See the Preface, W. XXV. 338. From Dr. John Law, Bishop of Elphin. See W. IX. iv. § See I. 121. See I. 214-217. In the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, is preserved the original of the following engagement, for the knowledge and a copy of which, I have been indebted to the Rev. James Yates: "We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, agree to pay the following sums respectively to Dr. Joseph Priestley, for the sole purpose of enabling him to prosecute his experimental inquiries into the properties of air and other natural bodies, and to continue the payment of the same sum annually for three successive years, commencing from the first of this present year, 1779. William Constable, 10., John Fothergill, 107., Richard Price, 51." ¶ Orig. MS. You know I often make long prefaces. There is one to the first, besides a small one to the fourth volume. I have one as long to the Notes on the Scriptures. It is designed principally to obviate objections to the Mosaic History; though this has been my object in many of my notes. As there is not now any prospect of a new translation of the Bible, by order of the English government, and if there was, it might not be much regarded at present, I wish we had the best of the new translations printed uniformly in one book. This, I think, may be done here as well as with you, and I shall endeavour to persuade some bookseller to undertake it. I wish you and Mr. Belsham would give me your opinion and advice with respect to it. For this purpose I want Newcome's translation of the New Testament, Williams's of the Song of Solomon, and Horsley's Hosea. These I have not seen, and I wish Mr. Johnson would send them, so that I might receive them before winter. Which translation of the Psalms would you recommend? There are several good ones. Dr. Geddes I could not use for the historical books, owing to the quaintness of his style in so many places. The common one, with corrections, may do for these. I am concerned at the renewal of the war, and cannot see any just cause for it on either side. I had hoped that there would have been peace the remainder of my time. It must be the occasion of much distress to both countries. Every thing promises well with us; but the seasons have been exceedingly unfavourable. A late frost destroyed all our fruits, and now we suffer much from drought.* DEAR SIR, TO REV. T. BELSHAM.† Northumberland, Aug. 6, 1803. IT is now a considerable time since I have heard from you or Mr. Lindsey, and I am a little anxious about the regularity of our correspondence since the unexpected breaking out of the war. St. Domingo must surely now be abandoned to the blacks; and will not the English colonies be affected by the example? It may be the manner in which Divine Providence is preparing the way for the emancipation of all the negroes in this part of the world, and introducing a better state of things. The inhabitants of our southern provinces begin to be seriously alarmed at the number and refractory spirit of their slaves, and many are removing into the Genesee, and other parts, for fear of insurrections from them. We are very happily free from all apprehensions about them in this state. Measures were many years ago taken for their gradual emancipation, and in a few years more there will not be one in all Pennsylvania.* We are happily at peace here, and without the most distant prospect of war. The opposition was clamorous for taking possession of New Orleans by force; but now that, and all Louisiana, is gained without it, and in a mannner much more likely to be permanent. Had it remained in the possession of France, it would no doubt have been taken from them by the English, and they would have completely inclosed all the United States to the west. But the increasing population of this country would in time have burst through that feeble barrier. So much for politics. It will now, however, become interesting to us theologians who are read in prophecy. What does Mr. Bicheno think? He will probably say that the vintage might be expected to follow the harvest, and that the war of Armageddon is not yet over. This war very much resembles the Peloponnesian, which was renewed after a formal peace, and ended in the overthrow of Athens, which had the advantage when the peace was made. My health is at present tolerable, but very precarious. I cannot eat any flesh meat, but live chiefly on broth and soups, &c. The defect is in the stomach and liver, and of no common kind. If I hold out till I have finished what I have now in hand, I shall retire from the scene, satisfied and thankful. Few persons have had more cause to be so, for few have enjoyed See also " an act (1784) of Connecticut." Amer. Ann. II. 383. |