I am glad that you like my scheme of printing a whole Bible from the new translations corrected, and I much approve of your hints respecting it. I shall, I hope, soon be at liberty to attend to this work, and give my time principally to it, as I have made much more progress in my Comparison of the Heathen Moralists with the Christian than I ever expected. This work will please those who like the pamphlet about Socrates.

All this, however, I say on the presumption that my health continues as it is now. I assure you I did not lately expect to live many weeks, and now am feeble in the extreme, not able to mount a common staircase without the help of my arms, with feet and ancles swelled in consequence of this weakness. But, for about a week I have been better, and now have better prospect of a recovery, for which I am very thankful.

My controversy with Dr. Linn has had all the effect that the most sanguine friends of Unitarianism could wish. We have each written two pamphlets, and all his friends are mortified and ashamed for him. I have directed a few copies of each of my pamphlets to be sent to Mr. Vaughan for the use of my friends in general. An Unitarian preacher would now be very acceptable in Philadelphia, and I believe Mr. Christie, who is leaving us, and who is a popular preacher here, will go thither. He is about to take up the controversy with Dr. Linn, and he will do it well. He thinks I have let Dr. Linn off too gently, and is determined to expose his ignorance and presumption, which, indeed, are very great.

I rejoice in your account of the spread of Unitarianism among the common people. This is the base of the pyramid.† See supru, pp. 33, 34.

+ Orig. MS. This concluding letter from Dr. Priestley to Mr. Belsham, may be suitably accompanied by the following extracts from the commencement of their correspondence, of which I was not aware till very lately.

To Rev. T. Belsham. "Birmingham, March 9, 1787. I sent you, by Mr. Wilkinson, a copy of my Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, and I now beg your acceptance of a copy of my Letter to Dr. Horne, &c. You will be pleased, I hope, with the manner in which I address Dr. Price, though you will not be convinced by my arguments. But we agree in thinking, that a Christian spirit is of more value than even Christian truth.”

From Rev. T. Belsham. "Daventry, March 10, 1787. I am particularly pleased with the new and clear light in which you have stated the evidences

TO REV. T. LINDSEY.*

DEAR FRIEND,

Northumberland, Jan. 16, 1804. HAVING just received a box of books from Mr. Johnson, I beg you would make an apology for the impatience I expressed about them. The booksellers in Philadelphia having, some

of Christianity, representing the existence and prevalence of the religion of Christ, as a fact which requires a proper and adequate cause; and with the beautiful analogy which you have pointed out between the evidences of natural and revealed religion.

"I am sorry that you despair of my conversion. I cannot but flatter myself that, though the case be inveterate and alarming, it is not incurable and hopeless, and if the cure should not be accomplished, it shall not be for want of the application of proper remedies. Your former correspondence with Dr. Price opened my eyes upon the subject of necessity, and fixed me in that system, which is my present glory. Who knows whether the present correspondence may not produce a similar effect?

"I am far from having made up my mind upon the subject of controversy between you and your excellent friend. I profess myself a fellow-student with my pupils; a humble but, I hope, a diligent and honest inquirer after truth, willing to follow evidence whithersoever it may lead, and convinced of the indispensable duty of avowing truth at all hazards. And here, Sir, I must aknowledge my great obligation to your writings. To them am I chiefly indebted for the high idea I entertain of the importance of truth, for whatever courage I may possess in the investigation of it, and for whatever fortitude I may feel in the avowal of it. On this account I shall ever feel myself greatly indebted to you, whether my present inquiries after truth should or should not terminate eventually in a coincidence of my sentiments with yours."

To Rev. T. Belsham. "Birmingham, April 15, 1787. I am much obliged by your letter, expressive of that candour and liberality which have always distinguished your character, and cannot fail to do you the greatest honour. That any thing I have written should have made an impression upon such a mind, I consider as a great honour to me. I am far from wishing to make ready converts, as they are seldom steady ones. Besides, I never was a ready convert to any thing myself; but in general a very slow one, thinking long before I decided. Such is the nature and force of prejudice, especially of so long standing as yours and mine, (and we cannot help calling that prejudice, which prevents the reception of our present opinions,) that I shall not think the worse of Dr. Price or of you, though you should continue Arians, notwithstanding all the evidence I shall ever be able to bring in support of my own opinion." See "Memoirs of the late Rev. Thomas Belsham," (1832,) pp. 330-334.

*Essex Street.

time ago, advertised the books they had this season, and no more ships being expected before the river is usually shut up with ice, I despaired of receiving any till the next spring. This box contains many very interesting and some very splendid works, published by Mr. Phillips. They are presents, as he has before sent me very valuable ones. I beg you would tell him how much I think myself obliged to him for them. In my situation, such books are invaluable, especially as my deafness confines me in a manner at home, and my extreme weakness prevents my making any excursions. Winter also keeps me from my laboratory, so that reading and composing are my sole occupations and amusement. Here, too, I have not the convenience of borrowing books.

This situation, however, is not without its advantages. I have abundant leisure, and I have endeavoured to make the most of it. I have now finished and transcribed for the press my Comparison of the Principles of the Grecian Philosophers with those of Revelation, and with more ease and more to my own satisfaction than I expected. They who liked my pamphlet, entitled Socrates and Jesus compared, will not, I flatter myself, dislike this work. It has the same object, and completes the scheme. It has increased my own sense of the unspeakable value of revelation, and must, I think, that of every person who will give due attention to the subject.

I think I told you that, some time ago, I compiled a large Alphabetical Index to all the Books of the Old and New Testament. This I transcribed twice with my own hand, besides writing it first in short-hand. I hope it will be found useful, if it be published. I have sent it to the booksellers in Philadelphia, asking nothing for my labour. I hope that some of them will undertake it.

If my health continue as it is now, (though you little imagine how weak I am,) I shall be glad to superintend an edition of the Bible, from the late versions, correcting some of them. where I can. I want Heath on Job for this purpose. I expected also, in the last parcel, the Annual Register, a number or two of the Philosophical Transactions, and a few copies of

the new edition of my Charts, and a few other articles of less consequence.

I am glad to find, by the public papers, that the ship which carried the fourth volume of my Church History, was arrived at London. You will, therefore, soon see the whole, and I wait with some anxiety to hear what you or Mr. Belsham think of it. I hope you will not think the last article in the general conclusion improper, though there is a manifest allusion to your own case, but without the mention of your name.

We are all anxious to hear the result of the threatened invasion. I have some faint hopes that it will not be undertaken, at least upon England. What confusion and distress would it not occasion, in the most favourable issue! God preserve you, my friend, from the general calamity! How enviable is our situation, compared to yours! Our only consolation must arise from regarding the hand of God in all events, confident that the final issue will be right and good.

Your and Mrs. Lindsey's most affectionately.†

FROM PRESIDENT JEFFERSON.

DEAR SIR, Washington, Jan. 29, 1804. YOUR favour of Dec. 12th came duly to hand, as did the second letter to Dr. Linn, and the treatise on Phlogiston, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr. Livingston has been delivered, together with your letter to him, to Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who departs, in a day or two, for Paris, and will deliver them himself to Mr. Livingston, whose attention to your matter cannot be doubted. I have also to add my thanks to Mr. Priestley, your son, for the copy of your Harmony, which I have gone through with great sa

* W. X. 542.

↑ Orig. MS. Mr. Belsham having inserted the larger part, adds,

"This is the last letter which Dr. Priestly wrote to his venerated and beloved friend. That truly great and excellent man, whose active spirit was incessantly engaged in devising or performing something for the interest of truth and virtue, was released from his labours and sufferings on the 6th of February following." Mem. of Lindsey, p. 543.

tisfaction. It is the first I have been able to meet with which is clear of those long repetitions of the same transaction, as if it were a different one, because related with some different circumstances.

I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the moral doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient philosophers. You are so much in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it easier and better than any other person living. I think you cannot avoid giving, as preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral doctrines, extracted in his own words from the Evangelists, and leaving out every thing relative to his personal history and character. It would be short and precious. With a view to do this for my own satisfaction, I had sent to Philadelphia to get two Testaments (Greek) of the same edition, and two English, with a design to cut out the morsels of morality,* and paste them on the leaves of a book in the manner you describe as having been pursued in forming your Harmony. But I shall now get the thing done by better hands.

Have you seen the new work of Malthus on population? It is one of the ablest I have ever seen. Although his main object is to delineate the effects of redundancy of population, and to test the poor-laws of England, and other palliations for that evil, several important questions in political economy, allied to his subject incidentally, are treated with a masterly hand. It is a single octavo volume, and I have been only able to read a borrowed copy, the only one I have yet heard of. Probably our friends in England will think of you, and give you an opportunity of reading it.

Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.†

• The President's design has been pursued very successfully by the learned Brahmin whose name, at the commencement of this biography, I have, not unsuitably, connected with the name of Priestley. See "The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace and Happiness." By Rammohun Roy. Calcutta, 1820. M. R. XVI. 477, 515.

↑ Memoirs, Correspondence, &c., of Thomas Jefferson, IV. 14, 15.