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British Library, Add MS 28603. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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I have to thank you for some excellent brawn, & Calvert, who is not more fond of writing than some of his neighbours, has requested me to convey his thanks also.
Mr Clark
Last night I received a singular & gratifying proof that in some of my late endeavours I have not altogether been
labouring in vain. A circular letter was sent me from the Bristol Church of England Tract Society,wou must be written in a popular manner, & addressed as much to the feelings as to the
understanding. If we would act upon men to any good purpose, we must win their attention first, & I am afraid that the Homilies
& the writings of the Reformers are not suited to this purpose. The other publications which the Society proposes cannot fail of
being useful, – I am only anxious that none of their funds should be misdirected in printing what is little likely to be read.
The specific object which I proposed in that reviewal, – that of making the people acquainted with the history of their
own church,st
the what were the superstitions of the various nations from whom we are descended – the Britons, Romans & Northern
Tribes, with the effect of those superstitions upon the manners & morals, – consequently upon the happiness of society, – these
being the evils from which England was delivered by its conversion to Christianity. 2dly a picture of Popery &
the evils from which the Reformation delivered us. 3dly Puritanism rampant & the evils from which the
restoration of the church delivered us. – 4thly a picture of Methodism & the wilder sects, showing what the
evils are from which the Church Establishment preserves us. Under the three first heads the history of the English Church would be
included, with biographical sketches of all its greatest characters. – In the composition my aim would be so to write as to impress the
feelings of the young, making every thing as level as possible to their capacity, in the manner, & as impressive as possible to
their imagination, while the matter should stand the test of critical examination & satisfy the maturest judgement. I should call
it, the Book of the Church, & (if I write it) shall not improbably accompany it with a Book of the Constitution
The Ladies