965 



PRESTON, THOMAS. 



PRICE, EICHARD. 



France, the emperor of Constantinople, and to the king of Portugal, 

 in which he is made to style himself John the High-Priest. (Petis de 

 la Croix, ' Histoire de Gengis Khan.') 



The first European traveller who mentions Prester John was a 

 Franciscan friar, called John Carpini, who was sent, in 1246, nearly 

 half a century after the death of Oungh Khan, by Pope Innocent IV., 

 on a mission to Batou Khan, the son of Gengis, to induce him to 

 restrain the Mongols from their predatory incursions into Russia, 

 Poland, Hungary, and other Christian countries. Carpini did not 

 meet with the Prester John, but appears to have supposed that he 

 lived somewhere farther to the eastward. Several years after Carpini's 

 journey, another Franciscan monk, called Rnbruquis, was sent by 

 Louis IX. of France, who was then in Palestine, A.D. 1253-54, as a 

 missionary to Tartary. The story of Prester John was the cause of 

 the mission. Rubruquia, after great difficulties and privations, reached 

 the camp of Batou Khan in Central Tartary, who forwarded him 

 across the deserts to the court of Mangou, the great khan of Kara- 

 korum, where Rubruquig found no Prester John, but he found some 

 Nestorian priests, as well as some Mohammedan imaurns, with whom 

 he hud several interviews, which however he acknowledges were to 

 little purpose, as the parties could not understand each other. 



Rubruquis says that the Nestorians had greatly exaggerated their 

 own influence in Tartary, as well as the power of the late Oungh 

 Khan, who appears however to have tolerated and even encouraged 

 Christian missionaries in his dominions. 



Mangou gave Rubruquia a letter for the king of France, and 

 ordered him to be supplied with all necessaries for his return home. 

 On his arrival in Palestine, Rubruquis wrote from his convent at 

 Acre an account in Latin of his adventurous journey, which he 

 addressed to Louis, who had returned to France. This curious narra- 

 tive is written with much simplicity and greater veracity than that 

 of his predecessor Carpini. It is printed in Purchas's collection of 

 travels, and in Bergeron's ' Voyages fails en Asie, par Benjamin de 

 Tudela, Carpin, Rubruquis,' ftc. 



The existence of a Christian sovereign in Asia called Prester John, 

 continued to be believed in Europe till the end of the 15th century, 

 when the Portuguese, having reached India by the way of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, set about looking for Prester John in that country, 

 but without success, though they found a community of Nestorian 

 Christians on the Coromandel coast. At last Pedro Covilham hap- 

 pened to hear that there was a Christian prince in the country of the 

 Abessineo, not far from the Red Sea, and he concluded that this must 

 be the true Prester John. He accordingly went tbither and penetrated 

 to the court of the king of Habbeeb, who was then in Jshoa. It must 

 be remarked however that the 'negus ' or king of Habbeah had never 

 assumed the name of Prester John. 



(Ludolf, Hillary of Ethiopia, b. xi ; Tellez, Uisto/ria Gcral de 

 Ethiopia, b. xi.) 



PRESTON, THOMAS, was a master of arts of Cambridge and a 

 fellow of King's College ; and he was afterwards created a doctor of 

 law and master of Trinity Hall. In 1564 he acted with great applause 

 before Queen Elizabeth, in Rightwise's Latin play of Dido. About 

 the same time, or a little earlier, he wrote 'A Lamentable Tragedy, 

 mixed full of pleasant mirth, containing the life of Cambises king of 

 Persia, &c., and last of all his odious death by God's justice appointed : 

 done in such order as followeth,' This rude and imperfect old piece 

 is curious from its early place in the history of the English drama ; 

 but its tumidity made it a fair mark for Falstaff in proposing to be 

 tragical " in King Cambyses' vein." The play is printed, from the 

 undated black letter edition, in Hawkins's ' Origin of the English 

 Drama,' 1773. 



PRICE, RICHARD, was bom at Tynton in Glamorganshire, 

 February 23, 1723. His father Rice Price, of whose second marriage 

 Richard waa the sole offspring, was a rigid Calvinistic minister, remark- 

 able for bis intolerance, who spared no pains to imbue his son with 

 Bound Calvinistic doctrine. Richard however began early to claim 

 the privilege of free opinion, and by his scruples often incurred the 

 anger of his parent. The latter died in 1739, and by his will the bulk 

 of the property, which appears to have been considerable, came into 

 the possession of one son, the widow and six other children being left 

 in utraitened circumstances to provide for their own maintenance. 

 The widow and the eldest son survived this event only a few months, 

 and shortly after Richard, then in his eighteenth year, resolved on 

 proceeding to London in the hope of qualifying himself for the clerical 

 profession. The heir of his father's fortune provided him with both 

 horse and servant as far aa Cardiff, but left him without the means 

 of performing the rest of the journey except on foot or in a waggon. 

 His education during his father's lifetime had been superintended by 

 several dissenting ministers, and on reaching the metropolis, he 

 obtained, through the interest of a paternal uncle, admission to a 

 dissenting academy, where he pursued his studies in mathematics, 

 philosophy, and theology. In 1743 he engaged himself as chaplain 

 and companion to the family of Mr. Streath field of Stoke Newington. 

 Here he continued to reside during the ensuing thirteen years, at the 

 end of which the engagement terminated by the death of Mr. Streath- 

 neld, who left him some small property. About tho same time his 

 circumstances were further improved by the death of his uncle, and 

 by his receiving the appointment of morning preacher at Newington 



Green Chapel. He married in 1757. The year following he published 

 his 'Review of the principal Questions and Difficulties hi Morals," 

 8vo, Lond., 1758 and 1787, a work which, though designated by 

 Brown as " very elaborate, very tedious, but not very clear," seeais 

 to have established his reputation as a metaphysician and moralist. 

 In 1767 he waa applied to by a committee of gentlemen connected 

 with the legal profession for his opinion of a plan which they contem- 

 plated adopting in order to secure an annuity to their surviving 

 widows. This drew his attention to the defective character of the 

 principles upon which many similar societies had been already insti- 

 tuted, and induced him to write his ' Treatise on Reversionary Pay- 

 ments,' 8vo, Lond., 1769, the publication of which was the almost 

 immediate cause of the dissolution of several of those societies, and 

 the beneficial modification of others. It haa since passed through five 

 editions; the last is that edited by Mr. Wm. Morgan, in 2 vols., 8vo, 

 Lond., 1803. 



In 1776 appeared his ' Observations on Civil Liberty and the Justice 

 and Policy of the War with America." So highly was this work appre- 

 ciated by the advocates of American independence, that an application 

 was made to the author to permit the publication of a cheap edition, 

 which he readily conceded. la a few months nearly 60,000 copies 

 are said to have been disposed of, and among the many congratulatory 

 addresses which he received on the occasion, the corporation of Lon- 

 don testified their " approbation of his principles and the high sense 

 they entertained of the excellence of his observations on the justice 

 and policy of the war with America," by presenting him with a gold 

 box inclosing the freedom of the city. Two years later (1778) the 

 American Congress, through their commissioners, Dr. Franklin and 

 others, communicated to him their desire to consider him a citizen of 

 the United States, and to receive his assistance in regulating their 

 finances, assuring him that, in the event of his deeming it expedient 

 to remove with his family to America for that purpose, a liberal pro- 

 vision should be made for requiting his services. This invitation was 

 declined, on the ground of his being ill-qualified to render the assist- 

 ance sought, his connections with this country, and hia fast advance- 

 ment into the evening of life ; adding, that he looked to the United 

 States as being then the hope and likely soon to become the refuge of 

 mankiud. 



Dr. Price died in London in 1791, surviving but few years his wife 

 and several of his most eminent and intimate friends, among whom 

 were Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke College, Oxford ; Mr. Howard, 

 the philanthropist, and Dr. Franklin. During the latter part of his 

 life he suffered severely from an affection of the bladder. The 

 honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him in 1769 

 by the University of Glasgow, through the instrumentality of his 

 friends, and apparently without their intentions having been previously 

 made known to him. He was a firm believer in the immateriality of 

 the soul, and considered that the Scriptures authorised the opinion 

 that there L no state of action or perception between death and the 

 eternal judgment. D. Priestley and Price, notwithstanding their 

 frequent controversies, were always on terms of the closest friendship, 

 and Dr. Priestley preached a highly eulogistic funeral sermon on his 

 death. For further information the reader is referred to the ' Memoirs 

 of the Life of Richard Price, D.D., by William Morgan, F.R.S.," 

 London, 1815, 8vo., from which this notice has been principally 

 drawn. 



The works of Dr. Price not already referred to are 1, ' Four Dis- 

 sertations on Providence, Prayer, the State of Virtuous Men after 

 Death, and Christianity,' 8vo, 1766-68 ; 2, ' The Nature and Dignity 

 of the Human Soul,' 8vo, 1766; 3, 'An Appeal to the Public on the 

 subject of the National Debt,' 8vo, 1772-74 ; 4, ' An Essay on the 

 Present State of the Population in England and Wales, with Morgan 

 on Annuities," 8vo, 1779 ; 5, ' The Vanity, Misery, and Infamy of 

 Knowledge without suitable Practice,' 8vo, 1779; 6, 'An Essay on the 

 Population of England from the Revolution to the present time," 8vo, 

 1780 ; 7, ' The State of the Public Debts and Finances at signing the 

 Preliminary Articles of Peace in January 1783,' 8vo, 1783 ; 8, ' Post- 

 script to same," 8vo, 1784; 9, 'Observations on the Importance of the 

 American Revolution and the Means of making it Useful to the World," 

 8vo, 1784 ; 10, 'A Discourse on the Love of our Country,' 8vo, 1789- 

 90; 11, 'Britain's Happiness aud its full Possession of Civil and Reli- 



1787: 13, 'On the Expectations of Lives, the Increase of Mankind, 

 the influence of great towns on Population, and particularly of the 

 state of London, with respect to healthfulness and number of inhabit- 

 ants," Phil. Trans., 1769 ; 14, ' On the Insalubrity of Marshy Situations," 

 Ib., 1774; 15, 'On the Difference between the Duration of Human 

 Life in Town and in Country Parishes and Villages," Ib., 1775; 16 

 ' Short and Easy Theorems for finding in all cases the difference 

 between the values of Annuities payable yearly, half-yearly, quarterly, 

 and monthly,' Ib., 1776; 17, 'On the Proper Method of calculating 

 the Value of Reversions depending on Survivorship,' Ib., 1790 ; 18, 

 ' On the Effect of the Aberration of Light on the Time of the Transit 

 of Venus over the Sun's Disk,' Ib., 1790. The ' Transactions ' of tho 

 year 1763 contain an essay on the solution of a problem in the theory 

 of probabilities, which, though not entirely the work of Dr. Price 



