PREFACE. vii 



letters preserved by his family and friends, I have read several 

 volumes of duplicates in his " manifolds." It was rare for him 

 to correct or to transcribe a letter, or to take any pains in its 

 composition. He wrote " straight on," and was often vexed to 

 find that he had given a wrong impression by "photographing^ 

 a transient condition ) but the great variety of those photo- 

 graphs may keep us from being misled. He liked to regard 

 familiar letters as " written talk." When under pressure, he 

 not only wrote in shorthand to those who could decipher it ; 

 but expressed himself in it (so to speak), concisely and sym- 

 bolically, in a way that might seem odd and startling to staid 

 readers. Though often very reserved as to his inner life, he 

 sometimes let it flow out as a flood. His descriptions of his 

 travels, etc., reveal his intense interest in nature, and his 

 powers of observation. Some may wish that I had copied 

 more of them, instead of painful details of loathsome evils 

 which it was his life-work to remove or abate ; but neither the 

 pleasure of my readers, nor my own, has been my chief object 

 in recording the life of one who sacrificed pleasure to duty. 

 Since he was loved for what he was, even more than for what 

 he did, it seemed best to relate his doings in his own words, if 

 possible. Omissions and a few trifling alterations have been 

 made in his letters ; but I have not wished, for the sake of 

 style, to prune down his characteristic and off-hand expressions. 

 In his English ministry, he was always known as " Philip," 

 according to the usage of the people in that part of the 

 country, which was very congenial to him ; and it would not 

 have been natural for me to write of him, nor of his family, in 

 any more formal way. 



In relating the painful controversy at Warrington, which 

 ultimately led to his separation from his old " household of 



