THE WORKS OF THE 1764-1831 REV. ROBERT HALL, A.M. WITH A MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE, BY DR. GREGORY; REMINISCENCES, BY PREACHER, BY THE REV. JOHN FOSTER. PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF OLINTHUS GREGORY, LL.D., F.R.A.S., PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY; AND JOSEPH BELCHER, D.D. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. II I. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 329 & 331 PEARL STREET, FRANKLIN SQUARE. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-four, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. ON the death of an individual so admired and revered as MR. HALL, nothing was more natural than that a desire to possess a complete collection of his Works should be extensively felt, and almost as extensively expressed; the admirable genius and excellent spirit which pervade his compositions, as well as the singularly beautiful language in which his sentiments are generally conveyed, giving to them a very unusual fitness to instruct and impress the minds of men. After a few conversations of a select number of Mr. Hall's intimate friends, it was resolved that a complete edition should be prepared as soon as possible; partly as a proper mark of respect for so distinguished a writer; partly, as conducive to the comfort of his family; and, partly, with a view to meet the desire so strongly felt and declared, as well as to give the utmost possible universality and permanency to the benefits which were likely to accrue from a correct and uniform edition. The intimate friendship which had very long subsisted between Mr. Hall and myself, and the unreserved frankness with which it was well known he often spoke to me of some of his productions, and the plans which he had formed as to the orderly republication of the chief of them, led his family and many of his friends to express a most earnest wish that I would undertake the superintendence of the proposed Work. And although an almost entire want of leisure from heavy official and other engagements strongly induced me to decline the undertaking, yet the matter was so urgently pressed upon me, and every argument employed received so powerful an accession from my sincere veneration and affection for Mr. Hall, and my cordial esteem and regard for his excellent widow, that I could not withhold my assent. My reluctance was greatly diminished on finding that, in the preparation and arrangement of the volumes, I could, in every case where such aid seemed expedient, avail myself of the valuable judgment of Mr. Foster, and of another friend, the |