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have deservedly been censured . To the object of recording the life and labours of such a man a larger volume might with propriety have been devoted . Not that we are ungrateful to Mr- Morgan for what he has communicated concerning his honoured relative , but that we wish he had communicated more .
Surely a fuller account of Dr . Price's writings might have been presented to the world with signal pertinency and advantage . The biographer , we believe , has not even enumerated them perfectly : at least , we recollect that , some years before the American Revolution , his uncle published a sermon on the privileges of Britons . A short analaysis also of the several works of this author , would
have been appropriate , interesting and useful : and to some of them , in particular , the habits and attainments of Mr . M . must have qualified him , in more than an ordinary degree , for rendering this act of justice . The life of a literary man is , for the most part , divided and marked by his publications . He therefore who frames a
narrative of it , if he be diligent and skilful , will intermingle with biography a reasonable portion of criticism : lie will lay before his readers an outline of sentiments , trains of argument , deductions , &c . and will thus assist them in judging of the complexion , the progress and the operations of the writer ' s mind .
Dr , Price obtained no vulgar reputation as a writer on metaphysics , on chances and annuities , on politics and political economy , and on the evidences , doctrines and duties of revelation
But the information with which Mr . M . has ^ favoured us con cerning his relative ' s productions in these several departments of science and learning , is extremel y meagre .
His Treatise on Morals , for example , able and ingenious as it must be prono unced even by those who lament its abstruseness and dissent from many of its conclusions , and though ack nowled ged by Mr . M . to convey , "ithe third edition , the author ' s"
mafurest ' thoughts on one of the most important subjects that can exercise l human mind / ' gives occasion to ? % a few sentences in the Memoirs . w know not that it would have been ^ violation of propriety if the biogra-Ptoer had added a , concise abridgment
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of a work so original and vigorous * Granting , nevertheless , that this would have been an unreasonable digression , still what could forbid him to point out the characteristic object , to sketch the leading features , of the volume , to shew in what respects , and on what
considerations , Dr . P . differs from former metaphysicians ? These re * marks apply with equal force to his discussion , in another work , of the doctrines of materialism and philosophical necessity , as maintained by his friend Dr * Priestley .
From Mr . Morgan's pen we yet more strongly expected a succinct and clear description of his uncle ^ s la * bours in rendering the doctrine of chances available to purposes of great utility , personal , domestic and public * Nor was the expectation irrational * Memoirs of Dr . Price , which are
almost silent on the specific nature of those studies and calculations that have spread his fame throughout Europe , correspond not with their title * In vain will the biographer allege
that in another of his works we may perhaps meet with what we cannot find in this . The very matter of out complaint , is its absence here , in pages where it ought to have been inserted , and which , for such an
endmight have been conveniently broken into distinct chapters . Previously to a perusal of the Memoirs , every well-informed person knows that Dr . Price was the author
of some tracts on politics . Little however is said by his nephew respecting their contents—little indeed in proportion to their magnitude and value . The venerable man of whom we are
speaking , ranks among the most elo-.. quent and disinterested advocates of both civil and religious liberty , among the most decided foes of all invasions of the rights of conscience . We should
not have been sorry if these pages had exhibited him more prominently in this light—had unfolded more largely his generous principles of government .
Nor would Mr . M . have incurred our censure hud he left on record an ampler notice of his relation ' s Dissertations and Sermons . Both merit it : for they will continue to be read with delight and improvement by men of various classes and sentiments ; and they minister to the noblest purposes of human life , to objects before which
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Review . — Morgans Life ofPrke * 5 JQ
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1815, page 579, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1764/page/47/
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