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The Autobiography of the Rev. William Jay
The Autobiography of the Rev William Jay Author:William Jay, John Angell James, George Redford Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: find I must not apply too closely, as it affects my head and my stomach." At this period Mr. Jay was in his seventy-fourth year, and though, as to his preachi... more »ng abilities, possibly as lively and popular as ever, yet as to his recollection of dates, and the order of circumstances, it was scarcely to bo expected that he could avoid some confusion, even if he retained vivid recollections of events and persons through so long a series of years. It does not appear that he had kept any diary or memoranda, and most probably had nothing to aid him but his memory when he first commenced his work. This, however, we believe applies solely to the Autobiography.—The "Reminiscences" were committed to paper much earlier, at least in part. Some of them were evidently written soon after the demise of the subjects of them. Many of these were persona of note and eminence in their day, whose friendship Mr. Jay highly prized ; and all of them had some influence in the formation of his character, or in directing the events and circumstances of his life. Several of the most distinguished subjects of his Reminiscences have had copious and separate biographical works devoted to them. This, however, will not lessen but rather heighten the interest attaching to his recollections. They are entirely his own, and for the most part will be clear additions to the facts, already known, concerning those eminent and excellent persons. Insome instances a clearer light will be thrown on u tain facts, some obscurities will be removed, and some mistakes or misrepresentations corrected. 'We are quite sure Mr. Jay's anecdotes will be highly relished by the admirers of those characters to whom they relate. Concerning his correspondence we have only a very few observations to offer. It appears that Mr. Jay felt a gre...« less