The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. I - Enter His Rest

PREFACE.
IX Lives of Wesley have been already published, besides sketches
Salmost innumerable. What then justifies the present writer in
publishing another?
Hampson's, ready for the press when Wesley died, is extremely
meagre, and was the work of an angry writer. Coke and Moore's, issued
in 1792, was a hasty publication, written currente calamo, to get
possession of the market; and, like most things done in haste, was
exceedingly imperfect. Whitehead's, dated 1793-6, was composed in the
midst of disgraceful contentions, and was tinged with party feeling.
Southey's, printed in 1820, has literary charms; but, unintentionally, is full
of errors, and, for want of dates and chronological exactitude, is
extremely confusing. Moore's, published in 1824, is the fullest and most
reliable; but, to a great extent, it is a mere reprint of Whitehead's, given to
the public about thirty years previously. Watson's, issued in 1831, was not
intended to supersede larger publications, but was "contracted within
moderate limits, and" avowedly "prepared with special reference to
general readers."
These are the chief Lives of Wesley. Smaller ones are too numerous
to be mentioned; and, besides that, they are not lives, but sketches.
The publications of Hampson, of Coke and Moore, of Whitehead, and
of Moore, have long been out of print. Two Lives are still on
sale,—Southey's and Watson's; but the former is defective in details, and
is incorrect and misleading; and the latter, as already stated, was never
meant to occupy the place of a larger work.
It has long been confessed that a Life of Wesley, worthy of the man,
is a desideratum. Hampson, Coke, Moore, and Whitehead used, with a
sparing hand, the materials which were already accessible to all, and
added a few original papers, for the preservation of which every one feels
grateful. Southey acknowledges that he "had no private sources of
information"; and, in the list of books from which his materials were