Dedication.
James Dodson
TO THE
REVEREND DR. JOHN B. ROMEYN.
My Dear Sir,
I SEND you this Volume, across the Atlantic, as a tribute of respect and friendship. Should it live beyond the age which gave it birth, this address will serve, at least, to show my sense of your private worth, as well as of your public usefulness and respectability. There are very few men more competent than yourself to judge of the merits of a work on the Apocalyptical predictions. Of all my literary friends, too, you have been the first and the most intimate. Our acquaintance commenced, while engaged in preparatory studies for the ministry of reconciliation, and was speedily ripened into a mutual friendship, which has since continued close and uninterrupted.
I shall always remember with pleasure the select society, in which we both first employed our pens in writing for the public. Our juvenile essays were produced for the MARKSMAN, on the banks of the Mohawk, in connexion with two other valuable friends. One of these, the Rev. Dr. Linn of Philadelphia, alas! was recalled from the service of the church militant, in the morning of his life and his usefulness: but not until he acquired merited celebrity, and chastised with his pen, the man, who ventured to compare Socrates with Jesus Christ—that distinguished philosopher and arch-heretic, Dr. Priestley. Our other fellow-member, Judge Miller, who now holds a seat in the Congress of the United States, still cherishes, amidst the cares of legislation, the friendship of early years. He will join me in the hope, that your voyage may prove the means of re-establishing your health; that your visit to Great Britain, and to the continent of Europe, may prove agreeable and instructive; and that you may be restored in due time, to your friends, to your flock, and to your country,
With great esteem,
I am, Dear Sir,
Your affectionate Friend
and Fellow-Servant,
New-York,
Feb. 2, 1814.