Page:The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley - Volume 5.djvu/18

 friends, and were well deserving of preservation in a more permanent form. It is a curious fact that the poet was unable to publish his compositions until a subscription list was opened. In the "Proposals" it is stated that half the price of the two volumes would be expected on subscribing, and the other half on the completion of the work; and on learning that the total price was to be but six shillings, we gain a good idea of the circumstances of the author and many of his patrons. We may well honour the poverty of both: the one because it was endured for the Gospel's sake; the other because it sought consolation and relief in these exalted strains.

A second but less correct edition of these Poems issued from the same printing-office seven years after the first. Since that time they have not been reprinted until now. If the magnitude of the undertaking to reprint the Wesley poetry entire, renders it necessary to ask that subscribers who have not done so, would at once prepay their subscriptions for the remaining volumes, the author's precedent may still be justly pleaded: and it is satisfactory to note that, not withstanding the depreciation of money in a hundred and twenty years, the price per volume to subscribers remains much the same as at first.