ON MENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY. BY JAMES RICHARDS, D.D., LATE PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT WITH A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE, BY SAMUEL H. GRIDLEY, PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION, WATERLOO, NEW YORK. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, Brick Church Chapel, opposite City Hall. 1846. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by M. W. DODD, In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court, for the Southern District of the State of New York. PREFACE. SOMETHING, it is supposed, should be said by way of introducing the following pages to the attention of the reader. In the first place, it perhaps ought to be stated, that however desirable it may be that some memorial of the Life and Character of Dr. Richards should be preserved, it is quite evident that nothing in the shape of biography was contemplated on his part. He kept no journal of his religious exercises, or of the important events of his life; and his written allusions to his early history, made in later years, are, for the most part, incidental in their character. A single scrap found among his papers, containing a few dates relating to change of place, and reaching as far as to the time of his going to Auburn, is the only document put into the hands of the compiler, which seems to have been written with a design to perpetuate the remembrance of anything connected with his history. It is also proper to state, that of the benefit of his written correspondence, beyond the pale of his own family, the writer has been able to avail himself only in the most sparing manner. Other, therefore, have been the sources from which information has been mainly derived in the preparation of the Biographical Sketch. The recollections of early friends (including the surviving brothers and sisters of Dr. Richards); church records; testimony of his parishioners when a pastor, and of his early associates in the Gospel ministry; manuals of the churches of which he was pastor; communications, written and verbal, from his colleagues in the Seminary at Auburn, and from alumni of the Seminary; the testimony of his own bereaved family; his correspondence with his children during the 211215 |