“ it’s being read with candid & just dispositions. but that will not be during my life . . .”

Byrne sent the book on January 2, 1805, and in acknowledging its receipt on February 14, Jefferson wrote to Byrne: “ I have safely recieved the volume of D ^r. Priestley’s works which m ( ^~ r) Priestley has been so kind as to destine for me. the matter is worthy of it’s author, and the mechanical execution does honor to the American artists . . . ”

Jefferson wrote to Priestley himself on the subject of this book and his own Morals of Jesus from Washington on January 29, 1804. “ . . . I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the moral doctrines of Jesus with those of the antient Philosophers. you are so much in possession of the whole subject that you will do it easier & better than any other person living. I think you cannot avoid giving as preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral doctrines, extracted in his own words from the evangelists, and leaving out every thing relative to his personal history and character. it would be short and precious. with a view to do this for my own satisfaction, I had sent to Philadelphia to get two testaments Greek of the same edition, & two English with a design to cut out the morsels of morality and paste them on the leaves of a book in the manner you describe as having been pursued in forming your Harmony. but I shall now get the thing done by better hands . . . ”

On May 21, 1804, before the book had gone to press, Jefferson wrote to Henry Fry of Madison County, Virginia, to whom he had sent a copy of Priestley’s History of the Corruptions of Christianity: “ . . . at the time of his [Priestley’s] death he had just finished a work which I am anxious to see printed. it was a comparative view of the morality of Jesus & of the antient philosophers. but it is not yet committed to the press . . . ”

To the same correspondent Jefferson wrote again in the following month, on June 17: “ . . . at my request D ^r. Priestly wrote a comparative view of the moral doctrines of Jesus and of the antient philosophers, which he finished just before his death. it is not yet printed, nor have I seen it. his history of the church I believe is now printed . . . ”

On February 14, 1805, in answer to Benjamin Smith Barton’s request for the loan of letters to insert into his Eulogium on Dr. Priestley , Jefferson wrote the following account of this work: “ . . . the correspondence between D ^r. Priestley and myself was unfrequent & short. his fear of encroaching on my public duties deprived me of communications from him which would have been always welcome. I have examined all his letters to me since Mar. 1801 . . . & find they do not contain a single fact interesting to your object. I hardly suppose the following one to be so. having been long anxious to see a fair & candid comparison made between the doctrines of the Greek & Roman Philosophers, and the genuine doctrines of Jesus, I pressed D ^r. Priestley, early in 1803. to undertake that work. he at first declined it from the extent of the subject, his own age and infirmities: but he afterwards informed me that having viewed the subject more attentively and finding that his Commonplace book would refer him readily to the materials, he had undertaken it, and a little before his death he informed me he had finished it. I apprehend however that he meditated a 2 ^d. part which should have given a view of the genuine doctrines of Jesus divested of those engrafted into his by false followers. I suppose this because it is wanting to compleat the work, and because I observe he calls what is published Part I ^st. . . . ”

In the letter to John Adams of August 22, 1813, quoted previously, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . It is with great pleasure I can inform you that Priestly finished the comparative view of the doctrines of the Philosophers of antiquity, and of Jesus, before his death; and that it was printed soon after, and, with still greater pleasure that I can have a copy of his work forwarded from Philadelphia, by a correspondent there, and presented for your acceptance, by the same mail which carries you this, or very soon after. the branch of the work which the title announces is executed with learning and candor, as was every thing Priestley wrote: but perhaps a little hastily; for he felt himself pressed by the hand of death . . . ””

On the same day Jefferson ordered a copy for Adams from N. G. Dufief: