ΤΟ THE DEAR AND HONORED MEMORY OF JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D., LL.D., WHO WAS CALLED TO HIS REST, IN THE FULNESS OF YEARS AND THE RIPENESS OF WELL-WON PUBLIC REGARD, AS THE LAST PAGE OF THIS LITTLE BOOK PASSED FROM THE PRINTER'S HANDS. PREFACE. THE original materials for the LIFE OF HUGH LATIMER are but scanty, consisting almost entirely of incidental allusions in his sermons, or letters, to passages of his personal experience. These have been presented in the following pages for the most part in his own words. In the narrative of the examination and death of the martyr, the early record of Fox has been retained. It presents the involved course of the trial in as clear a light and brief a compass as could probably be otherwise secured, and tells the story of the sufferings of Ridley and Latimer with a vividness and pathos which have given the passage a distinguished place in English literature. The space which these extracts occupy is large, but it was deemed a better service to the historical purpose of the volume, to sacrifice, in part, its claims to originality, rather than weaken the effect of a contemporary record by a modern paraphrase. NEW YORK, February, 1861 |