Wesley Corpus

To Samuel Bradburn Date: LONDONDERRY, June 4, 1778. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1778) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR SAMMY, - I have wrote this morning to Mrs. Karr, and suppose she will answer me either to Belfast or Lisburn. It is now your part to be instant in prayer that God may order all things well. I hope to be at the Man of War [A small decayed hamlet in co. Dublin. Bradburn went there to meet Wesley on June 26, and slept there. Wesley married him on the 28th to Betsy Nangle.] on the 26th instant at five or six in the evening; at Dublin on the 27th. On Monday and Tuesday I may meet the classes; so the Conference will begin on Tuesday, July the 7th. - I am, dear Sammy, Your affectionate brother. To a Friend LONDONDERRY, June 5, 1778. DEAR SIR, - I have a long letter from an anonymous correspondent respecting the Arminian Magazine. It appears to be wrote with a friendly design and in an excellent spirit. The objections mentioned therein seem to be partly his own, partly repeated from others. The first is: 'It is too short; some other magazines are almost as long again. It is true there are as many pages as in others; but there are not so many lines in a page, not so many by ten or twelve, as in the Spiritual Magazine.' I answer by confessing the charge. It is undeniably true that it does not contain so many lines either in prose or verse as the Spiritual Magazine. And Tonson, who is himself a wit, Weighs writers' merits by the sheet. [Prior's Epistle to F. Shephard.] So do thousands besides; but I do not write for these. I write for those who judge of books not by the quantity but by the quality of them, who ask not how long but how good they are. I spare both my reader's time and my own by couching my sense in as few words as I can. Those who prefer the dealers in many words may find them on every side. And from these they may have not only as much more but ten times as much for their money.