Life of the Right Reverend Samuel Wilberforce

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Excerpt from Life of the Right Reverend Samuel Wilberforce: Lord Bishop of Oxford and Afterwards of Winchester With Selections From His Diaries and CorrespondenceIt is fitting to say a few words about the manner in which the three English volumes have been compressed into the single Ameri can one, without, it is believed, any substantial loss of interest or value. Much was gained, of course, by the use Of smaller print, and scarcely less by the careful excision Of unnecessary or unim portant words and phrases - lists of names, titles, trivialities, redun dancies, and repetitions of all sorts, most of which, especially to an American reader, tended rather to burden than to assist the un derstanding. Even the diary, although at the first glance it ap peared to be abbreviated to the utmost, was found to be suscepti ble of some further compression by leaving such entries as Home, supper, bed, after the mention Of the day's multiform labors, to be taken for granted - though possibly at the risk of leading some reader, amazed at the amount Of work accomplished, to infer that the Bishop seldom did go to bed Finally, it was often necessary to remember that it was not a history Of the English Church, dur ing a certain period, which was in hand - albeit, one might easily fall into that error - but a biography of one of her most illustrious sons. The real Object to be kept in view was a definite, compre hensive exposition Of the life, work, and character of Bishop Wil berforce, and of his in¿uence upon his generation, so far as this was to be found in the original volumes - which, by the way, have been justly said to contain the materials for a good biography, rather than to be one. Therefore, the Bishop's own letters, speeches, and diaries have been largely retained, as well as the personal reminis cences and anecdotes of his friends while the commentary of his biographers, the details of public questions and controversies, and the more general and public papers, whereof the finer essence would less easily escape in the process, have been subjected to a some what more thorough analysis and condensation. In this way the dryness Of a continuous abridgement could be best avoided, and the more lovable, social, and domestic side of the Bishop's life would not be sacrificed to the public one.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.