499

JOSEPH PRIESTLY A.L.S.

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,500.00 USD
JOSEPH PRIESTLY A.L.S.
<b>499. JOSEPH PRIESTLEY</b> (1733 - 1804) British clergyman and chemist who discovered oxygen. Very rare, fine content A.L.S. "<i>J. Priestley</i>" 1p. 4to. with address leaf, Northumberland, Jan. 9, 1800, to an "Aaron Levi" in Pennsylvania, most probably Aaron Levy, the Jewish founder of Aaronsburg. In part: "<i>...I have at length compiled the work in the success of which you were pleased to interest yourself. The copies will be sold by Mr. Campbell, and your kind services in the disposal of them among your countrymen and friends will be thankfully received. I hope the work will be of some service to the cause of revelation, which we both have at heart. Your religion has thru ignorance and prejudice, been most grossly misrepresented, and abused, but I hope the evidence I have produced of its infinite superiority to all other religions of equal antiquity, will be its abundant vindication...</i>". At the time of this letter, Priestley, who had emigrated to the U.S. in 1794, had recently published his influential religious volume <i>Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those of the Hindoos and other Nations</i>. Foldtears expertly silked for preservation, in overall very good condition. Scarce. <b>$1,000-1,500</b>