In going
past the Royal Exchange, Mr. Joseph Hancock, one of the religious
society of the Quakers, and with whose family my own had been long
united in friendship, suddenly met me. He first accosted me by saying
that I was the person whom he was wishing to see. He then asked me why I
had not published my prize essay. I asked him in return what had made
him think of that subject in particular. He replied that his own society
had long taken it up as a religious body, and individuals among them
were wishing to find me out. I asked him who. He answered, James
Phillips, a bookseller, in Georgeyard, Lombard-street, and William
Dillwyn, of Walthamstow, and others. Having but little time to spare, I
desired him to introduce me to one of them. In a few minutes he took me
to James Phillips, who was then the only one of them in town; by whose
conversation I was so much interested and encouraged, that without any
further hesitation I offered him the publication of my work. This
accidental introduction of me to James Phillips was, I found afterwards,
a most happy circumstance for the promotion of the cause which I had
then so deeply at heart, as it led me to the knowledge of several of
those, who became afterwards material coadjutors in it.
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