Note 248 — REV. JAMES HERVEY, M.A., THE LITERARY PARISH-PRIEST. (continued 3)

Hervey’s Fast-Day Sermons had an enormous circulation. In a letter, dated August 5, 1758, he writes,—“Besides six thousand printed in London, an edition was printed in Scotland, which was speedily sold off. I was also desired, by a Society established for giving away religious books among the poor, to grant them leave to print an impression for this purpose. In Ireland they have been printed. Into Dutch they are translated; and a letter, from America, informs me, that, they have been reprinted there.” All this was within two years of their first publication.