the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[139] upon such a scale, was a work of no ordinary magnitude; it was, in fact, an undertaking which might be thought adequate to occupy the entire life of a laborious scholar. It may be added, that, important and interesting as the object might be, the reward was not to be sought in any shape which the children of this world are accustomed to value. For those who would take an interest in or avail themselves of labours like these, and who were competent to estimate either the excellence of their object, or the labour and talent displayed in their performance, are at all times comparatively few; and those who were likely to seek to possess themselves of a work of such extent, which with all its merit was but scantily recommended by the usual attractions of popularity, were still fewer. Such a writer must consequently lay his account with reaping a limited harvest of popular favour, and look for his chief earthly reward in the consciousness of having performed a valuable service to the cause of God and of religion, which the discerning few would understand and appreciate; and which, if it procured not for its author immediate fame with the multitude, would establish for him an dying, an ever-growing reputation with all those who duly value whatever contributes to promote the best interests of mankind. Our author reaped full the reward which he sought for, and was not so inconsistent as to repine, because, in serving God, he did not also gain the wages of Mammon. The sale of the successive volumes of his great work seldom did much more than pay their expenses, and he finally disposed of the copyright of