MEN'S SINS NOT CHARGEABLE ON GOD, BUT ON THEMSELVES. A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT WALLINGFORD, DECEMBER 22, 1782. OCCASIONED BY THE TRAGICAL EXIT OF WILLIAM BEADLE, HIS WIFE, AND FOUR CHILDREN, AT WETHERSFIELD, ON THE MORNING OF THE 11th INSTANT, BY HIS OWN HANDS.
New Haven: T. & S. Green, 1783. 28pp, but lacking the half title. Toned, scattered foxing. Good+, in modern cloth with institutional bookplate and withdrawal on the front free endpaper.
"Beadle was a poor unfortunate who exterminated his family and himself. 'It appears he had for some time before, carried to his bed every night an ax and a carving knife'." [McDade, recording several other accounts of the crime but not this one]. To the perplexed, who are possibly confused about the source of evil in the world, Dana explains, "The plain truth is, that moral evil proceeds not from the Creator, but from the creature."
A long footnote to Dana's Sermon, extracted from the Connecticut Courant, says that Beadle married "an amiable woman, of a reputable family, by whom he had four lovely and promising children, one son and three daughters." He brought "the knife, the ax and pistols, as weapons of death... to his bed-chamber. With the utmost secrecy, unperceived by any, he destroyed a worthy and beautiful wife, in the midst of life, and four pleasant children, sleeping in their beds..."
"In another impression (Evans 17903), imposed with more lines per page, text ends on p. 27, with p. [28] blank" [ESTC].
ESTC w26133 [6 locations]. Not in Evans or Bristol. McDade 74 [reference]. Item #33247
Price: $1,500.00