Euthanasy; or Happy Talk Towards the End of Life

Boston: W.M. Crosby and J.P. Nichols, 1849. First edition.

END OF LIFE CONSIDERATIONS BY ENGLISH UNITARIAN PREACHER WHO MOVED TO BOSTON IN 1850, A YEAR AFTER PUBLISHING THIS BOOK IN 1849.

7 inches tall hardcover, full leather binding, gilt ruled borders to covers, spine with raised bands, gilt leather title label, aeg, inscription to front flyleaf, "Mrs. Washburn, with the respects of N. J. Allen and E. A. H. Allen, Bridgewater, Aug. 15th, 1849." xii, 466 pp. Front joint starting, faint water stain bottom corner of front endpapers and text pages, scattered light foxing, overall very good minus.

WILLIAM MOUNTFORD (1816 – 1885) was an English Unitarian preacher and author. Mountford entered Manchester College in York in 1813, then aged about seventeen. Within a month after leaving college (8 July 1838), he commenced his ministry at the Strangeways Chapel, Manchester (opened 17 June). After a short ministry at Hinckley, he moved to Lynn, Norfolk. He speaks of having traveled abroad; and perhaps at this time he obtained the degree of Ph.D., M.A., at a German university. He styled himself "M.A." in only one of his books: on the title pages of the rest, he is simply called "William Mountford." His salary was now only £70 a year; and he lived chiefly on brown bread and milk, that he might be able to buy books. Mountford had long wished to visit the United States, and in 1849, Dr. Huntington obtained a free passage for him. He sailed in November, arriving in Boston early in 1850. He preached for a time at the Unitarian church at Washington, D.C., where President Millard Fillmore had a seat and Daniel Webster and Edward Everett were occasional attendants. In the summer of 1851, he had preached at Nahant, a favorite seaside resort about twelve miles from Boston. The Mountfords were in Europe from 1858 to 1860. They stayed a long time in Rome, where "the subject of the supernatural" grew on him "as to importance, and deepened as to interest". In a second visit, 1867, he preached at Bridgeport with great power and earnestness on the "Open Vision". Between these journeys, he had been writing a book, for which he studied the Fathers and Neo-Platonists; but he resolved not to speak of it till it was finished. It was not printed; but it probably contained the substance of five articles on "The Miraculous" in the Monthly Religious Magazine in 1868-69. These excited great attention, and were praised both by the Orthodox and the Radicals, so that he was encouraged to add another on " The Outburst of Spiritualism". Mountford ultimately retired to Cambridge, Massachusetts. His works include Euthanasy, or Happy Talks toward the End of Life (1849) and Miracles Past and Present (1870). He died in Boston. In Note by the Editor in Euthanasy (offered here), he states, "For reasons that are for him sufficient, Mr. Mountford has caused this work to be published in America, rather than in his own country."