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Memoir of the late Rev. Joseph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S. &c. [With the Portrait, we think it may be useful and agreeable to many of our readers to give a Memoir, of Dr. Priestley. We have taken the liberty, to copy the life published in the Eighth Volume of the General Biography, 4to., and drawn up, as appears from the signature, by the able and elegant pen of Dr. Aikin, and to adapt it more particularly to this work by the addition of notes, for which we are indebted to a friend, to whom the commencement and the continuance of the Monthly Repository are chiefly owing, whose communications form a rich portion of the past volumes, and to whom the readers may still, it is hoped, look for entertainment and instruction. The whole of the notes are original and by the same friendly hand.

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Joseph was in his youth adopted by an aunt, a woman of exemplary piety and benevolence, who sent him for education to several schools in the neighbourhood, where he acquired a respectable degree of knowledge of the learned languages, including Hebrew. He was originally destined for the ministry; but weak health causing his views to be turned towards trade, he learned some of the modern

piety, careful to teach” him religion according to her own convictions, and taking a particular occasion to inculcate moral principle by impressing his mind "with a clear idea of the distinction of property, and the importance of attending to it." Priestley's Mem. pp. 2, 3, 5.

2 She was his father's sister, "married to a Mr. Keighley, a man who had distinguished himself for his zeal for religion, and for his public spirit." She died in 1764, having survived her husband many Her nephew,

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losopher and divine, was born in March, 1773, at Field-head, Leeds. His father was engaged in the clothing manufacture, and was a dissenter of the Calvinistic persuasion.'

"Jonas Priestley, the youngest son of Joseph Priestley, a maker and dresser of woollen cloth." His son describes him as discovering "a strong sense of religion, praying with his family morning and evening, and carefully teaching his children and servants the Assembly's Catechism, which was all the system of which he had any knowledge," never" giving much attention to matters of speculation, and entertaining no bigoted aversion to those who differed from him." Dr. Priestley's mother, who died in 1740, when her son was in his seventh year, "was the only child of Joseph Swift, a farmer of Shafton, a village about six miles south-east of Wakefield." She was gratefully recollected by her son as a woman of exemplary

VOL. X.

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brance of a son, characterizes this "truly pious and excellent woman" as one who knew no other use of wealth, or of talents of any kind, than to do good, and who never spared herself for this purpose ;truly Calvinistic in principle, but far from confining salvation to those who thought as she did on religious subjects." He adds, that "being left in good circumstances, her home was the resort of all the dissenting ministers in the neighbourhood without distinction, and those who were the most obnoxious on account of their heresy were almost as welcome to her, if she thought them honest and good men (which she was not unwilling to do) as any other." Id. pp. 3 and 6.

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3 In this language he made himself " considerable proficient," during "the interval between leaving the gran.D.ar-school, and going to the academy," by instructing a minister in his neighbourhood" who had Be also had no learned education." "learned Chaldee and Syriac, and just began to read Arabic." Id. p. 10.

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languages with that intention. At length, however, his constitution strengthened; and resuming his first purpose, he went in 1752 to the dissenting academy at Daventry, kept by Dr. Ashworth. He had already imbibed such an attachment to study, and had employed his researches upon so many important topics, that he was regarded on admission as considerably advanced in the academical course. He had also, from his family connexions among the strictest sect of dissenters, acquired those religious habits, and that vital spirit of piety, which ever in some degree assimilated him to that class of Christians, when in doctrine no one more widely deviated from them. At Daventry he spent three years, during which his acute and vigorous mind was expanding in free inquiry and diversified pursuit. The change of his

Those which he acquired, and without a master, were "French, Italian, and High Dutch." He "translated and wrote letters in the first and last for an uncle, a merchant, who intended" him for "a counting-house in Lisbon." Id. p. 5.

5 He was first destined by his relations to the Calvinistic-Independent" Academy at Mile-end, then under the care of Dr. Conder. But being at that time an Arminian, he resolutely opposed it," especially declining to "subscribe an assent to ten printed articles of Calvinistic faith, and repeat it every six months." A neighbouring minister, Mr. Kirkby, who had been one of his instructors in the classics "interposed and strongly recommended the academy of Dr. Doddridge.' The Aunt, not being a bigoted Calvinist, entered into his views, and Dr. Doddridge being dead he was sent to Daventry and was the first pupil that entered there." Id. p. 16, 17.

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"Three years, viz. from Sept. 1752 to 1755, I spent at Daventry with that culiar satisfaction with which young persons of generous minds usually go through a course of liberal study, in the society of others engaged in the same pursuits, and free from the cares and anxieties which seldom fail to lay hold on them when they come out into the world. In my time, the academy was in a state peculiarly favourable to the serious pursuit of truth, as the students were about equally divided upon every question of much importance, such as Liberty and Necessity, the Sleep of the Soul, and all the articles of theological orthodoxy and heresy; in consequence of which all these topics were the subject of continual discussion. Our tutors also were of different opinions; Dr. Ashworth taking

opinions from the orthodox system in which he had been brought up, towards the doctrine usually termed heretical, which had already commenced, here made a further progress, though it still rested within the limits of Arianism." Here he was

the 6rthodox side of every question, and Mr. Clark, the sub-tutor, that of heresy, though always with the greatest modesty. We were permitted to ask whatever questions, and to make whatever remarks we pleased; and we did it with the greatest, but without any offensive, freedom.-We every question, and were even required to were referred to authors on both sides of give an account of them." Id. p. 17. For an account of Mr. Clark see M. Repos. Vol. i. p. 617. ii. 68. and for an account of Dr. Ashworth, Vol. viii. 562 (note) and 693. and ix. 10, 78 and 242.

7 In the family of his excellent aunt he became confirmed "in the principles of Calvinism, all the books he met with "having that tendency." Yet two ministers, "the most heretical in the neighbourhood, were frequently his aunt's guests." With one of these," Mr. Graham, of Halifax," to whom he afterwards dedicated his Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit, he now became intimate. In paying an early and serious attention to religion, as he then understood it, he had waited with painful anxiety for the experience" of a new-birth produced by the immediate agency of the spirit of God," and had been "much distressed" because he "could not feel a proper repentance for the sin of Adam." Yet he had so far altered his views when he offered himself "to be admitted a com municant," where he and his aunt attended, that the examining "elders of the church" rejected him as not "quite orthodox on the subject of the sin of Adam," because he could not believe that all the human race (supposing them not to have any sin of their own) were liable to the wrath of God and the pains of hell for ever on account of that sin only." About this time he came into the society of two preachers who qualified Calvinism and were called Baxterian. Thinking farther on these subjects," he had become, when he entered the academy "an Arminian, but had by no means rejected the doctrine of the Trinity or that of Atonement." Id. p. 7--12.

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8 "Notwithstanding the great freedom of our speculations and debates, the extreme of heresy among us was Arianism; and all of us, I believe, left the academy with a belief, more or less qualified of the doctrine of Atonement." Id. p. 20. The fellow-student with whom Priestley had the most frequent communications and formed the most intimate friendship was “Mr., Alex

also introduced to an acquaintance with the writings of Dr. Hartley, which exerted a powerful and lasting influence over his whole train of thinking. On quitting the academy, he accepted an invitation to officiate as minister to a small congregation at Needham-market in Suffolk. Not having the talents of a popular preacher, and becoming suspected of heretical opinions, he passed his time at this place in discountenance and obscurity; but he was assiduously employed in theological and scriptural studies, of which the result was a farther departure from the received systems, and particularly a total re

ander, of Birmingham," about three years younger than himself, who died suddenly in 1765, before he had completed his 30th year. He is mentioned in the Memoir with great regard. Of Mr. Alexander there is an interesting account, by Dr. Kippis, in a note to the life of his uncle, Dr. Benson (B. Biog. ii. 206). He is also known by a posthumous publication, entitled, "A Paraphrase upon the 15th Chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians; with Critical Notes, &c. &c. to which is added a Sermon on Eccles. ix. 10, composed by the author the day preceding his death. By John Alexander." 4to. 1766.

9 Priestley (Mem. p. 15) ascribes his first acquaintance with " Hartley's Observations on Man," to a reference made by the lecturer to that work, "which," he adds, "immediately engaged my closest attention, and produced the greatest and, in my opinion, the most favourable effect on my general turn of thinking through life. Indeed I do not know whether the consideration of Dr. Hartley's Theory contributes more to enlighten the mind, or improve the heart; it effects both in so super-eminent a degree." The name of Hartley is in Priestley's Chart of Biography, first published in 1765, and there can be no doubt that he is designed in the following passage of the Description:

"I recollect only one instance (in the class of divines, moralists and metaphysicians) in which I have departed from my general rule of giving place to present fame in favour of extraordinary merit, and what I presume will be great future reputation. If I be mistaken in my presumption I hope I shall be indulged a little partiality for one favourite name." Description, 1785, p. 17. The subjects, on which reference is made to Hartley in the Lectures of Doddridge, are the intermediate state, the final restoration, and the renovation of the earth. See Lect. 4to. 1763. pp. 561, 2, 574, 5, 581.

jection of the doctrine of atonement.10 After a residence of three years at Needham, he undertook the charge of a congregation at Namptwich, in Cheshire, to which he joined a school. In the business of education he was indefatigable; and he added to the common objects of instruction, experiments in natural philosophy, which were the means of fostering in himself a taste for pursuits of that kind."1 His first publication was an English Grammar on a new plan, for the use of his scholars, printed in 1791. His reputation as a man of various knowledge and active inquiry now began to extend itself, and in 1761 he was invited by the trustees of the dissenting academy at Warrington to occupy the post of tutor in the languages.12 Not long after his acceptance of this office, he married the daughter of Mr. Wilkinson, an iron-master, near Wrexham, a lady of an excellent understanding, and great strength of mind, who proved his faithful partner in all the vicissitudes of life.

At Warrington Dr. Priestley began to distinguish himself as a writer in various branches of science and lite

rature. Several of these had a relation to his department in the academy, which, besides philology, included

10 In M. Repos. Vol. ii. p. 638,' &c. see an interesting communication respecting Dr. Priestley's explicit conduct at this period, occasioned by some misrepresentatious in a sermon preached by his brother on the occasion of his death.

11 Here he assiduously pursued his theological inquiries and adopted some of those opinions respecting the apostle Paul's reasonings, which he afterwards published, to the alarm of not a few serious Christians, who had hastily supposed that divine truth could be impaired by any logical inaccuracy of those who were appointed to declare it. Dr. Priestley (Mem. p. 34) relates how at this time he had committed to the press a book which contained his free thoughts on this subject. The work when partly printed he suppressed, at the instance of his friend, Dr. Kippis, till he "should be more known, and his character better established." The writer of these notes had the same account many years ago, from Dr. Kippis, who mentioned the readiness with which Priestley attended to his suggestion and that of Dr. Furneaux, from which they justly argued his future emi

nence.

19 See M. Repos. Vol. viii. pp. 226231.

lectures on history and general policy. His ideas of government were founded on those principles of the fundamental rights of men which are the only basis of political freedom, and these he supported in an "Essay on Government." He also published an " Essay on a Course of liberal Education," to which he added some remarks on a treatise on education, by Dr. Brown, of Newcastle, the sentiments of which he regarded as hostile to liberty. His "Chart of Biography," first published at Warrington, was formed upon an ingenious idea, and was well received. A visit to London having in

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13 The last mentioned Essay first appeared in 1765, and except the Grammar was his earliest publication. Many of the hints in that small volume were afterwards enlarged into the "Lectures on History and General Policy," published in 1788. Dr. Brown is now chiefly known by his "Essay on the Characteristics," his "Estimate," of which the Muse of Cowper has preserved the remembrance, his devotion to Warburton, his disappointments, and their unhappy result in a premature death, in 1766, in his 51st year. (See Biog. Brit. ii. 653--674). In 1765, Dr. B. published a pamphlet, entitled, "Thoughts on Civil Liberty, Licentiousness and Faction," at the close of which he recommended " a prescribed Code of Education." This opinion Priestley controverts in four sections of remarks. The 66 Essay on Government" appeared in 1768, and a second enlarged edition in 1772. In this were included the remarks on Dr. Brown, and on Dr. Balguy's " Positions on Church Authority," with a section on "the necessity or utility of Ecclesiastical Establishments." In the section on "Political Liberty," the author considers the case of Charles I., whose execution, unlike the Presbyterians of a former age, he justifies, regretting, however, "that the sentence could not be passed by the whole nation, or their representatives solemnly assembled for that purpose-a transaction which would have been an immortal honour to this country, whenever that superstitious notion of the sacredness of kingly power shall be abolished." These sentiments, as may be supposed, did not pass without censure, and to the author has been attributed, unjustly, the proud day for England, used, we think, by the late Lord Keppel, to describe the thirtieth of January. The late Duke of Richmond (See M. Repos. Vol. ii. p. 42.) sanctions Priestley's opinion, as does indeed the late Lord Orford in his Royal and Noble Authors, Art. Falkland.

14 This Chart was first drawn out to

troduced him to the acquaintance of Dr. Franklin,' Dr. Watson, Dr. Price, and Mr. Canton, he was encouraged by them to pursue a plan he had formed of writing a " History of Electricity," which work appeared in 1767. Besides a very clear and well arranged account of the rise and progress of that branch of science, it related many new and ingeniously devised experiments of his own, which were first-fruits of that inventive and sagacious spirit by which he afterwards rendered himself so celebrated in the walk of natural philosophy. This publication made his name extensively known among those who might have remained strangers to it as connected with his other pursuits. It was several times reprinted, was translated into foreign languages, and procured for him an admission into the Royal Society. He had previously obtained the title of Doctor of Laws from the University of Edinburgh. His connexion with the academy at Warrington, which, from the advantages it gave him of cultivating a much more extensive acquaintance with books and men, may be considered as an important era in his life,

be made use of in an academical lecture upon the study of History as one of the mechanical methods of facilitating the study of that science." Description, p. 5. Note. The "Chart of History," inscribed to Dr. Franklin, came out a few years after at Leeds, and was an improvement on a French Chart, which had been republished in London. Priestley's Chart of History, with improvements and a continuation has, we believe, very lately appeared.

15 Of this eminent man and highly va- 1 luable member of society Dr. Priestley regretted the infidelity, which he endeavoured to remove by recommending to him the evidences of Christianity to which "he acknowledged he had not given so much attention as he ought to have done." See Mem. p. 90, or M. Repos. Vol. i. p. 486. Dr. F. satisfied himself to the last with the expectation of a future life grounded on a pleasing but unauthorized analogy. "I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitutions as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning." Thus he writes at eighty years of age to an old friend and correspondent. See a letter of his to Mr. Whatley, which first appeared, M. Repos. Vol. i. pp. 137, 138, and which, with two other original letters of his, was copied from this work into the last edition of his Works.

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