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ceased in 1767, when he settled at Leeds, as minister to a large and respectable congregation of dissenters. The liberality of the persons composing it, and his own predilection for the ministerial office, rendered this a very agreeable situation to him; and in conformity with the duties of his function, he resumed, with his characteristic ardour, his theological studies. One of the first results of these renewed inquiries was his conversion to the system called Socinian, which he has attributed to a perusal of Dr. Lardner's Letter on the Logos. A number of publications on different topies connected with religion announced the zeal by which he was inspired. Nor was he one who confined his labours to the closet; on the contrary, he was extremely assiduous in his pastoral instructions to the younger part of his flock.16 Some of his writings displayed an attachment to church-discipline, which he had probably imbibed from his early connexions with Calvinistic dissenters, since they had become obsolete among those with whom he was now associated. He likewise began to enter into controversy respecting the right and ground of dissenting in general, and to take his station as one of the most decided opposers of the authority of the establishment. It was at Leeds that his attention was first excited, in consequence of his vicinity to a pub. lic brewery, to the properties of that gaseous fluid then termed fixed air, and his experiments led him so far as to contrive a simple apparatus for impregnating water with it, which he afterwards made public. At this time, he says, he had very little knowledge of chemistry; and to this circumstance he attributes in some measure the originality of those ex

16 Ou this occasion he published, in 1772, his "Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion." His instructions to the young he resumed with ardour on every change of situation, and had the merit of giving a new direction, among the dissenting ministers, called Presbyterian, to their theological labours, which, since they had outgrown a belief in the Assembly's Catechism, had been almost entirely confined to pulpit-instruction. The pupils of Priestley revere his memory, and through not a few of them, though himself dead, he yet speaks the words of truth and soberness.

periments which produced the subsequent discoveries, that have rendered him so celebrated, since otherwise he might probably have followed some beaten track. The success of his History of Electricity induced him to adopt the design of treating on other sciences, in the same historical manner; and at Leeds he diligently occupied himself in preparing his second work on this plan, "The History and present State of Discoveries relating to Vision, Light, and Colours." The expences necessary in composing such a work obliged him to issue proposals for publishing it by subscription, and it appeared in 1772, in one volume 4to. Though a performance of much merit, its reception was not such as to encourage him to proceed in his design; and, fortunately for science, he afterwards confined himself to original researches of the experimental kind.

After a happy residence of six years in this situation, Dr. Priestley quitted it for one as different as could easily be imagined. The Earl of Shelburne (afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne) was one of the few English noblemen to whom it was an object of gratification to enjoy at leisure hours the domestic society of a man of science and literature; and he made a proposal to Dr. Priestley to reside with him in the nominal capacity of his librarian, but rather as his literary companion, upon terms which regard to the future provision of an increasing family would not permit him to decline. He therefore fixed his family in a house at Calue, in Wiltshire, near his lordship's seat; and during seven years attended upon the Earl in his winter's residences at London, and occasionally in his excursions, one of which, in 1774, was a tour to the continent." This situation had doubt

17 After visiting "Flanders, Holland, and Germany as far as Strasburg," he spent "a month at Paris." Of the state of religion among the French literati, he gives the following account :-" As I was sufficiently apprized of the fact, I did not wonder as I should otherwise have done, to find all the philosophical persons to whom I was introduced at Paris unbelievers in Christianity, and even professed Atheists.-I was told by some of them that I was the only person they had ever met with, of whose understanding they had any opinion, who professed to believe Christianity. But on interrogating them

less its use, by affording Dr. Priestley advantages in improving his knowledge of the world, and in pursuing his scientific researches, which he could not have enjoyed as minister to a dissenting congregation. The manners and society of a nobleman's house were not, however, perfectly cougenial to one whose tastes were simple, and whose address, though by no means coarse or offensive, was plain and unceremonious. The treatment he met with was polite and respect. ful, both from his noble patron, and the distinguished characters who often composed part of the company. He was entirely free from restraint with respect to his pursuits, and this was the period of some of those exertions which raised his reputation as a philosopher to the highest point. In 1773 there had appeared in the Philosophical Transactions a paper of his on different kinds of air, which obtained the prize of Copley's medal. This, with many additions, was res printed in 1774, dedicated to Lord Shelburne, and was followed by three more volumes. The abundance of new and important matter in these publications, which form an era in that knowledge of aëri-form fluids which is the basis of modern chemical science, made the name of Priestley familiar in all the enlightened countries of Europe, and produced for him an accumulation of literary ho

nours.

It was his constant practice to employ himself in various pursuits at the same time, whereby he avoided the langour consequent upon protracted attention to a single object, and came to each in turn as fresh as if he had spent an interval of entire relaxation. This effect he pleaded as his apology to those who apprehended that the great diversity of his studies would prevent him from exerting all the force of his mind upon any one of them; and in fact, he proceeded to such a length in every pursuit that interested him, as fully to justify in his own case the rule which he followed. It was during a course of original experiments which fully exercised his faculties of invention and ob

on the subject I soon found that they had given no proper attention to it, and did not really know what Christianity was." Mem. p. 74, and M. Repos. Vol. i. p. 485.

servation, that he was also employing his reasoning powers in those deep metaphysical inquiries by which he acquired high distinction as a philo. sopher of another class. In 1775, while still resident with Lord Shelburne, he published his Examination of the Doctrine of Common-sense as held by the three Scotch writers, Drs. Reid, Beattie, and Oswald.' This work was preparatory to his purpose of introducing to public notice the Hartleian theory of the human mind, which he soon after published in a more popular and intelligible form than that given to it by the author himself.19 He had already declared himself a believer in the doctrine of philosophical necessity; and in a dissertation prefixed to his edition of Hartley, he expressed some doubts of the immateriality of the sentient principle in man. Notwithstanding the obloquy thus brought upon him as a favourer of infidelity, or even of atheism, he was not deterred from pursuing the subject,-for it was ever his principle to follow what he was convinced to be truth whithersoever it would lead him, regardless of consequences-and becoming, upon closer inquiry, an intire convert to the material hypothesis, or that of the homogeneity of man's nature, he published, in 1777, “ Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit," in which he gave a history of the doctrines concerning the soul, and openly supported the system he had adopted. It was followed by a defence of Socinianism, and of the doctrine of necessity.20 It is

18 These writers, as was remarked in M. Rep. Vol. ii. p. 61, are arraigned in the Examination for their metaphysical delinquency with a solemnity almost ludicrous. They had indeed disgraced their pens and injured their cause, by affecting to slight Locke and to treat Hartley as bedescribes this work as "written in a manlow criticism. Dr. Priestley (Mem. 78.) ner he did not entirely approve." A manner so unusual with Dr. Priestley and so unworthy of him deserved his severer censure.

19 Dr. Hartley's work "On Man" was first published in 1749, in 2 vols. To attract attention to his "Theory of Association," Dr. Priestley separated it from the Evidences of Christianity, and the prac tical part which formed the second volume, and from the theory of vibrations interspersed through the first.

20 The first volume of the Disquisitions

not improbable that the odium which these works brought upon him was the cause of a coolness in the behaviour of his noble patron, which about this time he began to remark, and which terminated in a separation after a connexion of seven years, but upon amicable terms, and without any alleged cause of complaint. By the articles of agreement Dr. Priestley retained an annuity for life of 1501.1

was dedicated to his before-mentioned early associate, Mr. Graham, whom he describes as having long been" a distinguished champion for freedom of thinking in very trying situations." The second volume, illustrating the Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity," was dedicated to his friend, Dr. John Jebb. Considering the wrongs which Priestley afterwards experienced but could then little expect, the following passage is striking: "You and I, Sir, rejoice in the belief that the whole human

race are under the same wholesome disci

pline, and that they will all certainly derive the most valuable advantages from it, though in different degrees, in different ways, and at different periods; that even the persecutors are only giving the precedence to the persecuted, and advancing them to a higher degree of perfection and happiness; and that they must themselves, for the same benevolent purpose, undergo a more severe discipline than that which they are the means of administering to

others."

The publication of these Disquisitions occasioned a 66 free," yet a truly amicable "discussion" between the author and his friend, Dr. Price, which was published in 1778, dedicated to their common friend, Mr. John Lee, and appears to have left both the parties in opinion just where it found them. Mr. John Palmer, a dissenting minister, who had been the intimate friend of Dr. Priestley's fellow-student, Mr. Alexander, also appeared in favour of philosophical liberty, of which he was considered an able advocate. On the same side the learned Jacob Bryant addressed Dr. Priestley, to whom and to Mr. Palmer he published a reply, and to the latter a rejoinder.

21 Lord Shelburne was at this time a candidate for ministerial power, a situation in which opulence can do little to secure a manly independence, such as directed the conduct of Dr. Priestley. It is no wonder that an aspiring statesman declined the further patronage of a fearless reformer. Yet the manner in which his lordship first proposed to close the connexion does no credit to his memory. He intimated to Dr. Price, that he wished to

His next removal was to Birmingham, a situation which he preferred on account of the advantage it afforded of able workmen in every branch requisite in his experimental inquiries, and of some men distinguished for their chemical and mechanical knowledge. Several generous friends to science, sensible that the defalcation of his income would render the expences of his pursuits too burthensome for him to support, joined in raising an annual subscription for defraying them. This assistance he willingly accepted, as more truly honourable to him than a pension from the crown, which might have been obtained for him, if he had desired it, in the administration of the Marquis, of Rockingham, and the early part of that of Mr. Pitt. He had not been long settled in this place, before a vacancy happening in the principal dis-' of the resignation of one of the pastors, senting congregation in consequence he was unanimously chosen to supply it. Without interrupting his philosophical and literary pursuits, he entered with great zeal into the duties of his office, especially that important part of it which consists in catechising and instructing the younger members of the society. Theology again occupied a principal share of his attention (indeed, it was always his favourite study,) and some of his most elaborate works in this department, as his "History of the Corruptions of Christianity," and "History of Early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ," made their appearance from the Birmingham press. 22 They were a fer

give his friend an establishment in Ireland, where he had large property." To this banishment Dr. Priestley preferred the stipulated annuity which was regularly paid, but though Lord S. had wished "the separation to be amicable," he declined the visits of Dr. Priestley when he should be occasionally in London. Yet when he "had been some years settled at Birmingham Lord S-, removed from the administration, by the rising fortunes of Pitt, sent a common friend to engage Dr. Priestley again in his service"-a proposal which was immediately declined.

22 The first part of the general conclusion to the "History of the Corruptions of Christianity," was addressed to the consideration of "unbelievers, and especially of Mr. Gibbon," from whose Miscellaneous Works, and an appeudix to a volume of

tile source of controversy, in which he engaged without reluctance, and also without those uneasy feelings of irritation which so commonly accompany warfare of this kind. The renewed applications of the dissenters for relief from the penalties and disabilities of the corporation and test acts afforded another topic of discussion, in which Dr. Priestley, with his sentiments on civil and religious liberty, could not fail to take a part; and convinced as he was that all ecclesiastical establishments were hostile to the rights of private judgment, and the propagation of truth, he did not hesitate to represent them as all anti-Christian, and predict their down fall.23 Thus he came to be regarded

Discourses by Dr. Priestley, it appears that this address occasioned a correspondence somewhat uncourteous, between them, and perhaps not quite unobtrusive on the part of Dr. Priestley. Nor has the Historian failed to vent his rancour in his chapter where, referring to some position by Dr. Priestley, he invites the priest and the magistrate to tremble---a broad hint for persecution---differing only in style from the vulgar watch-word the Church is in danger. Mr. Gibbon was indeed not very suitably addressed on the evidences of Christianity, to the practical influence of which a man so impure in heart as some of his notes discover him, could be little disposed. Dr. Priestley should have recollected the maxim of his predecessor Biddle, to discuss serious subjects only with serious persons. The occasional impurities of Gibbon's History are well exposed by a distinguished scholar who was himself no precisian. See Porson's Preface to his Letters to Travis.

The second part of the "History of the Corruptions" was addressed to the consideration of Bishop Hurd, who seems not to have forgotten the circumstance, in his Life of Warburton. See our 3d Vol. p. 530. The opposition, from various quarters, to this "History" produced, in 1786, the "History of early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ," in four volumes, dedicated to his munificent friend, Mrs. Rayner, a work still more fruitful of controversy, and which engaged the author in its defence through several succeeding years.

23 In Reflections to his Sermon on Free Inquiry, preached Nov. 5, 1785, Dr. Priestley thus expressed himself: "The present silent propagation of truth may even be compared to those causes of natre which lie dormant for a time, but which in proper circumstances act with the greatest violence. We are, as it were, Jaying gunpowder, grain by grain, under

not only as the chief heresiarch in matters of doctrine, but as the most dangerous and inveterate enemy of the established church in its connection with the state. Some of the clergy of Birmingham having warmly opposed the dissenters' claims, Dr. Priestley published a series of "Familiar Letters to the Inhabitants of Birmingham," on this and other topics connected with religion, which were probably not less provoking to the adverse party from the style of ironical pleasantry in which they were written. In this state of irritation,

the old building of error and superstition, which a single spark may hereafter inflame, so as to produce an instantaneous explosion, in eonsequence of which that edifice, the erection of which has been the work of ages, may be overturned in a moment, and so effectually, as that the same foundation can never be built upon again." The latter of these sentences was very publicly quoted on a memorable occasion, March 2nd, 1790. Mr. Fox moved in the House of Commons for the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. Among other opponents, appeared the respectable Sir W. Dolben, then member for Oxford University, who read from some controversial pamphlet the latter alarming sentence, and appalled the house by dealing out the gunpowder grain by grain. Mr. Courtenay, whose pleasantry had often relieved the tedium of parliamentary debate, attempted to calm the perturbed spirits of the worthy baronet by reminding him that his true Church, the best constituted Church in the world, could be in no danger, as the gunpowder was designed only to destroy an old building of error and superstition.

The present writer witnessed this scene from the gallery of the House, where among the crowd collected on the occasion was Dr. Priestley himself He has mentioned the fears of Sir W. Dolben, which he attributes to some of the bishops, in his Preface to Fam. Letters, p. 9. The circumstance was also ludicrously introduced in Epistola Macaronica, attributed to Dr. Geddes.

24 These letters chiefly respect the accusations brought against Dissenters, and especially Unitarians, by two clergymen, Messrs. Madan and Burn. The groundless calumny there stated respecting Dr. Priestley's interview with Silas Deane, on his death-bed, as circulated by the clergy, but fully exposed by a Baptist minister "who was with Mr. Deane when he died," shews what a height the odium theologicum against Dr. Priestley had attained.

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another cause of animosity was added by the different feelings concerning that great event, the French Revolution. It is scarcely necessary here to observe, that in its early periods, whilst it was hailed by the warm friends of liberty and reform in Eng land, as a noble assertion of the natural rights of man, it was viewed with apprehension and dislike by those attached to the existing order of things. In every considerable town divisions took place on this subject, which became the more rancorous, as the events attending the revolution were more awful and interesting. The anniversary of the cap ture of the Bastille, July 14, had been kept as a festival by the friends of the cause, and its celebration was prepared at Birmingham in 1791. Dr. Priestley declined being present; but in the popular tumult which ensued, he was particularly the mark of party fury. His house, with his library, manuscripts, and apparatus, were made a prey to the flames; he was obliged to fly for his life, and with some difficulty made his escape to a place of safety, while he was hunted like a proclaimed criminal. That this scene of outrage, attended with the conflagration of many other houses and places of worship, was rather favoured than controuled by whose duty ought to have led them to active interference for the preservation of the public peace, is undoubt ed; at the same time it is not surprising that the rage of party was es pecially directed against one who had So much distinguished himself as a champion on the adverse side, and who had made his attacks without any regard to caution or policy. The legal compensation which he obtained for this cruel injury was far short of the amount of his losses. There were, however, many admirers of his virtues and talents, who, regarding him as a sufferer for his principles, and a man deeply injured, exerted themselves to support him under this calamity. He

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25 In his Appeals, published soon after the Riots, Dr. Priestley has described the alarms and injuries which he suffered,and acknowledged the respectful attentions which he received from societies of various descriptions. His letter on receiving an address from a society which was not formed till the following year will be found in M. Repos. ii. 6, 7.

VOL. X.

was not long after chosen to succeed his deceased friend, Dr. Price, as minister to a congregation at Hackney; and he joined to it a connexion with the new dissenting college established in that place. Resuming his usual occupations of every kind, he passed some time in comfort and tranquillity, for no man was ever blessed with a mind more disposed to view every event in life on the favourable side, or less clouded by care and anxiety. But party dissension still retaining all its malignity, he found himself and his family so much molested by its assaults, that he resolved finally to quit a country so hostile to his person and principles.

He chose for his retreat the United States of America, induced partly by family reasons, and partly by the civil and religious liberty which so eminently prevails under their constitution. He embarked for that country in 1794,26 and took up his residence

26 The friends of Dr. Priestley were by no means equally convinced of the necessity of his emigration, and he might, perhaps, have abandoned the design had he remained in England a few months louger, till the administration of Pitt, foiled in their attempt to destroy Mr. Hardy and his associates, by the forms of law, had lost much of its imposing influence on popular opinion. That Dr. Priestley for some time hensive as to himself, we can state from after he resided at Clapton was unapprethe most intimate knowledge of the fact. He was prevented only by the very natural fears of Mrs. Priestley, and the opinion of some of his more timid friends from attending the Anniversary of the Revolution Society, in 1792, and moving the address then voted to the National Convention of France. During the next year, Mr. Burke appeared foremost in the attempt to excite a popular odium against his quondam acthat purpose Dr. Priestley's election to the quaintance, employing most illiberally for National Convention from several departments, while the same compliment was paid to Mr. Wilberforce. Family reasons, at length, such as Dr. Priestley has explained in the Preface to his Fast Sermon for 1794, and his Memoirs, p. 125, determined his resolution. It happened that at the same period his friend Mr. Palmer, with Mr. Muir, &c, were exiled to New South Wales. The present writer, who has never ceased to regret the late commencement of his personal acquaintance with Dr. Priestley, was taking leave of him at the house of his friend, Mr. W. Vaughan, the day before his departure from London, when the Doc

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