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induced to live in again, if 99 out of 100 requested it. We have been here eleven years, and do not know that man, woman, or child, has had reason to complain of us; and to be thus rewarded once, I think, is enough in one's life.* It is a great comfort to feel conscious we deserved very different treatment. However, as we have been driven off the Birmingham stage by the audience and our fellow-actors, I do not think that God can require it of us, as a duty, after they have smote one cheek, to turn the other. I am for trying a fresh soil, though old to be transplanted, and leave them to settle at their leisure the repentance and sorrow they have brought upon themselves.

My daughter's situation has kept me here; otherwise I should have joined Dr. P. in London. She begs to be affectionately remembered to you and Mr. Barbauld.

I shall have the pleasure, I hope, of seeing you in the winter, as we propose taking lodgings, either in London or near it. However, as we have little to take care of, we need not hurry ourselves about taking a house. It is happy our children are grown up, and that they all bear this so well; but I see no reason to sink where there is a good conscience to keep one up. I have learnt much by this new scene, and shall, I hope, be able to practise in future; and that is, to endeavour to bear other people's misfortunes as well as I have borne our own, and as well as many under the mask of friends have borne ours in this place.

A few days before the riot, I burnt all my letters. I had often taken them out, and burnt part before; but that morning I determined to burn all. I consumed every parcel. The last bag was full of yours. I put a handful into the fire, when

* More appropriate rewards awaited Dr. Priestley's memory. Among various gratifying instances, I have observed the following notice:

"In Birmingham there has existed for some time past an association of young men, under the denomination of the Priestleyan Society, the members of which meet once a month, when one of their body gives a sort of retrospect of the advance, or retrogression of civil and religious liberty since their last meeting. Once every year, (the anniversary of Dr. Priestley's birth-day,) the members and friends of the society dine together. This occurred on Tuesday last," March 13. Examiner, p. 203.

casting my eye upon a letter with some verses, I thought I would save them a little longer, and read them over before I burnt them. These went with every thing else; but whether destroyed, or kept for private amusement, I cannot say. However, it is happy, if they are read they can find no sentiment, but such as would make them blush for themselves while they read them. A great quantity of Mrs. Galton's, more from good luck than foresight, I burnt: she living on the spot would have made the letters more attended to.

Dr. P. comes into the country as soon as I can join him, to take a journey. All our fellow-sufferers are as well as can possibly be expected. They will scarcely find so many respectable characters, a second time, to make a bonfire of. So much for King and Church for ever.

I beg my kind respects to Dr. Aikin and family. It was well he did not settle in Birmingham. He would certainly have been one of the party. Tell him, also, that the physicians have had no practice since the riots. All the nervous patients are cured. Dr. has been more frightened than any body. They drank all his wine. He took great pains to tell people he was no Dissenter; but this he need not have done, for their quarrel against him must have been on account of his physic. With kind respects to Mr. Barbauld, I am, my dear friend, yours affectionately,

M. PRIESTLEY.*

Mrs. Barbauld, at Dr. Aikin's, Yarmouth.

⚫ Whose "constancy and perseverance" in "supporting" her husband, "under all his trials and sufferings," have been recorded, by an affectionate son, in the continuation of his father's Memoirs. Of Mrs. Priestley's judgment, I was once led to form a high opinion, though at the expense of my

own.

At the close of 1792, by the desire of some common friends, as well as from my own inclination, I endeavoured to prevail on Dr. Priestley to take a very public part upon an interesting political occasion on which I had been appointed to preside. I allured him, I remember, among other inducements, by the example of Dr. Price, in 1789. At length, with his usual disregard of personal consequences, he freely assented to my proposal. On a subsequent interview with Mrs. Priestley, I was soon convinced that my desire had outrun discretion. Dr. Priestley absented himself from the meeting, and what soon occurred confirmed Mrs. Priestley's superior judgment. See W. XXII. 522-524.

CHAPTER V.

(1797-1800.)

DR. PRIESTLEY had resigned to the grave, though not without indulging the Christian hope, two endeared companions of his emigration; a wife, the discreet and affectionate partner of his various fortunes; and a son, in whom he had, once, fondly expected a successor, who might advance, beyond himself, in theological inquiry and scientific research.* Yet, a merciful providence reserved, even to his life's last moments, in the elder branch of his family, the sweetest solace of declining age, in the willing offices of filial affection. Now, however, he again left his home, for the metropolis of the States, to pursue the purposes of his Christian ministry.†

"In the autumn of 1795," says Mr. Priestley, "my father had the misfortune to lose his youngest son, of whom, being much younger than any of his other children, and having entertained the hopes of his succeeding him in his theological and philosophical pursuits, he was remarkably fond. He felt this misfortune the more severely as it was the first of the kind he had experienced, and particularly as it had a visible effect upon my mother's health and spirits. He was, however, so constantly in the habit of viewing the hand of God in all things, that his mind soon recovered its accustomed serenity. The same habit enabled him to support himself so well under the loss of his wife, the greatest affliction that could possibly have befallen him.” Continuation.

↑ See supra, p. 361.

TO REV. T. LINDSEY.

DEAR FRIEND, Philadelphia, Jan. 13, 1797. SINCE I have come hither I have received your letter that came by the way of Liverpool, in which you mention with approbation my single sermon.t I have sent to the press a new and much enlarged edition of the "Observations," in which I animadvert on the correspondence between Voltaire and D'Alembert, and especially on M. Volney's Ruins.‡ He is now in this city, publishing a new edition of his work, and by no means pleased at my preaching. He says he wishes he could preach too, that he might propagate his sentiments to more advantage. I hope that my animadversions on his work may excite some attention.

I rejoice to find that, in consequence of my recommendation, a very respectable Unitarian society is formed in this city. While I am here, they omit their morning service, and I attend with them in the afternoon; and I never attended public worship with more satisfaction. The service is read with great propriety and seriousness, by persons appointed by ballot. I have been here only one Sunday, and Dr. Price's Sermon on the Resurrection of Lazarus was read. Each reader selects or composes his prayers as he pleases; and they do not in general prefer a liturgy. They administer the Lord's Supper every two months, as was our custom at Birmingham.

My first discourse was well attended, and, among others, was Mr. Lister, the English ambassador, with whom I dined on Monday. He is a pleasing, liberal man, and I am very happy that there is such a minister from England. I expect to see him frequently. He that was in that capacity before, Mr. Hammond, I could not see. He was a violent man, and patronized the writer of that scurrilous pamphlet relating to my emigration.§

The Sunday after next, I am to preach a charity sermon for the Emigrant Society, and they will endeavour to get me the

Essex Street.

+ "Unitarianism Explained and Defended." See W. XVI. 472 See supra, p. 362; W. XVII. 46, 113.

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§ Infra, p. 377.

use of one of the episcopal churches. I do not know whether they will succeed.* There is, however, more liberality among the Episcopalians than the Presbyterians,† and I had much rather be obliged to them.

I have received and read, with much satisfaction, Mr. Towers's two volumes on Prophecy, and I shall soon write to him. I am glad to find that we have a young man among us of such ability, and whose mind is so properly and seriously impressed. I have learned much from this work, though I differ from him with respect to the Millenium. But I am far from having been able fully to satisfy myself with respect to that, or several other subjects of this kind.

I seldom trouble you with the politics of this country. Indeed, I think very little about them. But I must inform you, that Mr. Adams is to be our next President, and Mr. Jefferson our Vice-President,§ and that there is no doubt they will act very harmoniously together, which will greatly abate the animosity of both the parties. But such is the temper and habit of this country, that if any thing be once decided, though

The discourse was "delivered at the University Hall, Feb. 19, 1797." See supra, p. 339; W. XVI. 500.

↑ See supra, p. 342, ad fin.

The design of which the following ample title will sufficiently explain: "Illustrations of Prophecy; in the course of which are elucidated many Predictions which occur in Isaiah, or Daniel, in the Writings of the Evangelists, or the Book of Revelation; and which are thought to Foretell, among other Great Events, a Revolution in France, favourable to the Interests of Mankind, the Overthrow of the Papal Power, and of Ecclesiastical Tyranny, the Downfal of Civil Despotism, and the subsequent Melioration of the State of the World; together with a large Collection of Extracts, interspersed through the Work, and taken from numerous Commentators. 2 Vols. 1796."

Joseph Lomas Towers, son of Dr. Joseph Towers, had been educated at the New College, Hackney, for the Christian ministry, and was in early life an occasional preacher. His eccentricities, which I have often observed and regretted, were justly ascribed to increasing mental aberration, which at length forbade the beneficial application of his talents and industry. He died a few months since, aged 64, in a receptacle for the insane. The Illustrations attracted the favourable notice of his father's friend, the learned Michael Dodson, in whose will Mr. Towers was liberally remembered. See "Christian Reformer," (1832,) XVIII. 131.

§ See supra, p. 362.

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