finest climate, and most healthy air on the earth, the homage of universal reverence and love, and the power of the country spread over you as a shield; but, since you would not make it your country by adoption, you must now do it by your good. offices. I have one to propose to you, which will produce their good, and gratitude to you, for ages, and in the way to which you have devoted a long life, that of spreading light among men."

He then, as at the request of "the ablest and brightest characters of the state," desires I would give them a plan for a college or university, which they wish to establish in the healthiest part of Virginia, and endow in the most ample manner.

Mr. Livingston, the Chancellor of the State of New York, was so much pleased with my Letters, that he got a new edition of them printed at Albany,* and writes to me in a similar manner on the subject. I believe that, on the whole, the Letters have done real good; and, being shut out from every thing in the way of theology, I see no reason why I should not endeavour to be useful in any other. But I believe I have done with the subject; and if I have offended, shall do so no more. As to Mr. , you should not pay any attention to what he or that family says. They consort only with Federalists.

Mr. Cooper has been convicted of a libel, on the Sedition Act, and is now in prison;† but he has gained great credit by it, and he will, I doubt not, be a rising man in the country. The trial is published, and I shall send you a copy of it. This has been the last blow to the Federalist party, which is now broke up. Mr. Adams has quarrelled with all the officers of state, and dismissed them, and he courts the Anti-federalists so much, as is not at all to his credit, so that he is now sunk with all parties; and his old friends intend, it is said, to set up Mr. Pinkney as the opponent of Mr. Jefferson. So much for politics.

I have trials here that I cannot explain to you ;‡ but I have

See supra, p. 427.

ተ

"For six months," with " a fine of 400 dollars." W. XXV. 151. See supra, pp. 407, 421, 424.

occasion for all my philosophy and religion too. It is nothing but a firm faith in a good Providence that is my support at present; but it is an effectual one. I never felt its power so sensibly before. I read the introduction to the second volume of Hartley, and his conclusion, when I am most pressed. This, and the daily study of the Scriptures, are a never-failing resource. In this state of mind, what would I not give for the society of such a friend as you, to whom I could say what I cannot write!

Though I believe my situation here is preferable to any other whatever, I do not wish to live a day longer than I can do some good; but at present my health, and I hope my faculties, are as good as at any former period of my life, and I feel no abatement of activity, but what arises from a want of opportunity of exertion. In writing and experimenting I do almost as much as ever.

There is, in a Philadelphia paper, a strange account of my dining with Mr. Lister, the English ambassador,* on the Queen's birth-day, copied from the Gentleman's Magazine.† Mr. Lister, after inquiring of a common friend whether I would not be offended at the invitation, called on me in the most friendly manner, and nothing was done or said on the occasion that could give offence to any friend of liberty. In the drawing-room Mrs. Lister seated herself by me, and said I must hand her down stairs. I often visited Mr. Lister, and was much pleased with him. You will not suppose that I sang, or was asked to sing. I

DEAR SIR,

TO REV. T. BELSHAM.§

Northumberland, June 5, 1800. If any thing could tempt me to leave this country, and return to England, it would be your kind invitation to live with you. Indeed, I am incapable of managing a house myself, and

See supra, pp. 369, 375.

+ LXIX. 841-843; a ridiculous tale, unworthy of any respectable periodical; especially to have admitted such a communication, under the coward's coverture, an anonymous signature.

↑ Orig. MS.

§ Hackney.

always was. While my wife was living, I said I was only a lodger in her house, as I now am in my son's. Your account of what I might be, and do, living with you at Hackney, is flattering in the extreme; and if I considered my own satisfaction only, I should fly to it immediately, as the happiest lot I can imagine for what remains to me of life. It appears to me to be all that I could possibly wish for; but there are, for some time at least, insuperable objections to the scheme.

Several years of the best part of my life have been lost by removals, and I could not make another without the loss of all the remains, during which I can be capable of doing any thing. However, after a very few years, it will be a matter of much indifference where I live, or rather where I die; but then my company will not be worth having. I shall only be burdensome. On the whole, I do not think that I can do better than determine to remain where I am for life.*

DEAR SIR,

To MR. RUSSELL.+

Northumberland, June 5, 1800. YOUR letter of April 27 alarms me a good deal, as I fear your disorder is of a more dangerous nature than I had imagined; but we are all in the hands of God, who knows better than we can do what is best for us, and the world in general, and also how long it is proper that we continue here. This is my only consolation in the heavy trials with which it has pleased the Sovereign Disposer of all things to exercise me in this country, but it is abundantly sufficient.

I have just received a letter from Mr. Belsham, urging me strongly to return and live with him at Hackney. If any thing could tempt me, that would; but I am so fixed to this place, that a removal is now absolutely impossible, without too great a sacrifice of property, and, what is more, of my time, for any useful purpose.

By my last advices from England, my daughter has had an alarming relapse. I now despair of her recovery, but I do not

* Orig. MS.

+ Middletown.

lay this much to heart. She is prepared for a better world, and has little prospect of happiness in this.

I have no communication whatever with France, and therefore cannot give you any account of Mr. Walker;* but by one means or other, I do not recollect what, I heard that he had been in prison, but was at liberty again. What he was charged with, I did not hear, but it was said that he made heavy complaints of the country, and the government of it.

I cannot help being very anxious to hear from you. But few of my old friends are now left, and few indeed whom I have more reason to value and esteem than yourself; and the loss of any kind of property endears the remainder to us. But we shall meet in a better state; and to this the disappointments we meet with here naturally direct our attention.†

TO REV. T. LINDSEY.

DEAR FRIEND,

Northumberland, June 19, 1800. I ONCE thought, as you will have seen by my letters, that I might be of some use to the cause of rational Christianity in France, but I now think I should do no more by my presence than I can by my writings, so that I am well content to continue where I am.

Besides, a field of some usefulness is gradually opening to me here, and by means of my writings in other parts of this country. Bigotry and indifference no doubt prevail; but, with respect to myself, prejudices are much abated; and though my congregation is not large, I am constantly attended by about half a dozen excellent young men. They knew nothing of religion before I came, but are now equally intelligent and zealous. One of them, by means of whom all the rest have been gained, though without any education besides that of reading and writing, has composed several letters, or rather tracts, on the subject of the Divine Unity, that might be printed. With a liberal education, he would certainly appear to great advantage. He has read Locke, and is eager to pro* See supra, p. 210. + Orig. MS. Essex Street.

ceed to Hartley. He has long been in the habit of reading books that my son or myself have lent him; but I could not for a long time persuade him to read any thing on theology, and now he has little pleasure in any thing else. Two of these young men are going to work at the federal city, (they are carpenters,) and I shall furnish them with books. Wherever they go they will, I doubt not, make proselytes, and they are strictly virtuous and conscientious.

Mr. Christie is doing every thing he can in the good cause at Winchester, in Virginia, though hitherto without much success. He has published an excellent tract, and has preached a set of sermons on the Unity. I have just received a small parcel of the tracts directed to you, which I will send to Mr. Vaughan, to be forwarded to you the first opportunity.

I have sometimes lamented that the few Unitarians that have emigrated hither are placed at such a distance from one another; but I believe we are of more use in the situation, though our personal satisfaction would be greater if we were nearer. We are not wanted in England; and though as yet not much progress is made by any of us, it is more than could have been done if we had not come, and a little leaven may in time leaven the whole mass.†

I hope I acknowledge the hand of God in every thing, and doubt not but that hereafter, though not now, we shall see that the most untoward events have their use. At present I am sometimes ready to say with Jacob, that many things are

* See I. 352, note.

See the progress, in Northumberland, W. XXV. 145, note. A much valued friend, and able advocate of Unitarianism, contemplating its advances in "the land beyond the western ocean," more than twenty years after Priestley had "finished his course,” says,

"Half a century has not elapsed since she could not boast of more than one congregation in that great division of the globe, now she has many; (in Boston alone fourteen ;) may it soon be all her own! She is rapidly progressing and scattering wide the good seed of the word, which in due season will shoot above all the noxious tares that would impede its growth."

See "The Doctrine of the Trinity founded neither on Scripture, nor on Reason and Common Sense, but on Tradition and the Infallible Church. By William Hamilton Drummond, D.D." Ed. 3, (1831,) pp. 137, 138.