PREFACE. THE epistolary part of this biography has so extended, as to preclude, were I prepared to attempt it, a recapitulation of the controversies in which Dr. Priestley engaged, the various censures to which his writings gave occasion, and the final determinations of his own judgment, especially on the most important questions of human interest. No small satisfaction on all these points may, however, be readily obtained, from numerous passages in the twenty-five volumes of his Works, and, above all, in the Memoirs and Correspondence. Yet it is scarcely possible not to regret, with Mr. Priestley, that his father's important occupations during his last days, and his subsequent rapid decline, should have prevented the performance of his purpose, to leave behind him a farther Continuation of his Memoirs, including "a summary of his religious opinions," and "a statement of all that appeared to him essential to the Christian belief and the Christian character." To Mr. Priestley's own Continuation I am too much indebted, not to employ the earliest occasion of complying with his request, on accepting the former part of this biography. After saying, "I still hope to be able to publish an uniform edition of the whole of my father's Works,” he adds, very kindly, "no one can feel more obliged to you than I do for collecting in one edition all my father's theological works; nor have I suffered the idea that it might be the means of delaying the execution of my own plan, to lessen the sense of that obligation." Mr. Priestley, however, thus proceeds: "We differ in our views as to the propriety of publishing his Correspondence; and as your remarks have a tendency to injure me in the esteem of many persons, whose good opinion I value, may I request you, in the second part of the Memoirs, to state that you are satisfied of the propriety of my conduct?" That satisfaction I beg leave most unequivocally to express, or rather to repeat; for, in the former Preface, I fully designed to be so understood, when describing Mr. Priestley's "sense of propriety" as "the only hindrance to a compliance with my request ;" and I trust that to my "remarks" will not be generally imputed an injurious "tendency." It appears, indeed, that Dr. Priestley's own practice would powerfully influence his son's determination, which I took the liberty to regret. After saying, "the greater part of the letters which my father received, prior to the riots at Birmingham, were destroyed," Mr. Priestley adds, "what was a sufficient intimation to me, he destroyed all the letters he had received from Mr. Lindsey and Mr. Belsham to the end of the year 1802." Few readers of this biography, I trust, will regret the very different practice of Dr. Priestley's correspondents; though there have been too many instances, and some very modern, which may appear to confirm the judgment of Sir Henry Wotton, who inscribed over his fire-place, optimus secretariorum. Newington Green, J. T. RUTT. |