Part 7

Apprized of this defect, I never fail to note down as soon as possible every thing that I wish not to forget. The same failing has led me to devise, and have recourse to, a variety of mechanical expedients to secure and arrange my thoughts, which have been of the greatest use to me in the composition of large and complex works; and what has excited the wonder of some of my readers, would only have made them smile if they had seen me at work. But by simple and mechanical methods one man shall do that in a month, which shall cost another, of equal ability, whole years to execute. This methodical arrangement of a large work is greatly facilitated by mechanical methods, and nothing contributes more to the perspicuity of a large work, than a good arrangement of its parts.

What I have known with respect to myself has tended much to lessen both my admiration, and my contempt, of others. Could we have entered into the mind of Sir Isaac Newton, and have traced all the steps by which he produced his great works, we might see nothing very extraordinary in the process. And great powers with respect to some things are generally attended with great defects in others; and these may not appear in a man’s writings. For this reason it seldom happens but that our admiration of philosophers and writers is lessened by a personal knowledge of them.

As great excellencies are often balanced by great, though not apparent, defects, so great and apparent defects are often accompanied by great, though not apparent, excellencies. Thus my defect in point of recollection, which may be owing to a want of sufficient coherence in the association of ideas formerly impressed, may arise from a mental constitution more favourable to new associations; so that what I have lost with respect to memory, may have been compensated by what is called invention, or new and original combinations of ideas. This is a subject that deserves attention, as well as every thing else that relates to the affections of the mind.

Though I have often composed much in a little time, it by no means follows that I could have done much in a given time. For whenever I have done much business in a short time, it has always been with the idea of having time more than sufficient to do it in; so that I have always felt myself at ease, and I could have done nothing, as many can, if I had been hurried.

Knowing the necessity of this state of my mind to the dispatch of business, I have never put off any thing to the last moment; and instead of doing that on the morrow which ought to be done to day, I have often blamed myself for doing to day what had better have been put off until to morrow; precipitancy being more my fault than procrastination.

It has been a great advantage to me that I have never been under the necessity of retiring from company in order to compose any thing. Being fond of domestic life, I got a habit of writing on any subject by the parlour fire, with my wife and children about me, and occasionally talking to them, without experiencing any inconvenience from such interruptions. Nothing but reading, or speaking without interruption, has been any obstruction to me. For I could not help attending (as some can) when others spoke in my hearing. These are useful habits, which studious persons in general might acquire, if they would; and many persons greatly distress themselves, and others, by the idea that they can do nothing except in perfect solitude or silence.

Another great subject of my thankfulness to a good providence is my perfect freedom from any embarrassment in my circumstances, so that, without any anxiety on the subject, my supplies have always been equal to my wants; and now that my expences are increased to a degree that I had no conception of some years ago, I am a richer man than I was, and without laying myself out for the purpose. What is more, this indifference about an increase of fortune has been the means of attaining it. When I began my experiments, I expended on them all the money I could possibly raise, carried on by my ardour in philosophical investigations, and entirely regardless of consequences, except so far as never to contract any debt; and if this had been without success, my imprudence would have been manifest. But having succeeded, I was in time more than indemnified for all that I had expended.

My theological studies, especially those which made it necessary for me to consult the Christian Fathers, &c. have also been expensive to me. But I have found my theological friends even more liberal than my philosophical ones, and all beyond my expectations.

In reflecting on my past life I have often thought of two sayings of Jacob. When he had lost one of his sons, and thought of other things that were afflictions to him, he said, “all these things are against me,” at the same time that they were in reality making for him. So the impediment in my speech, and the difficulties of my situation at Needham, I now see as much cause to be thankful for, as for the most brilliant scenes in my life.

I have also applied to myself what Jacob said on his return from Padan Aram. “With my staff I went over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands;” when I consider how little I carried with me to Needham and Nantwich, how much more I had to carry to Warrington, how much more still to Leeds, how much more than that to Calne, and then to Birmingham.

Yet, frequently as I have changed my situation, and always for the better, I can truly say that I never wished for any change on my own account. I should have been contented even at Needham, if I could have been unmolested, and had bare necessaries. This freedom from anxiety was remarkable in my father, and therefore is in a manner hereditary to me; but it has been much increased by reflection; having frequently observed, especially with respect to christian ministers, how often it has contributed to embitter their lives, without being of any use to them. Some attention to the improvement of a man’s circumstances is, no doubt, right, because no man can tell what occasion he may have for money, especially if he have children, and therefore I do not recommend my example to others. But I am thankful to that good providence which always took more care of me than I ever took of myself.

Hitherto I have had great reason to be thankful with respect to my children, as they have a prospect of enjoying a good share of health, and a sufficient capacity for performing the duties of their stations. They have also good dispositions, and as much as could be expected at their age, a sense of religion. But as I hope they will live to see this work, I say the less on this subject, and I hope they will consider what I say in their favour as an incitement to exert themselves to act a christian and useful part in life; that the care that I and their mother have taken of their instruction may not be lost upon them, and that they may secure a happy meeting with us in a better world.

I esteem it a singular happiness to have lived in an age and country, in which I have been at full liberty both to investigate, and by preaching and writing to propagate, religious truth; that though the freedom I have used for this purpose was for some time disadvantageous to me, it was not long so, and that my present situation is such that I can with the greatest openness urge whatever appears to me to be the truth of the gospel, not only without giving the least offence, but with the intire approbation of those with whom I am particularly connected.

As to the dislike which I have drawn upon myself by my writings, whether that of the Calvinistic party, in or out of the church of England, those who rank with rational dissenters (but who have been exceedingly offended at my carrying my inquiries farther than they wished any person to do) or whether they be unbelievers, I am thankful that it gives less disturbance to me than it does to themselves; and that their dislike is much more than compensated by the cordial esteem and approbation of my conduct by a few, whose minds are congenial to my own, and especially that the number of such persons increases.

[_Birmingham_, 1787.

_A Continuation of the Memoirs, written at Northumberland in America in the beginning of the year 1795._

When I wrote the preceding part of these Memoirs I was happy as must have appeared in the course of them, in the prospect of spending the remainder of my life at Birmingham, where I had every advantage for pursuing my studies, both philosophical and theological; but it pleased the sovereign disposer of all things to appoint for me other removals, and the manner in which they were brought about were more painful to me than the removals themselves. I am far, however, from questioning the wisdom or the goodness of the appointments respecting myself or others.

To resume the account of my pursuits where the former part of the Memoirs left it, I must observe that, in the prosecution of my _experiments_, I was led to maintain the doctrine of phlogiston against Mr. Lavoisier and other chemists in France, whose opinions were adopted not only by almost all the philosophers of that country, but by those in England and Scotland also. My friends, however, of the lunar society were never satisfied with the Anti-phlogistic doctrine. My experiments and observations on this subject were published in various papers in the Philosophical Transactions. At Birmingham I also published a new edition of my publications on the subject of _air_, and others connected with it, reducing the six volumes to three, which, with his consent, I dedicated to the prince of Wales.

In theology I continued my _defences of Unitarianism_, until it appeared to myself and my friends that my antagonists produced nothing to which it was of any consequence to reply. But I did not, as I had proposed, publish any address to the bishops, or to the legislature, on the subject. The former I wrote, but did not publish. I left it, however, in the hands of Mr. Belsham when I came to America, that he might dispose of it as he should think proper.

The pains that I took to ascertain the state of early opinions concerning Jesus Christ, and the great misapprehensions I perceived in all the ecclesiastical historians, led me to undertake a _General History of the christian church to the fall of the Western empire_, which accordingly I wrote in two volumes octavo, and dedicated to Mr. Shore. This work I mean to continue.

At Birmingham I wrote the _second_ part of my _Letters to a philosophical Unbeliever_, and dedicated the whole to Mr. Tayleur of Shrewsbury, who had afforded me most material assistance in the publication of many of my theological works, without which, the sale being inconsiderable, I should not have been able to publish them at all.

Before I left Birmingham I preached a funeral sermon for my friend Dr. Price, and another for Mr. Robinson of Cambridge, who died with us on a visit to preach our annual charity school sermon. I also preached the last annual sermon to the friends of the college at Hackney. All these three sermons were published.

About two years before I left Birmingham the question about the _test act_ was much agitated both in and out of parliament. This, however, was altogether without any concurrence of mine. I only delivered, and published, a sermon on the 5th of November 1789, recommending the most peaceable method of pursuing our object. Mr. Madan, however, the most respectable clergyman in the town, preaching and publishing a most inflammatory sermon on the subject, inveighing in the bitterest manner against the Dissenters in general, and myself in particular, I addressed a number of _familiar letters to the inhabitants of Birmingham_ in our defence. This produced a reply from him, and other letters from me. All mine were written in an ironical and rather a pleasant manner, and in some of the last of them I introduced a farther reply to Mr. Burn, another clergyman in Birmingham, who had addressed to me _letters on the infallibility of the testimony of the Apostles concerning the person of Christ_, after replying to his first set of Letters, in a separate publication.

From these small pieces I was far from expecting any serious consequences. But the Dissenters in general being very obnoxious to the court, and it being imagined, though without any reason, that I had been the chief promoter of the measures which gave them offence, the clergy, not only in Birmingham, but through all England, seemed to make it their business, by writing in the public papers, by preaching, and other methods, to inflame the minds of the people against me. And on occasion of the celebration of the anniversary of the French revolution on July 14th, 1791, by several of my friends, but with which I had little to do, a mob encouraged by some persons in power, first burned the meeting house in which I preached, then another meeting house in the town, and then my dwelling house, demolishing my library, apparatus, and, as far as they could, every thing belonging to me. They also burned, or much damaged, the houses of many Dissenters, chiefly my friends; the particulars of which I need not recite, as they will be found in two _Appeals_ which I published on the subject written presently after the riots.

Being in some personal danger on this occasion, I went to London; and so violent was the spirit of party which then prevailed, that I believe I could hardly have been safe in any other place. There, however, I was perfectly so, though I continued to be an object of troublesome attention until I left the country altogether. It shewed no small degree of courage and friendship in Mr. William Vaughan to receive me into his house, and also in Mr. Salte, with whom I spent a month at Tottenham. But it shewed more in Dr. Price’s congregation at Hackney, to invite me to succeed him, which they did, though not unanimously, some time after my arrival in London.

In this situation I found myself as happy as I had been at Birmingham, and contrary to general expectation, I opened my lectures to young persons with great success, being attended by many from London; and though I lost some of the hearers, I left the congregation in a better situation than that in which I found it.

On the whole, I spent my time even more happily at Hackney than ever I had done before; having every advantage for my philosophical and theological studies, in some respect superior to what I had enjoyed at Birmingham, especially from my easy access to Mr. Lindsey, and my frequent intercourse with Mr. Belsham, professor of divinity in the New College, near which I lived. Never, on this side the grave, do I expect to enjoy myself so much as I did by the fire side of Mr. Lindsey, conversing with him and Mrs. Lindsey on theological and other subjects, or in my frequent walks with Mr. Belsham, whose views of most important subjects were, like Mr. Lindsey’s, the same with my own.

I found, however, my society much restricted with respect to my philosophical acquaintance; most of the members of the Royal Society shunning me on account of my religious or political opinions, so that I at length withdrew myself from them, and gave my reasons for so doing in the Preface to my _Observations and Experiments on the generation of air from water_, which I published at Hackney. For, with the assistance of my friends, I had in a great measure replaced my Apparatus, and had resumed my experiments, though after the loss of near two years.

Living in the neighbourhood of the New College, I voluntarily undertook to deliver the lectures to the pupils on the subject of _History and General policy_, which I had composed at Warrington, and also on _Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry_, the _Heads_ of which I drew up for this purpose, and afterwards published. In being useful to this Institution I found a source of considerable satisfaction to myself. Indeed, I have always had a high degree of enjoyment in lecturing to young persons, though more on theological subjects than on any other.

After the riots in Birmingham I wrote _an Appeal to the Public_ on the subject, and that being replied to by the clergy of the place, I wrote a _second part_, to which, though they had pledged themselves to do it, they made no reply; so that, in fact the criminality of the magistrates, and other principal High-church men at Birmingham, in promoting the riot, remains acknowledged. Indeed, many circumstances, which have appeared since that time, shew that the friends of the court, if not the prime ministers themselves, were the favourers of that riot; having, no doubt, thought to intimidate the friends of liberty by the measure.

To my Appeal I subjoined various _Addresses_[23] that were sent to me from several descriptions of persons in England, and abroad; and from them I will not deny that I received much satisfaction, as it appeared that the friends of liberty, civil and religious, were of opinion that I was a sufferer in that cause. From France I received a considerable number of Addresses; and when the present _National Convention_ was called, I was invited by many of the departments to be a member of it. But I thought myself more usefully employed at home, and that I was but ill qualified for a business which required knowledge which none but a native of the country could possess; and therefore declined the honour that was proposed to me.

[23] Many of these addresses have been published already. In the appendix to the present life (No. 7.) will be given an arranged list of the addresses to Dr. Priestley from various bodies of men at various times of his life; they illustrate the following positions so honourable to his character, and so necessary to a just view of it. 1st That wherever he officiated as a dissenting minister, he never quitted his situation but with the sincere regrets of those among whom he had resided, and with parting testimonies of their affectionate approbation of his conduct. 2dly. That the riots at Birmingham called forth such abundant testimonies in favour of his moral conduct and eminent usefulness; that the promoters of those riots whether in church or state can have no palliation in the eye of a discerning public for their proceedings, so far as he was the object of them. Those only use violence in opposition to argument who have no argument to use. 3dly. That his quitting England for America, was regarded as a national loss to Great Britain, and the circumstances which induced it, a national disgrace. 4thly. That his reception in this country was as honourable as his friends had reason to expect: And his demeanour since his residence here, has been such as to gain him encreased reputation and respect, among those who knew nothing of him personally before his arrival.

T. C.

But no addresses gave me so much satisfaction as those from my late congregation, and especially of the young persons belonging to it, who had attended my lectures. They are a standing testimony of the zeal and fidelity with which I did my duty with respect to them, and which I value highly.

Besides congratulatory addresses, I received much pecuniary assistance from various persons, and bodies of men, which more than compensated for my pecuniary losses, though what was awarded me at the Assizes fell two thousand pounds short of them. But my brother-in-law, Mr. John Wilkinson, from whom I had not at that time any expectation, in consequence of my son’s leaving his employment, was the most generous on the occasion. Without any solicitation, he immediately sent me five hundred pounds, and afterwards transferred to me ten thousand pounds which he had deposited in the French funds, and until that be productive, he allows me two hundred pounds per annum.

After the riots, I published my _Letters to the Swedenborgian Society_, which I had composed, and prepared for the press just before.

Mr. Wakefield living in the neighbourhood of the College, and publishing at this time his objections to _public worship_, they made a great impression on many of our young men, and in his Preface he reflected much on the character of Dr. Price. On both these accounts I thought myself called upon to reply to him, which I did in a series of _Letters to a young man_. But though he made several angry replies, I never noticed any of them. In this situation I also answered Mr. Evanson’s _Observations on the dissonance of the Evangelists_ in a _second set of Letters to a young man_. He also replied to me, but I was satisfied with what I had done, and did not continue the controversy.

Besides the _sermon_ which I delivered on my acceptance of the invitation to the meeting at Hackney, in the preface to which I gave a detailed account of my _system of catechizing_, I published two _Fast sermons_ for the years 1793 and 1794, in the latter of which I gave my ideas of antient prophecies compared with the then state of Europe, and in the preface to it I gave an account of my reasons for leaving the country. I also published a _Farewell sermon_.[24]

But the most important of my publications in this situation were a series of _Letters to the Philosophers and Politicians of France on the subject of Religion_. I thought that the light in which I then stood in that country gave me some advantage in my attempts to enforce the evidence of natural and revealed religion. I also published a set of _sermons on the evidences of revelation_, which I first delivered by public notice, and the delivery of which was attended by great numbers. They were printed just before I left England.

[24] These reasons, as shewing the progress and state of his mind that induced this new æra of his life, will be inserted hereafter.