Thomas Priestley

“ After leaving Calne, Priestley spent some little time in London, and then, having settled in Birmingham, at the desire of his brother-in-law, he was soon invited to become the minister of a large congregation. This settlement Priestley considered at the time to be "the happiest event of his life." And well he might think so, for it gave him competence and leisure; placed him within reach of the best makers of apparatus of the day; made him a member of that remarkable "Lunar Society" at whose meetings he could exchange thoughts with such men as Watt, Wedgewood, Darwin, and Boulton ”

“ As a Dissenter, subject to the operation of the Corporation and Test Acts, and as a Unitarian, excluded from the benefit of the Toleration Act, it is not surprising to find that Priestley had very definite opinions about Ecclesiastical Establishments; the only wonder is that these opinions were so moderate as the following passages show them to have been:—
“Ecclesiastical authority may have been necessary in the infant state of society, and, for the same reason, it may perhaps continue to be, in some degree, necessary as long as society is imperfect ”

“ Whatever men's opinions as to the policy of Establishment, no one can hesitate to admit that the clergy of the Church are men of pure life and conversation, zealous in the discharge of their duties; and at present, apparently, more bent on prosecuting one another than on meddling with Dissenters. Theology itself has broadened so much, that Anglican divines put forward doctrines more liberal than those of Priestley ”

“ In common with many other excellent persons, Priestley believed that man is capable of reaching, and will eventually attain, perfection. If the temperature of space presented no obstacle, I should be glad to entertain the same idea; but, judging from the past progress of our species, I am afraid that the globe will have cooled down so far before the advent of this natural millennium, that we shall be, at best, perfected Esquimaux. For all practical purposes, however, it is enough that man may visibly improve his condition in the course of a century or so. ”

“ Priestley; such value to be fixed by a person appointed for the purpose by the legislature.
The Committee was of the opinion that it would be expedient for the legislature to [Pg 163] coincide with the suggestion of Thomas Cooper and so recommended to the Legislature. Their report was adopted, 39 to 31. It was strongly advocated by Jesse Moore, Esq., General Mitchell and N. Ferguson from the city. ”

“ Epictetus and Epicurus give laws for governing ourselves, Jesus a supplement of the duties and charities we owe to others. The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, [4] invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most desirable object, and one to which 140 Priestley has successfully devoted his labors and learning. ”

“ As a philosopher he clearly saw defects in the most perfect of human institutions, and expressed himself with a boldness and freedom which alarmed the neighbouring clergy of the 124 Established Church, and excited their resentment. The labouring classes in Birmingham certainly looked upon him as a disaffected and dangerous man. Incapable of deep reflection themselves, they abhorred his Unitarian principles as subversive of Christianity, and the idea that the Church was in danger was propagated among them by men of deeper discernment, who wished to render Dr Priestley odious and unpopular. ”

“ You’ve nothing to live for. You’re [125] just passing the time and it’s rotten. Everything so far’s been a washout, and now it’s Monday morning all the week.’
Both Penderel and Sir William opened their mouths to speak, but they were drowned by a new voice that was so shrill and unexpected that it startled them all. Miss Femm had returned and was approaching the table, shrieking at her brother.
‘Morgan’s at the bottle again,’ she was shrieking. ‘I knew he’d begin to-night. Where did he get it from?’
Mr. Femm bit his lips. ”

“ We see then, that when religion has once been established, all the ministers of it are to be considered as servants in her pay, and bound to fight for her and support her. The very proposal of a reformation by any member of an establishment, is contrary to the most evident principles of justice and honour; a maxim that shuts the door against all reformations that may not be called violent ones. Every disorder, how flagrant soever, must be winked at, so long as a person continues in the church ”

“ Writers in defence of the church of England justify their separation from the church of Rome, but, with the most glaring inconsistency, call the protestant dissenters, schismatics; and many dissenters, forgetting the fundamental principles of their dissent, which are the same that are asserted by all christians and protestants in similar circumstances, discourage every degree of liberty greater than they themselves have taken, and have as great an aversion to those whom they are pleased to call heretics, as papists have for protestants, or as Laud had for the old puritans. ”

“ Dr. Priestley then took up his residence in Birmingham, where he assumed charge of a congregation, and continued for several years engaged in his theological and scientific investigations. His apparatus, by the liberality of his friends, had become excellent, and his income was now so good that he could prosecute his researches with freedom. He here continued his Theological Repository, and published a variety of tracts on his peculiar opinions in religion and upon the history of the primitive Church. ”

“ After three years at the Academy, namely, in 1755, Priestley became a Calvinistic minister at Needham Market in Suffolk; but whether it was due to his heterodoxy or to his stuttering, the congregation left him, and he was obliged to seek fresh pastures. Too great to be fettered by rules, too original to condescend to imitation, he consulted his own inspiration only, and, like other workers, had to pay dearly for living apart from the general weal of mankind. ”

“ Church livings must not be touched, and they may, if any thing else be meddled with. This makes the situation of sensible and conscientious men, in all establishments, truly deplorable. Before I had read that excellent work, intitled the Confessional, but much more since, it has grieved me to see the miserable shifts that such persons (whether in the church of England, or of Scotland) are obliged to have recourse to, in order to gild the pill, which they must swallow or starve ”

“ Penderel was padding across the room in his stockinged feet, in search of his bag. ‘Why, what’s been happening here?’ he asked.
‘God knows. I don’t. I’ve been hanging about here, waiting for somebody to come or something to happen. And just look at the place. It gets on your nerves. Every time I’ve wakened up I’ve had a shock.’
‘But where are they all?’ Gladys looked bewildered.
‘Don’t ask me. Can’t tell you.’ Sir William blew out his breath impatiently. ‘I’ll tell you what I do know. The lights went out. Waverton and what’s-his-name—Femm—went off to find a lamp. They’re finding it yet. ”

“ My situation being well known to my friends, Mr. Gill, a distant relation by my mother, who had taken much notice of me before I went to the academy, and had often lent me books, procured me an invitation to preach as a candidate at Sheffield, on the resignation of Mr. Wadsworth. Accordingly I did preach as a candidate, but though my opinions were no objection to me there, I was not approved. But Mr. Haynes, the other minister, perceiving that I had no chance at Sheffield, told me that he could recommend me to a congregation at Nantwich in Cheshire, where he himself had been settled ”

“ But far more remarkable were the effects of the championship of French principles in the celebrated Dr. Joseph Priestley. Priestley was now nearly sixty years of age—a time of life when men rarely become great enthusiasts in any cause. He was a Unitarian minister, and was now the pastor of a congregation at Birmingham. He was well known for various theological writings, in which he had announced his doubts of the immateriality of the sentient principle in man, especially in his "Disquisition on Matter and Spirit." He had been tutor to Lord Shelburne, first Lord Lansdowne ”

“ For every effect must have some adequate cause, and therefore the odium that I have incurred must have been owing to something in my declared sentiments, or conduct, that has exposed me to it. In my opinion, it cannot have been any thing but my open hostility to the doctrines of the established church, and more especially to all civil establishments of religion whatever. This has brought upon me the implacable resentment of the great body of the clergy; and they have found other methods of opposing me besides argument, and that use of the press which is equally open to us all. ”

“ And so you see, Horace, we can stay where we are.’
Mr. Femm had now recovered himself. ‘It is obvious,’ he said, looking at Mrs. Waverton, ‘that you will have to remain here for the night. The misfortune is yours, not ours. I am afraid we can promise you very little.’
‘No beds,’ screamed his sister, with that terrifying unexpectedness of hers. Penderel had begun to cherish an intense dislike of her, and longed to bellow in return, particularly when she gave another screech: ‘They can’t have beds.’
‘As my sister hints,’ said Mr. Femm, smoothly, ‘there are no beds, I am afraid, at your disposal. ”

“ The writer, in studying the lives of early American chemists, encountered the name of Joseph Priestley so frequently, that he concluded to institute a search with the view of learning as much as possible of the life and activities, during his exile in this country, of the man whom chemists everywhere deeply revere. ”

“ It isn’t cheek, and you know it’s not. Besides, he’s tremendously clever, you can see that, and full of push and go. Hurry up and say you will, he’s coming back.’
‘Well, I’ll see,’ he muttered, receiving her quick glance of gratitude. ‘I’ll have a talk to him.’ He could see that door opening behind him in her very eyes.
‘The world’s great age begins anew.’ Penderel’s voice rang through that dim place. His sudden high spirits seemed to light it up. ‘Gladys, Sir William, I’ve changed my socks and trousers—in the dark too, mind you—and now I’m a new man. ”

“ They alter their beliefs with great reluctance, and dread the charge of inconsistency, even in reference to trifling matters. Priestley, on the other hand, was a follower after truth, who delighted in the chase, and was all his life long pursuing, not resting in it. ”

“ Birth—Parentage—Home Life—Early Education
“If,” says Mr Frederic Harrison, “we choose one man as a type of the intellectual energy of the eighteenth century we could hardly find a better than Joseph Priestley, though his was not the greatest mind of the century. His versatility, eagerness, activity and humanity; the immense range of his curiosity in all things, physical, moral or social; his place in science, in theology, in philosophy and in politics; his peculiar relation to the Revolution, and the pathetic story of his unmerited sufferings, may make him the hero of the eighteenth century.” ”

“ At this meeting we read all the papers that were sent for the Theological Repository, which I revived some time after my coming hither, and in general our conversation was of the same cast as that with my fellow tutors at Warrington.
Within a quarter of a year of my coming to reside [Pg 98] at Birmingham, Mr. Hawkes resigned, and I had an unanimous invitation to succeed him, as colleague with Mr. Blyth, a man of a truly christian temper. The congregation we serve is the most liberal, I believe, of any in England; and to this freedom the unwearied labours of Mr. ”

“ Of the almost discarded theory of Phlogiston Dr. Priestley to his death remained the strenuous advocate, and almost the sole supporter; ipse Agmen. Beautiful and elegant as the simplicity of the new doctrine appears, many facts yet remain to be explained, [Pg 269] to which the old system will apply, and the French theory is inadequate. These are collected with an ingenuity of arrangement, and a force of reasoning in the last pamphlet published by the Doctor on the subject, [55] which no man as yet unprejudiced can peruse, without hesitating on the truth of the fashionable theory of the day. ”

“ No example of Priestley’s abilities as a “versifier” has come down to us, but in that dainty little sketch of the Warrington society, by Miss Lucy Aikin, from which we have already quoted, allusion is made to his accomplishment.
“Both bouts rimés and vers de société were in fashion with the set. Once it was their custom to slip anonymous pieces into Mrs Priestley’s work-bag. One ‘copy of verses,’ a very eloquent one, puzzled all guessers a long time; at length it was traced to Dr Priestley’s self.” ”

“ Good old eating, thought Penderel, it’ll carry anything off. Not that he minded these little family quarrels of the Femms, he told himself; he rather enjoyed them. They were like a passage from a new kind of morality play; a short scene for the sneering bone and the screaming flesh.
Nobody spoke. It was one of those silences not easily broken; their strength is tested by a tap or two of words tried over in the mind, and then they are left alone. Margaret bent over her plate. Philip was idly watching Miss Femm, who was heaping red meat on the plate that Morgan held out to her. ”