Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley : $b To the year 1795, written by himself: with a continuation, to the time of his decease, by his son, Joseph Priestley: and observations on his writings, by Thomas Cooper, President Judge of the 4th. district of Pennsylvania: and the Rev. William Christie.Priestley, Joseph
Religion
Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley : $b To the year 1795, written by himself: with a continuation, to the time of his decease, by his son, Joseph Priestley: and observations on his writings, by Thomas Cooper, President Judge of the 4th. district of Pennsylvania: and the Rev. William Christie.
Priestley, Joseph
Chemists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804
My father would, no doubt, have been glad to have returned to England,
and have enjoyed the society of his old and much valued friends; he
would have rejoiced to have been nearer the centre of the Arts and
Sciences; to have been joined again to his congregation and resumed his
duties as a Christian Preacher; he would have been glad at the close of
life, as he expresses himself, “to have found a grave in the land that
gave him birth;” but this was impossible: and no person can read the
preface to his Fast Sermon, quoted above, but must be convinced of it.
Though he raised the credit of his native country by the brilliancy,
the extent and the usefulness of his discoveries in different branches
of science; though during his whole life he inculcated principles
of virtue and religion, which the government pretended at least to
believe were necessary to the well being of the state; though in no
one single act of his life had he violated any law of his country or
encouraged others to do so, what was the treatment he met with in that
land of boasted civilization, and at the close of the 18th Century?
It is sufficiently known, and will, as it ought to do, affect the
character of the nation at large. Therefore, though he could have
forgotten and forgiven all that was past, though the above mentioned
motives would have had great weight in inducing him to return, yet
there was no reason to expect that he should meet hereafter with better
treatment than he had already experienced; and in consequence of this
fixed persuasion he never entertained the idea of returning to live
in England. He frequently talked indeed of returning to visit his
friends; but when peace took place and he could have gone with safety,
so comfortably was he settled in this country, and such was his opinion
of the state of things in England, that he abandoned even the idea of a
temporary journey thither, altogether.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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