2 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY i 



well, and in which he showed himself so com- 

 petent to enlarge the boundaries of natural knowl- 

 edge and to win fame. In this cause he not only 

 cheerfully suffered obloquy from the bigoted and 

 the unthinking, and came within sight of martyr- 

 dom; but bore with that which is much harder to 

 be borne than all these, the unfeigned astonish- 

 ment and hardly disguised contempt of a brilliant 

 society, composed of men whose sympathy and 

 esteem must have been most dear to him, and to 

 whom it was simply incomprehensible that a phi- 

 losopher should seriously occupy himself with any 

 form of Christianity. 



It appears to me that the man who, setting 

 before himself such an ideal of life, acted up to it 

 consistently, is worthy of the deepest respect, 

 whatever opinion may be entertained as to the 

 real value of the tenets which he so zealously pro- 

 pagated and defended. 



But I am sure that I speak not only for myself, 

 but fur all this assemblage, when I say that our 

 purpose to-day is to do honour, not to Priestley, 

 the Unitarian divine, but to Priestley, the fearless 

 defender of rational freedom in thought and in 

 action: to Priestley, the philosophic thinker; to 

 that Priestley who held a foremost place among 

 " the swift runners who hand over the lamp of 

 life," * and transmit from one generation to an- 



* " Qnnsi f nrsores, vital larapada tradunt." — Lucr. De 

 Rerum Nat. ii. 78. 



