4 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY i 



landed in that very broad form of Unitarianism 

 by which his craving after a credible and consist- 

 ent theory of things was satisfied. 



On leavin*r Daventry Priestlev became minister 

 of a congregation, first at Xeedham Market, and 

 secondly at Xantwich; but whether on account of 

 his heterodox opinions, or of the stuttering which 

 impeded his expression of them in the pulpit, little 

 success attended his efl:orts in this capacity. In 

 1761, a career much more suited to his abilities 

 became open to him. He was appointed " tutor 

 in the languages " in the Dissenting Academy at 

 Warrington, in which capacity, besides giving 

 three courses of lectures, he taught Latin, Greek, 

 French, and Italian, and read lectures on the the- 

 ory of language and universal grammar, on ora- 

 tory, philosophical criticism, and civil law. And 

 it is interesting to observe that, as a teacher, he 

 encouraged and cherished in those whom he in- 

 structed freedom which he had enjoyed, in liis 

 own student days, at Daventry. One of his pupils 

 tells us that, 



" At the conclusion of his lecture, he always cncourac^ed 

 his students to express their sentiments relative to the sub- 

 ject of it, and to urge any objections to what ho had deliv- 

 ered, without reserve. It pleased hira when any one com- 

 menced such a conversation. In order to excite the freest 

 discussion, he occasionally invited the students to drink tea 

 with hira, in order to canvass the subjects of his lectures. 

 I do not recollect that he ever showed the least displeasure 

 at the strongest objections that were made to what he de- 



