10 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY i 



ercd, at the time, to be " the liappiest event of 

 his life." And well he nii^rht tliink so; for it 

 gave him eomjietence 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, 

 Wedgwood, Darwin, and Boulton; and threw 

 open to him the pleasant house of the Galtons of 

 Barr, where these men, and others of less note, 

 formed a society of exceptional charm and intelli- 

 gence.* 



But these halcyon days were ended by a bitter 

 storm. The French Revolution broke out. An 

 electric shock ran through the nations; whatever 

 there was of corruj^t and retrograde, and, at the 

 same time, a great deal of what there was of best 



* Soo The Life of ^fary Anne Schimmelpenniiich. Mrs. 

 Sphimmclponninok {nee Galton) roniembered Priestley very 

 well, and her dcsoription of him is worth quotntion : — " A 

 man of admirable sim{)licity. p:entleness and kindness of 

 heart, united with {jreat acuteness of intellect. I can never 

 forpet the impression produced on me by the serene ex- 

 pression of his c'o\intenanoe. Tie. indeed, seemed present 

 with God hy reoolleetion, and with man by cheerful n«'ss. 

 I remember that, in the assembly of these distincruished 

 men, amonpst whom IMr. Boulton, by his noble manner, his 

 fine countenance (which much resembled that of Jjouis 

 XIV.), and princely munificence, stood i)re-cminentlv as 

 the preat Meca^nas; even as a child, T used to feel, wlien 

 Dr. Priestley entered after him, that the plory of the ono 

 was terrestrial, that of the other celestial; and utterly far 

 as I am removod from a belief in the sufficiency of Dr. 

 Priestley's theoloi^ical creed. I cannot but here n>cord this 

 evidence of the eteiiial power of any portion of the truth 

 held in its vitalitv." 



