SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 489 



script, in the schedule of losses, was simply put down as so much 

 paj)er. 



To the charge that he was a promoter of sedition, Dr. Priestley re- 

 plied by appealing to his entire intellectual career, into which politics 

 had hardly entered at all, from his complete engrossment with other 

 subjects. In relation to this he says : *' As to the great odium that I 

 have incurred, the charge of sedition, or my being an enemy to the 

 constitution or peace of my country, is a mere pretense for it, though 

 it has been so much urged that it is now generally believed, and all 

 attempts to undeceive the public with respect to it avail nothing at 

 all. The whole course of my studies from early life shows how little 

 politics of any kind have been my object. Indeed, to have written so 

 much as I have in theology, and to have done so much in experimental 

 philosophy, and at the same time to have had my mind occupied, as 

 it is supposed to have been, with factious politics, I must have had 

 faculties more than human. Let any person only cast his eye over the 

 long list of my publications, and he will see that they relate almost 

 wholly to theology, philosophy, or general literature." 



In regard to the religious aspect of the case, he observes: "It 

 might have been thought that, having written so much in defense of 

 revelation, and of Christianity in general, more, perhaps, than all the 

 clergy of the Church of England now living, this defense of a com- 

 mon cause would have been received as some atonement for my de- 

 merits in writing against civil establishments of Christianity, and par- 

 ticular doctrines. But, had I been an open enemy of all religion, the 

 animosity against me could not have been c^reater than it is. Neither 

 Mr. Hume nor Mr. Gibbon was a thousandth part so obnoxious to the 

 clergy as I am ; so little respect have my enemies for Christianity it- 

 self, compared with what they have for their emoluments from it." 



It was the obvious tendency, as it was the undoubted design, of 

 the systematic j^ersecution to whicli Dr. Priestley was subjected, to 

 drive him from the country. His sons, disgusted with their father's 

 treatment, had renounced England and gone over to France ; and it 

 was expected that Dr. Priestley would follow them. He was not at 

 first disposed to comply with the general expectation, and stated that 

 he should not be driven away ; but upon the breaking out of the war 

 between France and England his sons emigrated to America, and this 

 circumstance, joined to the state of isolation in which he lived, induced 

 Dr. Priestley after much deliberation to decide upon following them. 

 Intolerance and bigotry were thus triumphant ; and the greatest scien- 

 tific discoverer of his century, whose labors will reflect imperishable 

 glory upon England, instead of receiving the honors that were due 

 him, was hunted out of that country and driven into exile like a com- 

 mon felon. 



Dr. Priestley sailed from London in April, 1794, and arrived in 

 New York in June. He was received there by various societies with 



