MEMOIR OF PRIESTLEY. 139 



to the friends of enlightenment, and attest more strikingly the irre- 

 pressible influence of true merit, when it is considered that he who 

 was its ohject used no address or management in securing it ; that, 

 on the contrary, his life was one of almost ceaseless controversy ; that 

 he seemed on all occasions to take pleasure in contesting the most ac- 

 credited opinions, and attacked without scruple the most cherished 

 interests of certain classes of men. 



It is true that this excessive ardor in the assertion of his own ideas 

 drew upon him the bitterest resentments, exposed him to all sorts of 

 calumny, and more than once rendered him the victim of cruel perse- 

 cution. A mob, excited by the false reports of his enemies, snatched 

 from him in a single day the fruits of all his labors, and only by 

 withdrawing from his country did he succeed in baffling the fury of 

 his persecutors. But when his own countrymen seemed to forsake 

 him, there were others eager to offer him an honorable asylum. And 

 now, when the principal literary institution of a nation at war with 

 his own, tenders him through my voice the last sad tribute which it 

 owes to all its members, I see among the audience many to whom 

 Priestley has been heretofore opposed, who yet seem to join their suf- 

 frages with mine and crown by their generous concurrence the measure 

 of his triumph. 



Science and philosophy will have nothing to fear from their bigoted 

 adversaries so long as such a recompense shall await the man who has 

 enlarged the noble edifice of our knowledge ; so long as genius shall 

 be regarded apart from its merely local relations, and the development 

 of new truths shall procure indulgence for any incidental waywardness, 

 singularity or even rashness of opinion ; for it must not be dissembled 

 that in matters of opinion Priestley has made himself liable to ex- 

 ceptions of this nature. 



In effect, his history will exhibit him in the light, as it were, of two 

 different — I had almost said, two contrasted — individuals. 



One, the circumspect observer of nature, confines himself to the 

 examination of objects which lie within the domain of experience, 

 subjects every procedure to a strict and cautious logic, indulges neither 

 in speculation nor prejudice, but seeking only truth, whatever it may 

 be, seldom fails to discover and to establish it in the most satisfactory 

 manner : the other shows us the adventurous theologian, who grap- 

 ples boldly with the most mysterious questions, rejects authority 

 however consecrated by the respect and belief of ages, and, abandon- 

 ing himself to the heat of controversy, with opinions formed in ad- 

 vance, evinces as much solicitude for the success as concern for tlie 

 validity or even consistency of his hypotheses. The former calmly 

 resigns his discoveries to the examination of the learned, and finds 

 them received without hesitation and his own merit acknowledged 

 without contradiction : the latter invests himself in the warlike 

 panoply of erudition and metaphysics, attacks with little discrimina- 

 tion whatever sect or dogma presents itself, and too often revolts 

 the conscience by the aggressive zeal with which he seems bent on 

 subduing it. 



It is against the divine, the minister of peace, that all are in arms ; 



