70 MEMOIR OF 



declaration ; for he is stated to have " feared" 

 only that the oath was binding on those who had 

 taken it ; and sooner than endanger the violation 

 of his conscience, he renounced the fairest 

 worldly anticipations, which his own talents and 

 acquirements, and the influence of his connections, 

 might have justified him in entertaining. If it 

 be also considered that his parents were in very 

 humble circumstances, and that there is no evi- 

 dence of his having amassed a sufficiency at this 

 time of his life, being then only thirty-four years 

 old, and that he thus deliberately threw himself 

 upon his own exertions, and possibly on the 

 bounty of his friends, and also, what to a man of 

 his deep and ardent piety must have been a source 

 of great and lasting regret, that he, at the same 

 time, lost all opportunity of exercising his sacred 

 function in a communion which, " upon a serious 

 and impartial consideration," he preferred as 

 " pure in doctrine, decent in worship, and agree- 

 able to the word of God," and the scruples 

 against which he declares himself to have thought 

 " unreasonable and groundless,"* his determination 

 must be considered as a sacrifice to the cause of 

 truth and virtue infinitely more illustrious than 

 all his scientific acquisitions and honours. Parti- 

 sans of all kinds, when their cause is emerging 

 from depression, are apt to think that a peculiar 

 liberty of conscience and action is allowable as 

 a reprisal for their previous denials, and to 



* "His dying words," added to the * Philosoohica. 

 Letters." 



