298 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



Joseph Banks, President of the Eoyal Society ; Thomas 

 Day, author of Sandford and Merton ; Sir William 

 Hamilton ; " Athenian " Stuart ; Clarkson and Wilber- 

 force ; and many artists and sculptors, referred to in 

 the previous chapters. 



Wedgwood received many honours. He was a 

 Fellow of the Eoyal Society, in consequence of his 

 invention of the Pyrometer and his many scientific 

 papers contributed to the Society. He was a Fellow of 

 the Antiquarian Society, because of his knowledge of 

 Greek and Etruscan art; besides being member of a 

 large number of Foreign Societies. 



His influence, his example, and his works at 

 Burslem and Etruria, had a wonderful power in im- 

 proving the moral and intellectual character of the 

 inhabitants of the Potteries. We have already referred 

 to the first visit of John Wesley to Burslem in 1760, 

 when he was pelted with mud. He visited the same 

 place in 1781 after Wedgwood had established his 

 splendid pottery works. Wesley's words were these : 

 " I returned to Burslem. How is the whole face of the 

 country improved in about twenty years ! Inhabitants 

 have continuously flowed in from every side. Hence 

 the wilderness is literally become a fruitful field. 

 Houses, villages, towns, have sprung up, and the 

 country is not more improved than the people." After 

 these words of John Wesley, further eulogy is un- 

 necessary. 



From the time when he first turned the lumbering 



