I JOSEPH PRIESTLEY 23 



A man may be a necessarian without incurring 

 graver reproach than that implied in being called 

 a gloomy fanatic, necessarianism, though very 

 shocking, having a note of Calvanistic orthodoxy ; 

 Lut, if a man is a materialist ; or, if good authori- 

 ties say he is and must be so, in spite of his 

 assertion to the contrary ; or, if he acknowledge 

 himself unable to see good reasons for believing in 

 the natural immortality of man, respectable folks 

 look upon him as an unsafe neighbour of a cash- 

 box, as an actual or potential sensualist, the more 

 virtuous in outward seeming, the more certainly 

 loaded with secret " grave personal sins." 



Nevertheless, it is as certain as anything can be, 

 that Joseph Priestley was no gloomy fanatic, but 

 as cheerful and kindly a soul as ever breathed, the 

 idol of children ; a man who was hated only by 

 those who did not know him, and who charmed 

 away the bitterest prejudices in personal inter- 

 course ; a man who never lost a friend, and the 

 best testimony to whose worth is the generous 

 and tender warmth with which his many friends 

 vied with one another in rendering him substan- 

 tial help, in all the crises of his career. 



The unspotted purity of Priestley's life, the 

 strictness of his performance of every duty, his 

 transparent sincerity, the unostentatious and deep- 

 seated piety which breathes through all his corre- 

 spondence, are in themselves a sufficient refutation 

 of the hypothesis, invented by bigots to cover 



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