4 JOSEPH PEIESTLEY I 



landed in that very broad form of Unitarianism 

 by which his craving after a credible and consist- 

 ent theory of things was satisfied. 



On leaving Daventry Priestley became minister 

 of a congregation, first at Needham Market, and 

 secondly at Nantwich ; but whether on account of 

 his heterodox opinions, or of the stuttering which 

 impeded his expression of them in the pulpit, little 

 success attended his efforts in this capacity. In 

 1761, a career much more suited to his abilities 

 became open to him. He was appointed " tutor 

 in the languages " in the Dissenting Academy at 

 Warrington, in which capacity, besides giving three 

 courses of lectures, he taught Latin, Greek, French, 

 and Italian, and read lectures on the theory of 

 language and universal grammar, on oratory, 

 philosophical criticism, and civil law. And it is 

 interesting to observe that, as a teacher, he en- 

 couraged and cherished in those whom he in- 

 structed the freedom which he had enjoyed, in his 

 own student days, at Daventry. One of his pupils 

 tells us that, 



"At the conclusion of his lecture, he always encouraged his 

 students to express their sentiments relative to the subject of it, 

 and to urge any objeptions to what he had delivered, without 

 reserve. It pleased him when any one commenced such a con- 

 versation. In order to excite the freest discussion, he occasionally 

 invited the students to drink tea with him, in order to canvass 

 the subjects of his lectures. I do not recollect that he ever 

 showed the least displeasure at the strongest objections that 

 were made to what he delivered, but I distinctly remember the 



