2 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY I 



well, and in which he showed himself so com- 

 petent to enlarge the boundaries of natural 

 knowledge and to win fame. In this cause he not 

 only cheerfully suffered obloquy from the bigoted 

 and the unthinking, and came within sight of 

 martyrdom; but bore with that which is much 

 harder to be borne than all these, the unfeigned 

 astonishment and hardly disguised contempt of a 

 brilliant society, composed of men whose sympathy 

 and esteem must have been most dear to him, and 

 to whom it was simply incomprehensible that a 

 philosopher should seriously occupy himself with 

 any form of Christianity. 



It appears to me that the man who, setting 

 before himself such an ideal of life, acted up to it 

 consistently, is worthy of the deepest respect, 

 whatever opinion may be entertained as to the 

 real value of the tenets which he so zealously pro- 

 pagated and defended. 



But I am sure that I speak not only for myself, 

 but for all this assemblage, when I say that our 

 purpose to-day is to do honour, not to Priestley, the 

 Unitarian divine, but to Priestley, the fearless 

 defender of rational freedom in thought and in 

 action : to Priestley, the philosophic thinker ; to 

 that Priestley who held a foremost place among 

 " the swift runners who hand over the lamp of 

 life," l and transmit from one generation to another 



1 "Quasi cursores, vital lampada tradunt." Lucn. 1)6 

 Rerum Nat. ii. 78. 



