86 PEIESTLEY. 



on Saturday after an illness of a fortnight." He adds 

 some remarks on his literary occupations, and con- 

 cludes with mentioning a plan he has of travelling to 

 distract his mind.* No one who reads his letters and 

 his memoirs, written by himself, can doubt that this 

 stoical firmness is not the result of a callous dispo- 

 sition, but the signal triumph of a heartfelt belief in 

 the promises of Religion over the weakness of our 

 nature. 



It is, indeed, quite manifest that Religion was as 

 much an active principle in him as in any one who 

 ever lived. Not only is it always uppermost in his 

 thoughts, but he even regards temporal concerns of a 

 public nature always in connexion with the Divine 

 superintendence, and even with the prophecies of 

 Scripture. His letters are full of references to those 

 prophecies as bearing on passing events, and he 

 plainly says that since his removal to America he 

 should care little for European events but for their 

 connexion with the Old Testament. He also looked 

 for an actual and material second coming of Christ 

 upon earth. 



It is not true to affirm that he was little of a poli- 

 tician, though in declining the seat in the National 

 Convention he says f his studies had been little 

 directed towards legislation compared with theology 

 and philosophy; and denies in a letter to William 

 Smith that he ever taught or even mentioned politics 

 to his pupils, as he had been charged with doing, 

 among the innumerable falsehoods of which he was 

 the subject. Nor is the circumstance of his not 

 attending political meetings at all decisive of his being 

 little of a political agitator, because his incurable 

 stutter prevented him Som taking a part in such pro- 

 ceedings. But he wrote in 1774, at Franklin's request, 

 an address to the people on the American disputes, 



* Mem. vol. i., part ii., p. 328, 354. 

 f Mem. vol. i., part ii., p. 190 198. 



