PRIESTLEY 45 



even looked upon ill-health as an advantage rather than 

 the reverse, because with health he says he might have 

 been fond of sports, and occupied his time in other ways 

 than in studies. Anybody reading Priestley's memoirs 

 will see that he was no believer in the old adage " mens 

 sana in corpore sano." 



In the year 1752, or when he was nineteen, he went to 

 the Dissenting Academy at Daventry, and at this institu- 

 tion developed the power of free discussion on most 

 subjects, especially theology : and as Priestley tells us in 

 his Autobiography, he was generally on " the heterodox 

 side of almost every question." 



After three years at the Academy, namely, in 1755, 

 Priestley became a Calvinistic minister at Needham 

 Market in Suffolk ; but whether it was due to his hetero- 

 doxy or to his stuttering, the congregation left him, and 

 he was obliged to seek fresh pastures. Too great to be 

 fettered by rules, too original to condescend to imitation, 

 he consulted his own inspiration only, and, like other 

 workers, had to pay dearly for living apart from the 

 general weal of mankind. After other vicissitudes, he 

 removed in 1761, one year after the succession of George III. 

 to the throne of his ancestors, to Warrington, having 

 been appointed tutor of languages in a dissenting academy. 

 Here he gave instruction in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, 

 and Italian, and lectured on logic, on elocution, on the 

 theory of language and universal grammar, on oratory 



