102 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. [LECT- 



leisure ; placed him within reach of the best makers of 

 apparatus of the day ; made him a member of that 

 remarkable " Lunar Society," at whose meetings he 

 could exchange thoughts with such men as Watt, 

 Wedgewood, Darwin, and Boulton ; and threw open 

 to him the pleasant house of the Galtons of Barr, 

 where these men, and others of less note, formed a 

 society of exceptional charm and intelligence. 1 



But these halcyon days were ended by a bitter 

 storm. The French Eevolution broke out. An 

 electric shock ran through the nations ; whatever 

 there was of corrupt and retrograde, and, at the same 

 time, a great deal of what there was of best and 

 noblest, in European society shuddered at the out- 

 burst of long-pent-up social fires. Men's feelings 

 were excited in a way that we, in this generation, can 

 hardly comprehend. Party wrath and virulence were 

 expressed in a manner unparalleled, and it is to be 



1 See "The Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck." Mrs. 

 Schimmelpenninck (n& Galton) remembered Priestley very well, and 

 her description of him is worth quotation : " A man of admirable 

 simplicity, gentleness and kindness of heart, united with great acute- 

 ness of intellect. I can never forget the impression produced on me 

 by the serene expression of his countenance. He, indeed, seemed 

 present with God by recollection, and with man by cheerfulness. I 

 remember that, in the assembly of these distinguished men, amongst 

 whom Mr. Boulton, by his noble manner, his fine countenance (which 

 much resembled that of Louis XIV.), and princely munificence, stood 

 pre-eminently as the great Mecsenas ; even as a child, I used to feel, 

 when Dr. Priestley entered after him, that the glory of the one was 

 terrestrial, that of the other celestial ; and utterly far as I am re- 

 moved from a belief in the sufficiency of Dr. Priestley's theological 

 creed, I cannot but here record this evidence of the eternal power 

 of any portion of the truth held in its vitality." 



