10 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY ! 



his life." And well he might think so; for it 

 gave him competence and 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, 

 Wedgwood, 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 intelli- 

 gence. 1 



But these halcyon days were ended by a bitter 

 storm. The French Revolution 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 



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

 Schimmelpenninck (nee 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 acuteness of intellect. I can never forget the im- 

 pression 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 removed 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." 



