110 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. 



the desire of his brother-in-law, he was soon invited to 

 become the minister of a large congregation. This set- 

 tlement Priestley considered, at the time, to be "the 

 happiest event of 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 Soci- 

 ety," 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 intelli- 

 gence.* 



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 



* See " The Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck." Mrs. Schimmel- 

 penninck (nee Gallon) 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 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 dis- 

 tinguished men, amongst whom Mr. Boulton, by his noble manner, his fine 

 countenance (which much resembled that of Louis XTV.), and princely muni- 

 ficence, stood pre-eminently as the great Mecaenas ; 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." 



