Ixxxviii 



occurrence which he afterwards frequently mentioned as the cause 

 of his temporary estrangement from his pursuits. Dr. Black's dis- 

 coveries respecting carbonic acid, and the cause of causticity, at 

 this time occupied universal attention. Mr. Kirwan wrote him se- 

 veral letters containing observations on his views, but Black made 

 no reply. So disappointed was Kirwan at this rather uncourteous 

 treatment, that he relinquished his chemical inquiries, and did not 

 resume them until he subsequently abandoned the profession of the 

 law. He and Dr. Black afterward became the best friends. 



But he might have had additional reasons for relaxing the life 

 of study which he led. His application and devotion to his inves- 

 tigations in the early hours of morning were condemned by his 

 mother-in-law, who actually told him, that she had never intended 

 her daughter to be the wife of a monk ; and, unlike our first pa- 

 rent, Eve, she recommended abstinence from the tree of knowledge. 

 In reply, Mr. Kirwan, a little ruffled, made some unlucky allu- 

 sions to the champagne he had drank on the evening he proposed 

 for the lady ; but this little altercation did not in the least inter- 

 rupt the harmony which subsisted between him and his wife. 



About six years after his marriage he began to entertain doubts 

 of the religion which he had hitherto professed, and commenced 

 the study of its controverted points. He read, hesitated, the argu- 

 ments of Chillingworth almost convinced him ; but he was decided 

 during a visit to Payis with his wife, undertaken for the recovery of 

 her health. The circumstance, as related by himself, was as follows. 

 At a book-stand, he chanced to purchase a book without a title, 

 with the subject of which he was unacquainted, but it proved to 

 be religious controversy ; it gave the arguments on both sides of 

 the question, as he conceived, with impartiality. He studied it 

 every morning, while suffering under the inflictions of his hair- 

 dresser, then a tedious and important attendant of a French dress- 

 ing-room ; and during these intervals, the only moments allowed 

 him at that time for study, he decided in favour of the Protestant 

 faith; and in a year after, on the 15th of February, 1764, Mr. Kirwan 

 regularly conformed to the established religion. It is probable 

 he did so at that particular time, in order to qualify himself for 

 the profession of the law, which he afterwards adopted. The Act 



