1 86 Literary and Philosophical Society, 



He was invited to come to the Manchester Academy, 

 and remained for some time ; afterwards he retired to 

 Wavertree, near Liverpool, and died when on a visit to a 

 friend in London, in 1807. Manchester missed receiving 

 him in his youth, because when invited there they could 

 only offer him forty pounds a year. He was, however, 

 given little more at Durham, and that small sum was not 

 all paid. He seems, indeed, to have been compelled to 

 struggle with poverty during most of his life. 



Some of his writings are : on * The Beautiful in the 

 Human Form ; ' on ' Tragedy and the Interest in Tragical 

 Representation ; ' on ' Hypocrisy ; ' ' Probable Arguments 

 in favour of the Immateriality of the Soul ; ' on * The 

 Machinery of the Ancient Epic Poem ; ' on * The Moral 

 Influence of History ;' on 'Natural and Moral Philosophy, 

 and the Proper Meaning of Philosophy in both ; ' on 

 * Imitation and Fashion ; ' ' The Dissenter's Plea : a Defence 

 of Learning and the Arts against some Charges of Rous- 

 seau's ; ' * The Dissenter's Plea : or the Appeal of the 

 Dissenters to the Justice, the Honour, and the Religion of 

 the Kingdom against the Test Laws.' 



In using the word dissenter in connection with the 

 Manchester New College as in part with the Warrington 

 Academy, and we may add with the Manchester Academy, 

 we are really to understand Unitarians, who also frequently 

 call themselves Presbyterians, a name which is not distinc- 

 tive and is indeed confusing, and to which many persons 

 object, as the opinions differ from those of the Presbyterian 

 establishment. They are a body which have always had 

 great influence in Manchester, partly having the roots from 

 Warrington, a body always very clear in their aims, ad- 

 vanced in their views of education and of political liberty ; 



