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MEMOIR OF 
declaration ; for he is stated to have “ feared” 
only that the oath was binding on those who had 
taken it ; and sooner than endanger the violation 
of his conscience, he renounced the fairest 
worldly anticipations, which his own talents and 
acquirements, and the influence of his connections, 
might have justified him in entertaining. If it 
be also considered that his parents were in very 
humble circumstances, and that there is no evi- 
dence of his having amassed a sufficiency at this 
time of his life, being then only thirty-four years 
old, and that he thus deliberately threw himself 
upon his own exertions, and possibly on the 
bounty of his friends, and also, what to a man of 
his deep and ardent piety must have been a source 
of great and lasting regret, that he, at the same- 
time, lost all opportunity of exercising his sacred 
function in a communion which, “ upon a serious 
and impartial consideration," he preferred as 
“ pure in doctrine, decent in worship, and agree- 
able to the word of God,” and the scruples 
against which he declares himself to have thought 
“ unreasonable and groundless,”* his determination 
must be considered as a sacrifice to the cause of 
truth and virtue infinitely more illustrious than 
all his scientific acquisitions and honours. Parti- 
sans of all kinds, when their cause is emerging 
from depression, are apt to think that a peculiar 
liberty of conscience and action is allowable as 
a reprisal for their previous denials, and to 
* “ His dying words,” added to the “ Philosoohical 
Letters.” 
