775970) | 
- was manifeftly the objeét of all his aoe 
tions. 
From Mr. Wiche’s intercourfe with perfons 
in mercantile life, it became his fixed per-. 
fuafion, that till extenfive commerce and great 
¢apitalift$ are unknown, man can make no 
progrefs in virtue and happinefs. His fpecu- 
lations, however, upon human improvement 
were more fhaken by a late ‘* Effay on Po- 
pulation,” than by any produétion or event 
of modern times 3 and he was acculftomed to 
fay, that he knew no* in what manner to 
 anfwer thar truly elegant and ingenious pub- 
lication. Though he had ceafed tu be a chriftian 
min‘fter, in the ufual meaning of that ex- 
preffion, yet he ceafed not to be a Chriftian*, 
On the contrary, he still gave his countenance 
to Chriftian worfhip; and, perhaps with 
fomewhat of inconfiftency, attended upon the 
preaching of hired teachers. In the truth of 
the gofpel revelation, he often exprefied his 
full and joyful confidence; yet he feemed to 
imagine, that it was too pure, too facred, to 
be diffufed by men acting profeilionally, and 
appearing to earn a temporal fupport from 
their employmert. Let it be admitted, that 
his opinion. was'a miftaken one, it is impot- 
fible, neverthelefs, not to admire his exalted 
views of Chrittian truth and duty 3 and happy 
were it, did every diflenting teacher in parti- 
cular poflefs a greater freedom from thofe 
worldly and felfiih regards, the predominance: 
of fome among the number, Mr. Wiche 
was in the @abit of deeply Janienting, and 
pointedly condemning. Too wife and good to 
eail any man matter upon earth, Mr. Wiche 
had examined the feriptures for himfelf. The 
refult was, a hearty attachmentto the religious 
fentiments maintained by Unitarian Chriftians. 
But upon opinions and names, as fuch, he 
jaid no ftrefs. ‘Lo mould his life in ftrid 
conformity with the Chriftian law, as a fove- 
reign rule cf manners, was the hab:tual ob- 
ject of Mr. Wiche’s thoughts, wifhes, and 
exertions. No man more clearly faw, or 
more fincerely mourned, the degeneracy of 
what is properly called the Chriftian world ; 
and it was his fettled conviétion, that the 
awful events of modern days and recent ex- 
perience, are defigned by the Almighty Go- 
vernor of the Univerfe, to roufe individuals 
and communities from their moral flumbers, 
and bring them toa pra¢tical reception of the 
pure and undefiled golpel. ** Such events 
(would he fay) are the only effectual preach. 
ers of righteoufnefs to mankind ” Upon this 
fubject, indeed, he would often enlatge be- 
fore his friends, with peculiar, energy and 
animation; and his eloquence here was evi- 
dently heightened by his firm and zealous be- 
jief in the do¢trine of philofophical neceifity. 


* See the concluding paragraph of Dr. J. 
Jebb’s Letter of Refignation to the Bithop of 
gorwich, hs 
4 
Account of Etienne Montgolfer: 
- Enamoured with the ‘pure and- lofty pre- 
cepts, and infpired by the fublime hopes of 
the Chriftian revelation, Mr. Wiche oppofed. 
himtelf, in his moral feelings and practice, to 
a vitiated ftate of human fociety, anda corrupt 
and noxious fyftem of opinions. So far as his 
higheft perfonal interefis were concerned, he op~ 
poled them with fuccefs. The ftruggle was 
not unattended by difficulties; but the vic- 
fory was complete. Mr. Wiche’s Chrittia~ 
nity confifted in an imitation of the charaéter 
of Chrift; it was in direét, contradiétion to 
the Chriftianity of the fchools, and the 
Chriftianity of the world. Reader! admire 
and emulate one of whom that world was-not 
worthy. ** Many have I feen more famous, 
fome more knowing, few fo innocent and ho- 
nett”: . 
Lately at Annonai, his native place, aged 
§2, Etienne Montgolficr, Member of the 
_Natonal Inftitute of France; and, cone 
Jointly with his brother Jofeph, inventor of 
the Air Balloon.—-Défcended from -a family 
in which genius and learning were heredi. 
tary, Montgolfier, at a very early period, 
devoted himfelf to the praétical ftudy of me= 
chanics and chemiftry, and applied his know- 
ledge to the moft ufeful purpofes, in an-art 
which he brought to the higheft ftate ‘of 
perfection, —the manufacturing of paper. He 
Was proprietor of a very extenfive manufac- 
tory, which he himfelf fuperintended. His 
ftudies and experiments gave birth to a vati- 
ety of new and improved machines, and new 
procefles, to which France is indebted, among 
other things, for her firft manufactory of vel- 
lum paper, which till his time, was only te 
be obtained from the mills of Holland. ‘The 
fuperiority of French typography, fo univer- 
fally adminted, is doubtle:s attributable to 
this difcovery of Montgoliier. In more in- 
flances than one, his genius difcovered the 
inventions of thofe indufrious rivals of the 
French, the Dutch ; and long before the pre- 
fent dlliance of thofe nations, which rendered 
their arts and manufa@ures one common 
property, Montgolfier had himfelf difcovered 
the moft effential parts of the procets of the 
Dutch paper manufaGtories. He has been 
heard to fay, ¢* that nothing had ever given 
him more pleafure, than the difcovery, that 
many very important experiments, which he 
had conceived to be folely his own, formed 
part of the moft fecret arts of the Durch manu~ 
facturer. It does not appear that EtienneMont- 
golfier, or his brother Jofeph, ever received any 
fubftantial recompence for their inventions, 
either from the ancient or new government of 
France ; on the contrary, after having ex- 
pended.a confiderable part of their fortune in 
expentive experiments, they were compelled 
to abandon them incomplete from a want of 
the neceffary means of continuing them. 
Etienne Montgolfier, however, derived from 
_his fame an advantage of which he well knew 
the value; he was fought after with*avidity, 
i at 
ee 929 
