even at this time of general languor, is astonishing. It is not an uncommon thing to see, at an association of ministers, five or six thousand hearers deeply affected.

"I remain, your affectionate friend and brother,

"To Rev. Mr. Saltem, of Bridport, Dorset."*

"E. W.

Gilbert's Memoirs of Williams.

CHAPTER XIX.

PRIESTLEY, severed by three thousand miles of the Atlantic from the destruction and tumult of Europe, landed in New York, June 6, 1724, to begin a new career in the Land of Promise. He received an enthusiastic welcome.

Priestley in the Land of Promise.

"We are safely arrived," he writes in a letter to Lindsey, "after a passage of eight weeks and a day. I never saw any place that I liked so well as New York. It far exceeds my expectations, and my reception is too flattering, no form of respect being omitted. I have received two formal addresses, to which I have given answers. More, I hear, are coming, and almost every person of the least consequence in the place has been, or is coming to call upon me. This is a glorious country."

66

"June 15, 1794.

1 feel as if I were in another world. The preachers, though all are cool to me, look upon me with dread. Several persons expressed a wish to hear me. If I were here a Sunday or two more I would make a beginning. The greatest difficulty arises from the indifference of liberal-minded men here to religion in general. They are so much occupied with commerce and politics. I never was more mortified than I now am, at not having with me any of my small tracts on the defence of the Divine Unity. My coming hither promises to be of much more service to our cause than I imagined."

Leaving New York for Philadelphia, the picture was altogether changed.

"This city," he writes (June 24, 1794) is by no means so agreeable as New York. With respect to religion, things are exactly in the same state as New York. Nobody asks me to preach, and I hear there is much jealousy and dread of me. have little doubt but that I shall form a respectable Unitarian Society in this place."

Priestley's friends, however, did not intend that he should settle in Philadelphia, or in any other place already established under the old social system, but that he should form a colony entirely after his own plan, in which the latest discoveries of science and philosophy should be practically applied without interference or modification from existing institutions.

An

Transition.

Estates, for this purpose, were purchased unpleasant by his son at a place called Northumberland. The transition from the cities as centres of civilization to the uncultivated waste, tried the patience of the great philosopher. He

writes:

April 5, 1795.

Nothing is yet done towards building my house. It is next to impossible to get workmen. Living, even in this remote place, I expect will soon be as dear as in London. In general, the lower class of people are very idle, as well as proud, and live miserably, many of them as wretchedly, to appearance, as the poor are said to do in Ireland. The English who think of settling here are almost all unbelievers, which renders my situation much less agreeable. This, however, is the will of Providence, and perhaps some good will come even of this unpleasant circumstance. I hope I shall at least guard my own family from the general infection."

"As to religion we are, like you, having a sermon in our own house, at which only two or three persons out of it, and those from England, attend. I shall get a place where I can preach

more publicly, but it must be at my own expense.

We are,

however, about to establish a college in this place, and then I can make use of the common hall for that purpose."

"December 6, 1795.

"There is something very remarkable in the progress of infidelity in this country, but I am most astonished with respect to some particular persons in England, and especially Unitarians."

The "unbelievers " attracted to the new settlement at Northumberland were a most dreary set of people, and Priestley found no relief Settlement in his isolation, but in correspondence, at Northand in writing books. In a letter to his friend, Mr. J. H. Stone (Jan. 20, 1798) he

says:

umberland.

"Your account of the state of religion in France gives me great satisfaction. I rejoice that neither you nor Mr. Vaughan are carried away by the present torrent of infidelity. They cannot say that all men of sense leave us. This makes me wish the more to see France. I might, in some other way, promote the cause I have so much at heart."

This, however, was a vain wish, for he adds immediately after :

"I once intended to have gone as far as Boston; but travelling in this country is so inconvenient and expensive that I have given up all thoughts of it."

At Northumberland Priestley was compelled to remain, though the projected college was never built, and, strange to say, he became unpopular even as a political philosopher.

Change in

"There has been," he says, "a most extraordinary change in the politics of the trading people of this country since I came hither, as to countries in alliance with France, which gives me great concern; and I am now subject to American more course abuse as a friend of France than I was in England. But the bulk of the people are still hostile to England,

Politics.

and rejoice, as I do, in the success of the French, and I am persuaded would never be brought to fight against them. I wrote to M. Perigaux to desire he would make a small purchase for me near Paris, but my money in his hands will not suffice for the purpose. Perhaps M. Talleyrand would assist in what I have hinted. The lust thing he said to me was, that he expected to see me in France.”

The Idol
Broken.

The broken idol was cast aside. Priestley continued to the end of his days talking to a dozen people in the room at Northumberland, careful to put on his gown, and by way of variety handed round the "elements" of the Lord's Supper to a few children.

His friend Stone gave him poor encouragement with respect to France. In a letter dated according to the style of the new era, " Paris, February 12, 1798 (25 Pluviose, 6 Year)," he says:

Paris.

"You have heard, no doubt, of the new sect which now has usurped every church in Paris, under the name of TheophilanState of thropism. The sect is prohibited by the government. things in Nothing is read here on these subjects, because nothing is wrote. We have seen nothing but Paine's Age of Reason, of which an immense edition, in French, was published, and not twenty copies were sold. I am told he has also been rejected from the Society of the Theophilanthropes, on the charge of intolerance. They have, at least, refused his offers of public instruction. Some atheistical tracts have been published, which have been little attended to, and the mind is floating at present, not knowing on what ground to repose."

The alarm of which Priestley wrote on his arrival in America, as to the effect that might be produced by his preaching, seems to have gradually subsided. ASHBEL GREEN, Chaplain of Congress,

writes :