At Nantwich I found a good natured friendly people, with whom I lived
three years very happily; and in this situation I heard nothing
of those controversies which had been the topics of almost every
conversation in Suffolk; and the consequence was that I gave little
attention to them myself. Indeed it was hardly in my power to do it,
on account of my engagement with a school, which I was soon able
to establish, and to which I gave almost all my attention; and in
this employment, contrary to my expectations, I found the greatest
satisfaction, notwithstanding the confinement and labour attending it.
My school generally consisted of about thirty boys, and I had a
separate room for about half a dozen young ladies. Thus I was employed
from seven in the morning untill four in the afternoon, without any
interval except one hour for dinner, and I never gave a holiday on
any consideration, the red letter days, as they are called, excepted.
Immediately after this employment in my own school rooms, I went to
teach in the family of Mr. Tomkinson, an eminent attorney, and a man of
large fortune, whose recommendation was of the greatest service to me;
and here I continued until seven in the evening. I had therefore but
little leisure for reading or for improving myself in any way, except
what necessarily arose from my employment.
Being engaged in the business of a schoolmaster, I made it my study
to regulate it in the best manner, and I think I may say with truth,
that in no school was more business done, or with more satisfaction,
either to the master, or the scholars, than in this of mine. Many of my
scholars are probably living and I am confident that they will say that
this is no vain boast.
At Needham I was barely able with the greatest economy to keep out of
debt (though this I always made a point of doing at all events) but at
Nantwich my school soon enabled me to purchase a few books, and some
philosophical instruments, as a small air pump, an electrical machine,
&c. These I taught my scholars in the highest class to keep in order,
and make use of, and by entertaining their parents and friends with
experiments, in which the scholars were generally the operators, and
sometimes the lecturers too, I considerably extended the reputation of
my school; though I had no other object originally than gratifying my
own taste. I had no leisure, however, to make any original experiments
until many years after this time.
As there were few children in the congregation (which did not consist
of more than sixty persons, and a great proportion of them travelling
scotchmen) there was no scope for exertion with respect to my duty as
a minister. I therefore contented myself with giving the people what
assistance I could at their own houses, where there were young persons;
and I added very few sermons to these which I had composed at Needham,
where I never failed to make at least one every week.
Being boarded with Mr. Eddowes, a very sociable and sensible man,
and at the same time the person of the greatest property in the
congregation, and who was fond of music, I was induced to learn to play
a little on the English flute, as the easiest instrument; and though I
was never a proficient in it, my playing contributed more or less to my
amusement many years of my life. I would recommend the knowledge and
practice of music to all studious persons; and it will be better for
them, if, like myself, they should have no very fine ear, or exquisite
taste; as by this means they will be more easily pleased, and be less
apt to be offended when the performances they hear are but indifferent.
At Nantwich I had hardly any literary acquaintance besides Mr.
Brereton, a clergyman in the neighbourhood, who had a taste for
astronomy, philosophy, and literature in general. I often slept at his
house, in a room to which he gave my name. But his conduct afterwards
was unworthy of his profession.
Of dissenting ministers I saw most of Mr. Keay of Whitchurch, and Dr.
Harwood, who lived and had a school at Congleton, preaching alternately
at Leek and Wheelock, the latter place about ten miles from Nantwich.
Being both of us schoolmasters, and having in some respect the same
pursuits, we made exchanges for the sake of spending a Sunday evening
together every six weeks in the summer time. He was a good classical
scholar, and a very entertaining companion.
In my congregation there was (out of the house in which I was boarded)
hardly more than one family in which I could spend a leisure hour with
much satisfaction, and that was Mr. James Caldwall’s, a scotchman.
Indeed, several of the travelling Scotchmen who frequented the place,
but made no long stay at any time, were men of very good sense; and
what I thought extraordinary, not one of them was at all Calvinistical.
My engagements in teaching allowed me but little time for composing
any thing while I was at Nantwich. There, however, I recomposed my
_Observations on the character and reasoning of the apostle Paul_, as
mentioned before. For the use of my school I then wrote an _English
grammar_[5] on a new plan, leaving out all such technical terms as were
borrowed from other languages, and had no corresponding modifications
in ours, as the future tense, &c. and to this I afterwards subjoined
_Observations for the use of proficients in the language_,[6] from
the notes which I collected at Warrington; where, being tutor in the
languages and Belles Letters, I gave particular attention to the
English language, and intended to have composed a large treatise on
the structure and present state of it. But dropping the scheme in
another situation, I lately gave such parts of my collection as I had
made no use of to Mr. Herbert Croft of Oxford, on his communicating to
me his design of compiling a Dictionary and Grammar of our language.
[5] Printed in 1761.
[6] Printed in 1772 at London. His lectures on the Theory of Language
and Universal Grammar were printed the same year at Warrington. David
Hume was made sensible of the Gallicisms and Peculiarities of his
stile by reading this Grammar; He acknowledged it to Mr. Griffith the
Bookseller, who mentioned it to my father.
The academy at Warrington was instituted when I was at Needham, and Mr.
Clark knowing the attention that I had given to the learned languages
when I was at Daventry, had then joined with Dr. Benson and Dr. Taylor
in recommending me as tutor in the languages. But Mr. (afterward Dr.)
Aikin, whose qualifications were superior to mine, was justly preferred
to me. However, on the death of Dr. Taylor, and the advancement of
Mr. Aikin to be tutor in divinity, I was invited to succeed him. This
I accepted, though my school promised to be more gainful to me. But
my employment at Warrington would be more liberal, and less painful.
It was also a means of extending my connections. But, as I told
the persons who brought me the invitation, viz. Mr. Seddon and Mr.
Holland of Bolton, I should have preferred the office of teaching the
mathematics and natural philosophy, for which I had at that time a
great predilection.
My removal to Warrington was in September, 1761, after a residence
of just three years at Nantwich. In this new situation I continued
six years, and in the second year I married a daughter of Mr. Isaac
Wilkinson, an Ironmaster near Wrexham in Wales, with whose family
I had became acquainted in consequence of having the youngest son,
William, at my school at Nantwich. This proved a very suitable and
happy connection, my wife being a woman of an excellent understanding,
much improved by reading, of great fortitude and strength of mind, and
of a temper in the highest degree affectionate and generous; feeling
strongly for others, and little for herself. Also, greatly excelling
in every thing relating to household affairs, she entirely relieved
me of all concern of that kind, which allowed me to give all my time
to the prosecution of my studies, and the other duties of my station.
And though, in consequence of her father becoming impoverished, and
wholly dependent on his children, in the latter part of his life, I had
little fortune with her, I unexpectedly found a great resource in her
two brothers, who had become wealthy, especially the elder of them. At
Warrington I had a daughter, Sarah, who was afterwards married to Mr.
William Finch of Heath-forge near Dudley.
Though at the time of my removal to Warrington I had no particular
fondness for the studies relating to my profession then, I applied to
them with great assiduity; and besides composing courses of _Lectures
on the theory of Language_, and on _Oratory and Criticism_, on which
my predecessor had lectured, I introduced lectures on _history and
general policy_, on the _laws and constitutions of England_, and on
the _history of England_. This I did in consequence of observing that,
though most of our pupils were young men designed for situations in
civil and active life, every article in the plan of their education was
adapted to the learned professions.
In order to recommend such studies as I introduced, I composed an
_essay on a course of liberal education for civil and active life_,
with _syllabuses_ of my three new courses of lectures; and Dr. Brown
having just then published a plan of education, in which he recommended
it to be undertaken by the state, I added some _remarks on his
treatise_, shewing how inimical it was to liberty, and the natural
rights of parents. This leading me to consider the subject of civil
and political liberty, I published my thoughts on it, in an _essay on
government_, which in a second edition I much enlarged, including in it
what I wrote in answer to Dr. Balguy, on church authority, as well as
my animadversions on Dr. Brown.
My _Lectures on the theory of language and universal grammar_ were
printed for the use of the students, but they were not published. Those
on _Oratory and Criticism_ I published when I was with Lord Shelburne,
and those on _History and general policy_ are now printed, and about to
be published.[7]
[7] This work has been reprinted in Philadelphia with additions,
particularly of a chapter on the government of the United States.
Finding no public exercises at Warrington, I introduced them there,
so that afterwards every Saturday the tutors, all the students, and
often strangers, were assembled to hear English and Latin compositions,
and sometimes to hear the delivery of speeches, and the exhibition of
scenes in plays. It was my province to teach elocution, and also Logic,
and Hebrew. The first of these I retained; but after a year or two I
exchanged the two last articles with Dr. Aikin for the civil law, and
one year I gave a course of lectures in anatomy.
With a view to lead the students to a facility in writing English, I
encouraged them to write in verse. This I did not with any design to
make them poets, but to give them a greater facility in writing prose,
and this method I would recommend to all tutors. I was myself far from
having any pretension to the character of a poet; but in the early part
of my life I was a great versifier, and this, I believe, as well as my
custom of writing after preachers, mentioned before, contributed to the
ease with which I always wrote prose. Mrs. Barbauld has told me that it
was the perusal of some verses of mine that first induced her to write
any thing in verse, so that this country is in some measure indebted
to me for one of the best poets it can boast of. Several of her first
poems were written when she was in my house, on occasions that occurred
while she was there.
It was while I was at Warrington that I published my _Chart of
Biography_, though I had begun to construct it at Nantwich. Lord
Willoughby of Parham, who lived in Lancashire, being pleased with the
idea of it, I, with his consent, inscribed it to him; but he died
before the publication of it: The _Chart of History_, corresponding to
it, I drew up some time after at Leeds.
I was in this situation when, going to London,[8] and being introduced
to Dr. Price, Mr. Canton, Dr. Watson, (the Physician,) and Dr.
Franklin, I was led to attend to the subject of experimental philosophy
more than I had done before; and having composed all the Lectures
I had occasion to deliver and finding myself at liberty for any
undertaking, I mentioned to Dr. Franklin an idea that had occurred to
me of writing the history of discoveries in Electricity, which had
been his favourite study. This I told him might be an useful work, and
that I would willingly undertake it, provided I could be furnished
with the books necessary for the purpose. This he readily undertook,
and my other friends assisting him in it, I set about the work,
without having the least idea of doing any thing more than writing a
distinct and methodical account of all that had been done by others.
Having, however, a pretty good machine, I was led, in the course of my
writing the history, to endeavour to ascertain several facts which were
disputed; and this led me by degrees into a large field of original
experiments, in which I spared no expence that I could possibly furnish.
[8] He always spent one month in every year in London which was of
great use to him. He saw and heard a great deal. He generally made
additions to his library and his chemical apparatus. A new turn was
frequently given to his ideas. New and useful acquaintances were
formed, and old ones confirmed.
These experiments employed a great proportion of my leisure time; and
yet before the complete expiration of the year in which I gave the plan
of my work to Dr. Franklin, I sent him a copy of it in print. In the
same year five hours of every day were employed in lectures, public or
private, and one two months vacation I spent chiefly at Bristol, on a
visit to my father-in-law.
This I do not mention as a subject of boasting. For many persons have
done more in the same time; but as an answer to those who have objected
to some of my later writings, as hasty performances. For none of my
publications were better received than this _History of Electricity_,
which was the most hasty of them all. However, whether my publications
have taken up more or less time, I am confident that more would not
have contributed to their perfection, in any essential particular; and
about anything farther I have never been very solicitous. My object was
not to acquire the character of a fine writer, but of an useful one. I
can also truly say that gain was never the chief object of any of my
publications. Several of them were written with the prospect of certain
loss.
During the course of my electrical experiments in this year I kept
up a constant correspondence with Dr. Franklin, and the rest of my
philosophical friends in London; and my letters circulated among them
all, as also every part of my History as it was transcribed. This
correspondence would have made a considerable volume, and it took up
much time; but it was of great use with respect to the accuracy of my
experiments, and the perfection of my work.
After the publication of my Chart of Biography, Dr. Percival of
Manchester, then a student at Edinburgh, procured me the title of
Doctor of laws from that university; and not long after my new
experiments in electricity were the means of introducing me into the
Royal Society, with the recommendation of Dr. Franklin, Dr. Watson, Mr.
Canton, and Dr. Price.
In the whole time of my being at Warrington I was singularly happy in
the society of my fellow tutors,[9] and of Mr. Seddon, the minister of
the place. We drank tea together every Saturday, and our conversation
was equally instructive and pleasing. I often thought it not a little
extraordinary, that four persons, who had no previous knowledge of each
other, should have been brought to unite in conducting such a scheme as
this, and all be zealous necessarians, as we were. We were likewise all
Arians, and the only subject of much consequence on which we differed
respected the doctrine of atonement, concerning which Dr. Aikin held
some obscure notions. Accordingly, this was frequently the topic of our
friendly conversations. The only Socinian in the neighbourhood was Mr.
Seddon of Manchester; and we all wondered at him. But then we never
entered into any particular examination of the subject.
[9] At Warrington he had for colleagues and successors, Dr. John
Taylor, author of the Hebrew Concordance and of several other works, on
Original Sin, Atonement, &c. Dr. Aikin the Elder, Dr. Reinhold Forster
the Naturalist and traveller, Dr. Enfield and Mr. Walker.
Receiving some of the pupils into my own house, I was by this means
led to form some valuable friendships, but especially with Mr. Samuel
Vaughan, a friendship which has continued hitherto, has in a manner
connected our families, and will, I doubt not, continue through life.
The two eldest of his sons were boarded with me.
The tutors having sufficient society among themselves, we had not
much acquaintance out of the academy. Sometimes, however, I made an
excursion to the towns in the neighbourhood. At Liverpool I was always
received by Mr. Bentley, afterwards partner with Mr. Wedgwood, a man of
excellent taste, improved understanding, and a good disposition, but an
unbeliever in christianity, which was therefore often the subject of
our conversation. He was then a widower, and we generally, and contrary
to my usual custom, sat up late. At Manchester I was always the guest
of Mr. Potter, whose son Thomas was boarded with me. He was one of
the worthiest men that ever lived. At Chowbent I was much acquainted
with Mr. Mort, a man equally distinguished by his chearfulness and
liberality of sentiment.
Of the ministers in the neighbourhood, I recollect with much
satisfaction the interviews I had with Mr. Godwin of Gataker, Mr.
Holland of Bolton, and Dr. Enfield of Liverpool, afterwards tutor at
Warrington.
Though all the tutors in my time lived in the most perfect harmony,
though we all exerted ourselves to the utmost, and there was no
complaint of want of discipline, the academy did not flourish. There
had been an unhappy difference between Dr. Taylor and the trustees,
in consequence of which all his friends, who were numerous, were our
enemies; and too many of the subscribers, being probably weary of the
subscription, were willing to lay hold of any pretence for dropping it,
and of justifying their conduct afterwards.
It is possible that in time we might have overcome the prejudices
we laboured under, but there being no prospect of things being any
better, and my wife having very bad health, on her account chiefly I
wished for a removal, though nothing could be more agreeable to me at
the time than the whole of my employment, and all the laborious part
of it was over. The terms also on which we took boarders, viz. 15 £.
per annum, and my salary being only 100 _£_. per annum with a house,
it was not possible, even living with the greatest frugality, to make
any provision for a family. I was there six years, most laboriously
employed, for nothing more than a bare subsistence. I therefore
listened to an invitation to take the charge of the congregation of
Mill-hill chapel at Leeds, where I was pretty well known, and thither I
removed in September 1767.
Though while I was at Warrington it was no part of my duty to preach,
I had from choice continued the practice; and wishing to keep up the
character of a dissenting minister, I chose to be ordained while I
was there; and though I was far from having conquered my tendency to
stammer, and probably never shall be able to do it effectually, I had,
by taking much pains, improved my pronunciation some time before I left
Nantwich; where for the two first years this impediment had increased
so much, that I once informed the people, that I must give up the
business of preaching, and confine myself to my school. However, by
making a practice of reading very loud and very slow every day, I at
length succeeded in getting in some measure the better of this defect,
but I am still obliged occasionally to have recourse to the same
expedient.
At Leeds I continued six years very happy with a liberal, friendly,
and harmonious congregation, to whom my services (of which I was not
sparing) were very acceptable. Here I had no unreasonable prejudices
to contend with, so that I had full scope for every kind of exertion;
and I can truly say that I always considered the office of a christian
minister as the most honourable of any upon earth, and in the studies
proper to it I always took the greatest pleasure.
In this situation I naturally resumed my application to speculative
theology, which had occupied me at Needham, and which had been
interrupted by the business of teaching at Nantwich and Warrington. By
reading with care Dr. _Lardner’s letter on the logos_, I became what is
called a Socinian soon after my settlement at Leeds; and after giving
the closest attention to the subject, I have seen more and more reason
to be satisfied with that opinion to this day, and likewise to be more
impressed with the idea of its importance.
On reading Mr. _Mann’s Dissertation on the times of the birth and death
of Christ_, I was convinced that he was right in his opinion of our
Saviour’s ministry having continued little more than one year, and
on this plan I drew out a _Harmony of the gospels_, the outline of
which I first published in the Theological Repository, and afterwards
separately and at large, both in Greek and English, with Notes, and
an occasional Paraphrase. In the same work I published my _Essay on
the doctrine of Atonement_, improved from the tract published by Dr.
Lardner, and also my animadversions on the reasoning of the apostle
Paul.
The plan of this _Repository_ occurred to me on seeing some notes that
Mr. Turner of Wakefield had drawn up on several passages of scripture,
which I was concerned to think should be lost. He very much approved of
my proposal of an occasional publication, for the purpose of preserving
such original observations as could otherwise probably never see the
light. Of this work I published three volumes while I was at Leeds, and
he never failed to give me an article for every number of which they
were composed.
Giving particular attention to the duties of my office, I wrote
several tracts for the use of my congregation, as two _Catechisms_, an
_Address to masters of families on the subject of family prayer_,
a _discourse on the Lord’s Supper_, and on _Church discipline_, and
_Institutes of Natural and Revealed religion_. Here I formed three
classes of Catechumens, and took great pleasure in instructing them in
the principles of religion. In this respect I hope my example has been
of use in other congregations.
The first of my controversial treatises was written here in reply
to some angry remarks on my discourse on the Lord’s Supper by Mr.
Venn, a clergyman in the neighbourhood. I also wrote remarks on Dr.
_Balguy’s sermon on Church authority_, and on some paragraphs in
Judge _Blackstone’s Commentaries_ relating to the dissenters. To the
two former no reply was made; but to the last the judge replied in
a small pamphlet; on which I addressed a letter to him in the St.
James’s Chronicle. This controversy led me to print another pamphlet,
entitled _The Principles and Conduct of the Dissenters with respect to
the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of this country_. With the
encouragement of Dr. Price and Dr. Kippis, I also wrote an _Address to
Protestant Dissenters as such_; but without my name. Several of these
pamphlets having been animadverted upon by an anonymous acquaintance,
who thought I had laid too much stress on the principles of the
Dissenters, I wrote a defence of my conduct in _Letters addressed to
him_.
The methodists being very numerous in Leeds, and many of the lower sort
of my own hearers listening to them, I wrote an _Appeal to the serious
professors of Christianity_, an _Illustration of particular texts_, and
republished the _Trial of Elwall_, all in the cheapest manner possible.
Those small tracts had a great effect in establishing my hearers in
liberal principles of religion, and in a short time had a far more
extensive influence than I could have imagined. By this time more than
thirty thousand copies of the Appeal have been dispersed.
Besides these theoretical and controversial pieces, I wrote while
I was at Leeds my _Essay on Government_ mentioned before, my
_English Grammar_ enlarged, a _familiar introduction to the study of
electricity_, a _treatise on perspective_, and my _Chart of History_,
and also some anonymous pieces in favour of civil liberty during the
persecution of Mr. Wilkes, the principal of which was _An Address to
Dissenters on the subject of the difference with America_, which I
wrote at the request of Dr. Franklin, and Dr. Fothergil.
But nothing of a nature foreign to the duties of my profession engaged
my attention while I was at Leeds so much as the prosecution of my
experiments relating to _electricity_, and especially the doctrine of
_air_. The last I was led into in consequence of inhabiting a house
adjoining to a public brewery, where I at first amused myself with
making experiments on the fixed air which I found ready made in the
process of fermentation. When I removed from that house, I was under
the necessity of making the fixed air for myself; and one experiment
leading to another, as I have distinctly and faithfully noted in
my various publications on the subject, I by degrees contrived a
convenient apparatus for the purpose, but of the cheapest kind.
When I began these experiments I knew very little of _chemistry_, and
had in a manner no idea on the subject before I attended a course
of chemical lectures delivered in the academy at Warrington by Dr.
Turner[10] of Liverpool. But I have often thought that upon the whole,
this circumstance was no disadvantage to me; as in this situation I
was led to devise an apparatus, and processes of my own, adapted to
my peculiar views. Whereas, if I had been previously accustomed to
the usual chemical processes, I should not have so easily thought of
any other; and without new modes of operation I should hardly have
discovered any thing materially new.[11]
[10] Dr. TURNER was a Physician at Liverpool: among his friends a
professed Atheist. It was Dr. Turner who wrote the reply to Dr.
Priestley’s letters to a philosophical unbeliever under the feigned
name of Hammon. He was in his day a good practical chemist. I believe
it was Dr. Turner who first invented, or at least brought to tolerable
perfection, the art of copying prints upon glass, by striking off
impressions with a coloured solution of silver and fixing them on the
glass by baking on an iron plate in a heat sufficient to incorporate
the solution with the glass. Some of them are very neatly performed,
producing transparent copies in a bright yellow upon the clear glass.
Dr. Turner was not merely a whig but a republican. In a friendly
debating society at Liverpool about the close of the American war, he
observed in reply to a speaker who had been descanting on the honour
Great Britain had gained during the reign of his present Majesty, that
it was true, we had lost the _Terra firma_ of the thirteen colonies in
America, but we ought to be satisfied with having gained in return,
by the generalship of Dr. Herschel, a terra incognita of much greater
extent _in nubibus_.