It will be seen by this extract from his diary, that his studies were
very varied, which, as he was always persuaded, enabled him to do
so much. This he constantly attended to through life; his chemical
and philosophical pursuits serving as a kind of relaxation from his
theological studies. His miscellaneous reading, which was at all
times very extensive, comprizing even novels and plays, still served
to increase the variety. For many years of his life, he never spent
less than two or three hours a day in games of amusement, as cards and
backgammon; but particularly chess--at which he and my mother played
regularly three games after dinner, and as many after supper. As his
children grew up, chess was laid aside for whist or some round game at
cards, which he enjoyed as much as any of the company. It is hardly
necessary to state that he never played for money, even for the most
trifling sum.
To all these modes of relieving the mind, he added bodily exercise.
Independent of his laboratory furnishing him with a good deal, as he
never employed an operator, and never allowed any one even to light a
fire, he generally lived in situations which required his walking a
good deal, as at Calne, Birmingham and Hackney. Of that exercise he was
very fond. He walked well, and his regular pace was four miles an hour.
In situations where the necessity of walking was not imposed upon him,
he worked in his garden as at Calne, when he had not occasion to go to
Bowood; at Northumberland in America, he was particularly attached to
this exercise.
But what principally enabled him to do so much was regularity, for it
does not appear that at any period of his life he spent more than six
or eight hours per day in business that required much mental exertion.
I find in the same diary, which I have quoted from above, that he
laid down the following daily arrangement of time for a minister’s
studies: Studying the Scriptures 1 hour. Practical writers 1-2 an hour.
Philosophy and History 2 hours. Classics 1-2 an hour. Composition 1
hour--in all 5 hours. He adds below “All which may be conveniently
dispatched before dinner, which leaves the afternoon for visiting and
company, and the evening for exceeding in any article if there be
occasion. Six hours not too much, nor seven.”
It appears by his diary that he followed this plan at that period of
his life. He generally walked out in the afternoon or spent it in
company. At that time there was a society or club that assembled twice
a week, at which the members debated questions, or took it in turn to
deliver orations, or read essays of their own composition. When not
attending these meetings, he most generally appears to have spent the
evening in company with some of the students in their chambers.
It was by the regularity and variety of his studies, more than by
intenseness of application, that he performed so much more than even
studious men generally do. At the time he was engaged about the
most important works, and when he was not busily employed in making
experiments, he always had leisure for company, of which he was fond.
He never appeared hurried or behind hand. He however never carried
his complaisance so far as to neglect the daily task he had imposed
upon himself; but as he was uniformly an early riser, and dispatched
his more serious pursuits in the morning, it rarely happened but that
he could accomplish the labours assigned for the day, without having
occasion to withdraw from visitors at home, or society abroad, or
giving reason to suppose that the company of others was a restraint
upon his pursuits.
This habit of regularity, extended itself to every thing that he read,
and every thing he did that was susceptible of it. He never read a
book without determining in his own mind when he would finish it. Had
he a work to transcribe, he would fix a time for its completion. This
habit increased upon him as he grew in years, and his diary was kept
upon the plan I have before described, till within a few days of his
death.
To the regularity and variety of his studies, must be added a
considerable degree of Mechanical contrivance, which greatly
facilitated the execution of many of his compositions. It was however
most apparent in his laboratory, and displayed in the simplicity and
neatness of his apparatus, which was the great cause of the accuracy
of his experiments, and of the fair character which he acquired as an
experimental chemist. This was the result in the first instance of a
necessary attention to œconomy in all his pursuits, and was afterwards
continued from choice, when the necessity no longer existed. I return
from this digression which I thought necessary to give the reader a
general view of my father’s occupations, and his manner of spending his
time, to the circumstances attending the remaining years of his life.
At his first settling at Northumberland, there was no house to be
procured that would furnish him with the conveniencies of a library and
laboratory in addition to the room necessary for a family. Hence in
the beginning of the year 1795, being then fixed in his determination
to move no more, he resolved upon building a house convenient for his
pursuits. During the time the house was building, he had no convenience
for making experiments more than a common room afforded, and he was
thereby prevented from doing much in this way. Still, he ascertained
several facts of importance in the year 1795 on the Analysis of
Atmospheric Air, and also some in continuation of those on the
generation of air from water.
He had however leisure and opportunity for his other studies and in
1795 he published observations on the increase of infidelity and he
continued his Church History from the fall of the Western Empire to the
reformation.
In the spring of 1796 he spent three months at Philadelphia and
delivered there a set of discourses on the Evidences of Revelation,
which he composed with a view to counteract the effect produced by the
writings of unbelievers, which, as might be expected, was very great
in a country where rational opinions in religion were but little known,
and where the evidences of revelation had been but little attended to.
It was a source of great satisfaction to him, and what he had little
previous reason to expect, that his lectures were attended by very
crowded audiences, including most of the members of the congress of
the United States at that time assembled at Philadelphia, and of the
executive officers of the government. These discourses which, in a
regular and connected series, placed Christianity, and the evidences
of its truth, in a more clear and satisfactory point of view than it
had been usually considered in this country, attracted much attention,
and created an interest in the subject which there is reason to believe
has produced lasting effects. My father received assurances from many
of the most respectable persons in the country, that they viewed the
subject in a totally different light from what they had before done,
and that could they attend places of worship, where such rational
doctrines were inculcated, they should do it with satisfaction.
As my father had through life considered the office of a Christian
minister as the most useful and honourable of any, and had always
derived the greatest satisfaction from fulfilling its duties,
particularly from catechizing young persons, the greatest source of
uneasiness therefore to him at Northumberland was, that there was no
sufficient opportunity of being useful in that way. Though he was
uniformly treated with kindness and respect by the people of the place,
yet their sentiments in religion were so different from his own, and
the nature and tendency of his opinions were so little understood, that
the establishment of a place of Unitarian worship perfectly free from
any calvinistic or Arian tenet, was next to impossible. All therefore
that he could do in that way was, for the two or three first years,
to read a service either at his own or at my house, at which a few
(perhaps a dozen) English persons were usually present, and in time, as
their numbers increased he made use of a school room near his house,
where from twenty to thirty regularly attended, and among them some of
the inhabitants of the place, who by degrees began to divest themselves
of their prejudices with respect to his opinions. However small the
number of persons attending, he administered the Lord’s supper, a rite
upon which he always laid particular stress.
In the Autumn of 1795 he had the misfortune to lose his youngest son,
of whom being much younger than any of his other children, and having
entertained the hopes of his succeeding him in his Theological and
Philosophical pursuits he was remarkably fond. He felt this misfortune
the more severely as it was the first of the kind he had experienced,
and particularly as it had a visible effect upon my mother’s health and
spirits. He was however so constantly in the habit of viewing the hand
of God in all things, and of considering every occurrence as leading
to good, that his mind soon recovered its accustomed serenity, and his
journey to Philadelphia mentioned above and the success which attended
his first exertions in the cause of, what he deemed, pure and genuine
christianity, led him to look forward with cheerfulness to the future,
and gave him an energy in his pursuits, which was never exceeded in any
part of his life. It was the same habit of viewing God as the author of
all events, and producing good out of seeming evil, that enabled him
to support himself so well under the greatest affliction that could
possibly have befallen him, viz. the loss of his wife, my mother; who
through life had been truly a help meet for him; supporting him under
all his trials and sufferings with a constancy and perseverance truly
praise worthy, and who as he himself, in noting the event in his diary,
justly observes, “was of a noble and generous mind and cared much for
others and little for herself through life.”
In the period between the above very afflicting events, though his
conveniences for experimenting were not increased, owing to his house,
and particularly his laboratory not being finished, he wrote a small
treatise in defence of the doctrine of Phlogiston, addressed to the
Philosophers in France. He likewise composed a second set of discourses
of a similar kind to those delivered in Philadelphia the preceding
winter. He preached and printed a sermon in defence of Unitarianism,
and printed the first set of discourses; he compleated his Church
History; he made additional observations on the increase of infidelity
chiefly in answer to Mr. Volney; and drew up an Outline of all the
Evidences in favour of Revelation.
In the spring of 1797 he again spent two or three months in
Philadelphia, and delivered a second set of discourses, but partly from
the novelty of the thing being done away, partly from the prejudices
that began to be excited against him on account of his supposed
political opinions, (for high-toned politics began then to prevail in
the fashionable circles) and partly owing to the discourses not being
so well adapted for a public audience, though necessary to set the
comparative excellence of Christianity in its true light, they were but
thinly attended in comparison to his former set. This induced him to
give up the idea of preaching any more regular sets of discourses. He
however printed them, as likewise a sermon he preached in favour of the
Emigrants. He also composed at this time a third and enlarged edition
of his Observations on the increase of infidelity, a controversy with
Mr. Volney, a tract on the Knowledge of a Future state among the
Hebrews, which, with the works he composed the year before, he printed
as he found means and opportunity. He revised his Church History, began
his Notes on the Scriptures, and his Comparison of the Institutions of
Moses with those of the Hindoos.
Towards the end of 1797 and not before, his library and laboratory were
finished. None but men devoted to literature can imagine the pleasure
he derived from being able to renew his experiments with every
possible convenience, and from having his books once more arranged. His
house was situated in a garden, commanding a prospect equal, if not
superior, to any on the river Susquehanna, so justly celebrated for
the picturesque views its banks afford. It was a singularly fortunate
circumstance that he found at Northumberland several excellent workmen
in metals, who could repair his instruments, make all the new articles
he wanted in the course of his experimenting, as well as, he used to
say, if not in some respects better than, he could have got them done
in Birmingham; and in the society of Mr. Frederick Antis, the brother
of Mr. Antis in England, and uncle of Mr. Latrobe the engineer, he
derived great satisfaction. Mr. Antis was a man of mild and amiable
manners, he possessed a very good knowledge of Mechanics the result
of his own observation and reflection, and a fund of knowledge of
many things which my father frequently found useful to resort to. The
situation of Northumberland became abundantly more convenient than it
was when he first came to the place. From there being no regular public
post, there was now established a post twice a week to Philadelphia,
and answers could be received to letters within a week, and the
communication so much increased between the two places, that the price
of the carriage of goods was reduced from 11_s._-3_d._ to 6_s._ per
Cwt. the distance being 132 miles.
Thus conveniently situated, he resumed the same kind of life he led
at Birmingham, experimenting the greater part of the day, the result
of which he published in the Medical repository of New-York. Having
compleated his Church History, he finished his Comparison of the
Institutions of Moses with those of the Hindoos. He likewise proceeded
as far as Leviticus in the design he had formed of writing Notes on
all the books of Scripture, and made some remarks on the origin of all
religions by Dupuis, but the greater part of the time that he spent
in theology this year, was employed in recomposing the Notes on the
New-Testament, which were destroyed at the riots.
In the course of the year 1799, he finished his Notes on all the books
of Scripture, he published his Comparison of the Institutions of Moses
with those of the Hindoos, he likewise printed his Defence of the
doctrine of Phlogiston above mentioned, and the greater part of each
day in the summer was employed in making the additional experiments he
had projected.
It was in the year 1799, during Mr. Adams’s administration, that my
father had occasion to write any thing on the subject of politics in
this country. It is well known to all his friends, that politics were
always a subject of secondary importance with him. He however took part
occasionally in the conversations on that subject; which every person
has a right to do, and which, about the time my father left England, no
person could avoid doing, as the subject engrossed so large a part of
the conversation in almost every company. He always argued on the side
of liberty. He was however in favour only of those changes that could
be brought about by fair argument, and his speculations on the subject
of British politics did not go further than a reform in Parliament, and
no way tended, in his opinion, to affect the form of government, or the
constitution of the kingdom, as vested in Kings, Lords and Commons. He
used frequently to say, and it was said to him, that though he was an
Unitarian in Religion he was in that country a Trinitarian in politics.
When he came to America, he found reason to change his opinions, and
he became a decided friend to the general principles and practice of a
compleatly representative government, founded upon universal suffrage,
and excluding hereditary privileges, as it exists in this country.
This change was naturally produced by observing the ease and happiness
with which the people lived, and the unexampled prosperity of the
country, of which no European, unless he has resided in it some time,
and has observed the interior part of it, can be a competent judge.
But with respect to England, he still remained anxious for its peace
and prosperity, and though he had been so hardly used, and though he
considered the administration of the country, if not instigating at
least conniving at the riots, no resentment existed in his breast
against the nation. In his feelings he was still an Englishman. Though
he might speculatively consider that the mass of evil and misery had
arisen to such a height in England, and in other European countries,
that there was no longer any hope of a peaceable and gradual reform,
yet, considering at the same time that the great body of the people,
like the Negroes in the West-Indies, were unprepared for the enjoyment
of liberty in its full extent, and contemplating the evils necessarily
attendant upon a violent change, he dreaded a revolution.
With respect to America he had never interfered publicly in politics,
and never wrote an article that could be considered in that light in
any respect, except one published in a newspaper called the _Aurora_,
signed a _Quaker in Politics_, published on the 26th and 27th of
February, 1798, and entitled Maxims of Political Arithmetic,[32] and
so little did he interest himself in the politics of this country,
that he seldom if ever perused the debates in Congress, nor was he
much acquainted with any of the leading political characters except
three or four, and with these he never corresponded but with Mr. Adams
prior to his being chosen president, and Mr. Jefferson. He never
was naturalized, nor did he take part directly or indirectly in any
election. He persevered in the same sentiments even when he was under
reasonable apprehension that he should be banished as an Alien: and
though he advised his sons to be naturalized, saying it was what was
daily done by persons who could not be suspected of wishing any ill to
their native country, yet he would not; but said, that as he had been
born and had lived an Englishman, he would die one let what might be
the consequence.
[32] See Appendix, No. IV.
About the year 1799, the friends of liberty in America were greatly
alarmed by the advancement of principles disgraceful to America, and
by a practice less liberal in many respects than under the monarchical
form of the British government. Nothing else was the subject of
conversation and my father who though never active in politics, at
the same time never concealed his sentiments, uttered them freely in
conversation, and they were of course opposed to the proceedings of the
administration at the time. Added to this Mr. Thomas Cooper formerly
of Manchester, and who at that time had undertaken for a short period,
at the request of the printer, to edit a newspaper then printed at
Northumberland, had published some very severe strictures on the
conduct of the administration, which were soon after published in a
pamphlet, under the title of Political Essays.
By many my father might be ignorantly supposed as the prompter on the
occasion, as Mr. Cooper lived at that time with my father, and by those
who knew better, it was made the ostensible ground of objection to my
father, to conceal the real one. In truth he saw none of the essays
until they were printed, nor was he consulted by Mr. Cooper upon any
part of them. The consequence was, that all the bigotry and party zeal
of that violent period was employed to injure him, and misrepresent
his words and actions. He was represented as intriguing for offices
for himself and his friend, and as an enemy to the government which
they said protected him, while men who were themselves but newly
naturalized, or the immediate descendants of foreigners, bestowed
upon him the epithet of Alien, an epithet then used by the government
party as a term of reproach, though the country was principally
indebted to the capital, industry and enterprize of foreigners for the
many improvements then carrying on. Such was the effect of all these
slanderous reports, and such was the character of the administration,
that it was intimated to my father, from Mr. Adams himself, that he
wished he would abstain from saying any thing on politics, lest he
should get into difficulty. The Alien law which was passed under that
administration, was at that time in operation, and a man without being
convicted of, or even positively charged with, any offence, might have
been sent out of the country at a moment’s warning, not only without a
trial, but without the right of remonstrance. It was likewise hinted
to my father as he has himself stated, that he was one of the persons
contemplated when the law was passed, so little did they know of his
real character and disposition. This occasioned my father to write
a set of letters to the inhabitants of Northumberland; in which he
expressed his sentiments fully on all the political questions at that
time under discussion. They had the effect of removing the unfavourable
impressions that had been made on the minds of the liberal and candid,
and procured him many friends. Fortunately however the violent
measures then adopted produced a compleat change in the minds of the
people, and in consequence of it in the representation, proving by the
peaceableness of it, the excellence of this form of government, and
proving also that my father’s sentiments, as well as Mr. Cooper’s, were
approved of by nine tenths of the people of the United States.
It is but justice however to mention that in the above remarks which
have been made to represent my father’s political character in its true
light, and to account for his writing on the subject of politics, I do
not mean to reflect on all the federalists, and that though my father
considered them all as in error, yet he acknowledged himself indebted
to many of that party for the most sincere marks of friendship which he
had received in this country, and that not only from his opponents in
politics, but likewise from many of the principal clergymen of various
denominations in Philadelphia, and particularly during his severe
illness in that city, when party spirit was at the highest, it being at
the time of Mr. Jefferson’s first election to the presidency.
As my father has given an account of those friends to whose kindness
and generosity he was principally indebted from the commencement of
his literary career, to the time of his coming to America, I think
it my duty to follow his example, and to make on his part those
acknowledgements which had he lived, he would have taken pleasure in
making himself. To the Revd. Theophilus Lindsey, independent of the
many marks of the most sincere friendship, which he was constantly
receiving, he was occasionally indebted for pecuniary assistance at
times when it was most wanting. Independent of 50 £. per annum, which
Mrs. Elizabeth Rayner allowed him from the time he left England, she
left him by her will £2000 in the 4 per cents. Mr. Michael Dodson who
is well known as the translator of Isaiah left him £500, and Mr. Samuel
Salte left him 100 £. The Duke of Grafton remitted him annually 40
£. Therefore though his expences were far greater than he expected,
and though his house cost him double the sum he had contemplated, the
generosity of his friends made him perfectly easy in his mind with
respect to pecuniary affairs; and by freeing him from all care and
anxiety on this head contributed greatly to his happiness, and to his
successful endeavours in the cause of truth. Besides these instances
of friendly attention, the different branches of his family have been,
in various ways, benefited, in consequence of the respect paid to my
father’s character, and the affectionate regard shewn by his friends to
all who were connected with him.
But what gave my father most real pleasure was the subscription, set
on foot by his friends in England, to enable him to print his Church
History, and his Notes on all the Books of Scripture. The whole was
done without his knowledge, and the first information he received on
the subject was, that there was a sum raised sufficient to cover the
whole expence.
About the time he died, some of his friends in England understood that
he was likely to suffer a loss in point of income of £. 200 per annum.
Without any solicitation, about forty of them raised the sum of £.
450, which was meant to have been continued annually while he lived.
He did not live to know of this kind exertion in his favour. It is my
duty however to record this instance of generosity, and I do it with
pleasure and with gratitude. It likewise proves that though my father
by the fearless avowal of his opinions, created many enemies, yet that
the honesty and independence of his conduct procured him many friends.
The first year’s subscription has been transmitted to America, to
defray the expence of publishing his posthumous works.
In the year 1800 he was chiefly employed in experiments, and writing
an account of them for various publications. In this year also he
published his treatise in defence of Phlogiston, he revised his
Church History, the two first volumes of which are now reprinted with
considerable additions, and he added to and improved his Notes on the
Scriptures.
He spent some time in the spring of 1801 in Philadelphia, during
his stay there he had a violent attack of fever which weakened
him exceedingly, and from the effects of which he never perfectly
recovered. Added to this the fever and ague prevailed at Northumberland
and the neighbourhood, for the first time since his settlement at the
place. He had two or three attacks of this disorder; which though they
were not very severe, as he had never more than three fits at a time,
retarded his recovery very much. He perceived the effect of his illness
in the diminution of his strength, and his not being able to take as
much exercise as he used to do. His spirits however were good, and he
was very assiduous in making experiments, chiefly on the pile of Volta,
the result of which he sent an account of to Nicholson’s Journal and
the Medical Repository.
In 1802 he began to print his Church History, in consequence of the
subscription raised by his friends in England as before stated.
Besides printing three volumes of that work, he wrote and printed a
treatise on Baptism, chiefly in answer to the observations of Mr.
Robinson on the subject. He likewise made some experiments, and replied
to some remarks of Mr. Cruikshank in defence of the Antiphlogistic
theory.
I am now to describe the last scene of his life, which deserves the
reader’s most serious consideration, as it shews the powerful effect
of his religious principles. They made him, not resigned to quit a
world in which he no longer had any delight, and in which no hope of
future enjoyment presented itself, but chearful in the certainty of
approaching dissolution, and under circumstances that would by the
world in general have been considered as highly enviable. They led
him to consider death as the labourer does sleep at night as being
necessary to renew his mental and corporeal powers, and fit him for a
future state of activity and happiness. For though since his illness
in Philadelphia in 1801 he had never recovered his former good state
of health, yet he had never been confined to his bed a whole day by
sickness in America until within two days of his death, and was never
incapacitated for any pursuit that he had been accustomed to. He took
great delight in his garden, and in viewing the little improvements
going forward in and about the town. The rapidly increasing prosperity
of the country, whether as it regarded its agriculture, manufactures,
and commerce, or the increasing taste for science and literature, were
all of them to him a source of the purest pleasure. For the last four
years of his life he lived under an administration, the principles and
practice of which he perfectly approved, and with Mr. Jefferson, the
head of that administration, he frequently corresponded, and they had
for each other a mutual regard and esteem. He enjoyed the esteem of
the wisest and best men in the country, particularly at Philadelphia,
where his religion and his politics did not prevent his being kindly
and cheerfully received by great numbers of opposite opinions in both,
who thus paid homage to his knowledge and virtue. At home he was
beloved; and besides the advantages of an excellent library, to which
he was continually making additions, and of a laboratory that was amply
provided with every thing necessary for an experimental chemist,
he was perfectly freed, as he had happily been through life, in
consequence of my mother’s ability and attention, from any attention to
worldly concerns; considering himself, as he used to express himself,
merely as a lodger, having all his time to devote to his theological
and philosophical pursuits. He had the satisfaction of witnessing the
gradual spread of his religious opinions, and the fullest conviction
that he should prevail over his opponents in chemistry. He looked
forward with the greatest pleasure to future exertions in both these
fields, and had within the last month or six weeks been projecting many
improvements in his apparatus, which he meant to make use of upon the
return of warm weather in the spring. Notwithstanding, therefore, the
many trials he underwent in this country, he had still great sources of
happiness left, unalloyed by any apprehension of any material defect
in any of his senses, or any abatement of the vigour of his mind.
Consistent with the above was his declaration that, excepting the want
of the society of Mr. L, Mr. B. and two or three other particular
friends, which however was made up to him, in some, though in a small
degree by their regular correspondence, he had never upon the whole
spent any part of his life more happily, nor, he believed, more
usefully.
The first part of his illness, independent of his general weakness,
the result of his illness in Philadelphia in 1801, was a constant
indigestion, and a difficulty of swallowing meat or any kind of solid
food unless previously reduced by mastication to a perfect pulp. This
gradually increased upon him till he could swallow liquids but very
slowly, and led him to suspect, which he did to the last, that there
must be some stoppage in the œsophagus. Latterly he lived almost
entirely upon tea, chocolate, soups, sago, custard puddings, and the
like. During all this time of general and increasing debility, he was
busily employed in printing his Church History, and the first volume
of the Notes on Scripture; and in making new and original experiments,
an account of which he sent to the American Philosophical Society in
two numbers, one in answer to Dr. Darwin’s observations on Spontaneous
generation, and the other on the unexpected conversion of a quantity
of the marine acid into the nitrous. During this period, likewise, he
wrote his pamphlet of Jesus and Socrates compared, and re-printed his
Essay on Phlogiston. He would not suffer any one to do for him what he
had been accustomed to do himself; nor did he alter his former mode of
life in any respect, excepting that he no longer worked in his garden,
and that he read more books of a miscellaneous nature than he had been
used to do when he could work more in his laboratory, which had always
served him as a relaxation from his other studies.
From about the beginning of November 1803, to the middle of January
1804, his complaint grew more serious. He was once incapable of
swallowing any thing for near thirty hours; and there being some
symptoms of inflammation at his stomach, blisters were applied, which
afforded him relief; and by very great attention to his diet, riding
out in a chair when the weather would permit, and living chiefly on
the soft parts of oysters, he seemed if not gaining ground, at least
not getting worse; and we had reason to hope that if he held out until
spring as he was, the same attention to his diet with more exercise,
which it was impossible for him to take on account of the cold weather,
would restore him to health. He, however, considered his life as very
precarious, and used to tell the physician who attended him, that if
he could but patch him up for six months longer he should be perfectly
satisfied, as he should in that time be able to complete printing
his works. The swelling of his feet, an alarming symptom of general
debility, began about this time.
To give some idea of the exertions he made even at this time, it is
only necessary for me to say, that besides his miscellaneous reading,
which was at all times very great, he read through all the works quoted
in his comparison of the different systems of the Grecian Philosophers
with christianity, composed that work, and transcribed the whole of
it in less than three months. He took the precaution of transcribing
one day in long hand what he had composed the day before in short
hand, that he might by that means leave the work complete as far as it
went, should he not live to complete the whole. During this period he
composed in a day his second reply to Dr. Linn.
About this time he ceased performing divine service, which he said he
had never before known himself incapable of performing, notwithstanding
he had been a preacher so many years. He likewise now suffered me to
rake his fire, rub his feet with a flesh-brush, and occasionally help
him to bed. In the mornings likewise he had his fire made for him,
which he always used to do himself, and generally before any of the
family was stirring.
In the last fortnight in January he was troubled with alarming fits of
indigestion; his legs swelled nearly to his knees, and his weakness
increased very much. I wrote for him, while he dictated, the concluding
section of his New Comparison, and the Preface and Dedication. The
finishing this work was a source of great satisfaction to him, as he
considered it as a work of as much consequence as any he had ever
undertaken. The first alarming symptom of approaching dissolution
was his being unable to speak to me upon my entering his room on
Tuesday morning the 31st of January. In his Diary I find he stated his
situation as follows: “Ill all day--Not able to speak for near three
hours.” When he was able to speak he told me he had slept well, as he
uniformly had done through the whole of his illness; so that he never
would suffer me, though I frequently requested he would do it, to sleep
in the same room with him; that he felt as well as possible; that he
got up and shaved himself, which he never omitted doing every morning
till within two days of his death; that he went to his laboratory, and
then found his weakness very great; that he got back with difficulty;
that just afterward his grand-daughter, a child of about six or seven
years old, came to him to claim the fulfilment of a promise he had
made her the evening before, to give her a fivepenny bit. He gave her
the money, and was going to speak to her, but found himself unable.
He informed me of this, speaking very slowly a word at a time; and
added, that he had never felt more pleasantly in his whole life than
he did during the time he was unable to speak. After he had taken his
medicine, which was bark and laudanum, and drank a bason of strong
mutton broth, he recovered surprizingly, and talked with cheerfulness
to all who called upon him, but as though he was fully sensible that
he had not long to live. He consented for the first time that I should
sleep in the room with him.
On Wednesday, February 1, he writes, “I was at times much better in
the morning: capable of some business: continued better all day.” He
spake this morning as strong as usual, and took in the course of the
day a good deal of nourishment with pleasure. He said, that he felt a
return of strength, and with it there was a duty to perform. He read a
good deal in Newcome’s Translation of the New Testament, and Stevens’s
History of the War. In the afternoon he gave me some directions how to
proceed with the printing his work in case he should die. He gave me
directions to stop the printing of the second volume, and to begin upon
the third, that he might see how it was begun, and that it might serve
as a pattern to me to proceed by.
On Thursday, the 2d, he wrote thus for the last time in his Diary:
“Much worse: incapable of business: Mr. Kennedy came to receive
instructions about printing in case of my death.” He sat up, however,
a great part of the day, was cheerful, and gave Mr. Cooper and myself
some directions, with the same composure as though he had only been
about to leave home for a short time. Though it was fatiguing to him to
talk, he read a good deal in the works above mentioned.
On Friday he was much better. He sat up a good part of the day reading
Newcome; Dr. Disney’s Translation of the Psalms; and some chapters
in the Greek Testament, which was his daily practice. He corrected a
proof-sheet of the Notes on Isaiah. When he went to bed he was not so
well: he had an idea he should not live another day. At prayer-time
he wished to have the children kneel by his bedside, saying, it gave
him great pleasure to see the little things kneel; and, thinking he
possibly might not see them again, he gave them his blessing.
On Saturday, the 4th, my father got up for about an hour while his
bed was made. He said he felt more comfortable in bed than up. He
read a good deal, and looked over the first sheet of the third volume
of the Notes, that he might see how we were likely to go on with it;
and having examined the Greek and Hebrew quotations, and finding them
right, he said he was satisfied we should finish the work very well. In
the course of the day, he expressed his gratitude in being permitted
to die quietly in his family, without pain, with every convenience and
comfort he could wish for. He dwelt upon the peculiarly happy situation
in which it had pleased the Divine Being to place him in life; and the
great advantage he had enjoyed in the acquaintance and friendship of
some of the best and wisest men in the age in which he lived, and the
satisfaction he derived from having led an useful as well as a happy
life.
On Sunday he was much weaker, and only sat up in an armed chair while
his bed was made. He desired me to read to him the eleventh chapter
of John. I was going on to read to the end of the chapter, but he
stopped me at the 45th verse. He dwelt for some time on the advantage
he had derived from reading the scriptures daily, and advised me to
do the same; saying, that it would prove to me, as it had done to
him, a source of the purest pleasure. He desired me to reach him a
pamphlet which was at his bed’s head, Simpson on the Duration of
future Punishment. “It will be a source of satisfaction to you to read
that pamphlet,” said he, giving it to me. “It contains my sentiments,
and a belief in them will be a support to you in the most trying
circumstances, as it has been to me. We shall all meet finally: we
only require different degrees of discipline, suited to our different
tempers, to prepare us for final happiness.” Upon Mr. ---- coming
into his room, he said, “You see, Sir, I am still living.” Mr. ----
observed, he would always live. “Yes,” said he, “I believe I shall; and
we shall all meet again in another and a better world.” He said this
with great animation, laying hold on Mr. ----’s hand in both his.
Before prayers he desired me to reach him three publications, about
which he would give me some directions next morning. His weakness would
not permit him to do it at that time.
At prayers he had all the children brought to his bed-side as before.
After prayers they wished him a good night, and were leaving the room.
He desired them to stay, spoke to them each separately. He exhorted
them all to continue to love each other. “And you, little thing,”
speaking to Eliza, “remember the hymn you learned; ‘Birds in their
little nests agree,’ &c. I am going to sleep as well as you: for death
is only a good long sound sleep in the grave, and we shall meet again.”
He congratulated us on the dispositions of our children; said it was
a satisfaction to see them likely to turn out well; and continued for
some time to express his confidence in a happy immortality, and in a
future state, which would afford us an ample field for the exertion of
our faculties.
On Monday morning, the 6th of February, after having lain perfectly
still till four o’clock in the morning, he called to me, but in a
fainter tone than usual, to give him some wine and tincture of bark.
I asked him how he felt. He answered, he had no pain, but appeared
fainting away gradually. About an hour after, he asked me for some
chicken broth, of which he took a tea-cup full. His pulse was quick,
weak, and fluttering, his breathing, though easy, short. About eight
o’clock, he asked me to give him some egg and wine. After this he lay
quite still till ten o’clock, when he desired me and Mr. Cooper to
bring him the pamphlets we had looked out the evening before. He then
dictated as clearly and distinctly as he had ever done in his life the
additions and alterations he wished to have made in each. Mr. Cooper
took down the substance of what he said, which, when he had done, I
read to him. He said Mr. Cooper had put it in his own language; he
wished it to be put in his. I then took a pen and ink to his bed-side.
He then repeated over again, nearly word for word, what he had before
said; and when I had done, I read it over to him. “That is right; I
have now done.” About half an hour after he desired, in a faint voice,
that we would move him from the bed on which he lay to a cot, that he
might lie with his lower limbs horizontal, and his head upright. He
died in about ten minutes after we had moved him, but breathed his last
so easy, that neither myself or my wife, who were both sitting close to
him, perceived it at the time. He had put his hand to his face, which
prevented our observing it.
The above account, which conveys but a very inadequate idea of the
composure and chearfulness of his last moments deserves the attention
of unbelievers in general, particularly of Philosophical Unbelievers.
They have known him to be zealous and active in the pursuit of
Philosophical truths and to be ever ready to acknowledge any mistakes
he may have fallen into. By the perusal of these Memoirs they have
found that he gradually, and after much thought and reflection
abandoned all those opinions which disgrace what is usually called
christianity in the eyes of rational men and whose inconsistency
with reason and common sense has most probably been the cause of
their infidelity and of their total inattention to the evidences of
christianity. These opinions he abandoned, because he could not find
them supported either in the Scriptures or in the genuine writings of
the early Christians. They must be sensible that the same desire for
truth and the same fearless spirit of enquiry and the same courage in
the open avowal of the most obnoxious tenets would have led him to have
discarded religion altogether had he seen reason so to do, and there is
little doubt but that he would have been subject to less obloquy by so
doing than by exposing the various corruptions of christianity in the
manner he did. They have seen however that in proportion as he attended
to the subject his faith in christianity increased and produced that
happy disposition of mind described in these Memoirs. The subject is
therefore well deserving of their attention and they should be induced
from so fair an example, and the weight due to my father’s opinions,
to make themselves fully acquainted with the arguments in favour of
christianity before they reject it as an idle fable.
Many unbelievers have, no doubt, borne with great patience severe
calamities; they have suffered death with great fortitude when engaged
in a good cause, and many have courted death to serve their friends
or their country. It must however be allowed that there is no great
merit in meeting death with fortitude when it cannot be avoided, and
likewise that the above cases cannot be absolutely calculated upon, as
there is no sufficient motive to account for their conduct. But upon a
truly practical christian there is the greatest dependance to be placed
for acting well in all the situations in which he may be found, his
highest interest being connected with the performance of the greatest
duties; and even supposing that many persons, who are not christians,
from favourable circumstances attendant upon their birth and education,
and from a naturally happy temperament of body and mind, may, and, it
must be allowed do acquire a habit of disinterested benevolence and may
in general be depended upon to act uniformly well in life, still the
christian has a decided advantage over them in the hour of death, as
to consider death as necessary to his entering upon a new and enlarged
sphere of activity and enjoyment, is a privilege that belongs to him
alone.