Chapter V: Part 5

About the middle of July 1794 my father left Philadelphia for Northumberland, a town situated at the confluence of the North-East and West branches of the Susquehanna, and about 130 miles North-West of Philadelphia. I, and some other English gentlemen, had projected a settlement of 300,000 acres of land, about fifty miles distant from Northumberland. The subscription was filled chiefly by persons in England. Northumberland being at that time the nearest town to the proposed settlement, my father wished to see the place, and ascertain what conveniencies it would afford should he incline either to fix there permanently, or only until the settlement should be sufficiently advanced for his accommodation; he was induced likewise to retreat, at least for the summer months, into the country, fearing the effects of the hot weather in such a city as Philadelphia. He had not, as has been erroneously reported, the least concern in the projected settlement. He was not consulted in the formation of the plan of it, nor had he come to any determination to join it had it been carried into effect.

The scheme of settlement was not confined to any particular class or character of men, religious, or political. It was set on foot to be as it were a rallying point for the English, who were at that time emigrating to America in great numbers, and who it was thought, would be more happy in society of the kind they had been accustomed to, than they would be, dispersed, as they now are, through the whole of the United States. It was farther thought, that by the union of industry and capital, the wilderness would soon become cultivated and equal to any other part of the country in every thing necessary to the enjoyment of life. To promote this as much as possible, the original projectors of that scheme reserved only a few shares for themselves, for which they paid the same as those who had no trouble or expence either in forming the plan, or carrying it into execution. This they did, with a view to take away all source of jealousy, and to increase the facility of settlement, by increasing the proportion of settlers to the quantity of land to be settled. Fortunately for the original proposers, the scheme was abandoned. It might and would have answered in a pecuniary point of view, as the land now sells at double and treble the price then asked for it, without the advantages which that settlement would have given rise to; but the generality of Englishmen come to this country with such erroneous ideas, and, unless previously accustomed to a life of labour, are so ill qualified to commence cultivation in a wilderness, that the projectors would most probably have been subject to still more unfounded abuse than they have been, for their well meant endeavours to promote the interests of their countrymen.

The scheme of settlement thus failing, for reasons which it is not necessary now to state, my father, struck with the beauty of the situation of Northumberland, which is universally allowed to be equal if not superior to any in the state; believing that, from the nature of its situation, it was likely to become a great thoroughfare, and having reason to consider it as healthy as it was pleasant, the intermittents to which it has latterly been subject being then unknown, determined to settle there. Before he came to this resolution however, he had the offer of the Professorship of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, before mentioned, which would probably have yielded him 3000 dollars per annum, there being generally about 200 students in Medicine of whom about 150 attend the Chemical Lectures; as likewise the offer of a situation as Unitarian Preacher and Lecturer in Natural Philosophy as I have likewise mentioned before. At that time he had no inducement to settle at Northumberland contrary to his inclination, as his books and apparatus were still at Philadelphia, his sons had not fixed upon any place of settlement for themselves, and neither he, nor they, had purchased a single foot of land in the town or the neighbourhood of it.

The following reasons among others induced him to prefer a country to a city life. He thought that if he undertook the duties of a professor, he should not be so much at liberty to follow his favourite pursuits as he could wish, and that the expence of living at Philadelphia or New-York would counterbalance the advantages resulting from his salary; and indeed, at that time he had no occasion to attend to any pecuniary considerations, as he believed his income, calculating upon his property in the French funds (which however from circumstances not necessary to be stated in this place, never produced him any thing,) to be more than equal to his wants; but what had greater weight with him than any thing else was that my mother, who had been harrassed in her mind ever since the riots at Birmingham, thought that by living in the country, at a distance from the cities, she should be more likely to obtain that quiet of which she stood so much in need.

Soon after his settlement at Northumberland, many persons, with a view that his qualifications as an instructor of youth should not be wholly lost to the country, concurred in a plan for the establishment of a college at Northumberland. To this scheme several subscribed from this motive alone. Many of the principal landholders, partly from the above and partly from motives of interest, contributed largely both in money and land, and there was a fair prospect, from the liberal principles upon which it was founded, that it would have been of very great advantage to the country. My father was requested to draw up a plan of the course of study he would recommend, as well as the rules for the internal management of the institution, and he was appointed President. He however declined receiving any emolument, and proposed giving such lectures as he was best qualified for, _gratis_; in the same manner as he had done at Hackney, and he meant to have given to the institution the use of his library and apparatus, until the students could have been furnished with them by means of the funds of the college. In consequence of the unexpected failure of some of the principal contributors, the scheme fell through at that time, and little more was done during my father’s life time than to raise the shell of a convenient building.

I shall in this place state, though I shall anticipate, in so doing, that in the year 1803 a vacancy occurred in the University of Pennsylvania, by the death of Dr. Euen, Principal of that institution. It was intimated to my father by many of the Trustees, that in case he would accept of the appointment, there was little doubt of his obtaining it; Mr. M’Kean, the present governor of the State of Pennsylvania, being among others particularly anxious that he should accept of it. In addition to the reasons that had induced him to decline the offer of the Professorship of Chemistry were to be added the weak state of his health, which would have made the idea of his having any serious engagement to fulfil, very irksome to him; he accordingly declined it.

He had frequent intimations of other proposals of a similar nature that would have been made to him, had it not become generally known, that he could not accede to them from their being inconsistent with the plan of life he had laid down for himself.

I have been thus particular in the account of his reasons for settling at Northumberland, and of the different inducements offered to him to fix elsewhere, to do away the erroneous reports respecting the former, and likewise to counteract the idea that has been so industriously circulated in England, that his abilities were undervalued, that the bigotry and prejudice he had to encounter in this country, were greater than were opposed to him in England; that his life was in consequence rendered uncomfortable, and that if he could, he would have been glad to have returned to his native country, but was restrained by a sense of shame. Some colour was given to these reports by many of his countrymen who, from motives best known to themselves, perhaps thinking thereby to excuse the inconsistency of their own conduct, corroborated the accounts, though many of them had never seen my father in this country, and had no authority whatever for assertions which were entirely calumnies. Some currency was also given to the statement, by the false and injurious accounts published by the Duke de Liancourt, whose book if I may judge of it by that part which treats of Pennsylvania, and of this neighbourhood in particular, is not entitled to the least credit, being false in almost every particular. This my father himself has stated in a letter addressed to him.

The writer, understanding the language of the country but very imperfectly, must necessarily have been liable to many mistakes; nor is it to be wondered at that a man who details all the tittle tattle of every table to which he is invited, and who can basely convert the hospitable reception he meets with in a strange country, into the means of turning into ridicule those who shewed him attention and meant to serve him, should be even capable of fabricating and circulating gross and injurious falsehoods respecting individuals. I should disgrace myself, in my opinion, and still more should I disgrace the high situation which my father held in the esteem of the public, were I in this work to enter into any further consideration of his attack on my father’s character, satisfied that it is beyond the reach of his falsehoods and unprovoked malevolence.

My father would, no doubt, have been glad to have returned to England, and have enjoyed the society of his old and much valued friends; he would have rejoiced to have been nearer the centre of the Arts and Sciences; to have been joined again to his congregation and resumed his duties as a Christian Preacher; he would have been glad at the close of life, as he expresses himself, “to have found a grave in the land that gave him birth;” but this was impossible: and no person can read the preface to his Fast Sermon, quoted above, but must be convinced of it. Though he raised the credit of his native country by the brilliancy, the extent and the usefulness of his discoveries in different branches of science; though during his whole life he inculcated principles of virtue and religion, which the government pretended at least to believe were necessary to the well being of the state; though in no one single act of his life had he violated any law of his country or encouraged others to do so, what was the treatment he met with in that land of boasted civilization, and at the close of the 18th Century? It is sufficiently known, and will, as it ought to do, affect the character of the nation at large. Therefore, though he could have forgotten and forgiven all that was past, though the above mentioned motives would have had great weight in inducing him to return, yet there was no reason to expect that he should meet hereafter with better treatment than he had already experienced; and in consequence of this fixed persuasion he never entertained the idea of returning to live in England. He frequently talked indeed of returning to visit his friends; but when peace took place and he could have gone with safety, so comfortably was he settled in this country, and such was his opinion of the state of things in England, that he abandoned even the idea of a temporary journey thither, altogether.

But supposing the above obstacles had not existed to his return to his native country, he had no reason to be, nor was he, dissatisfied with his reception here. Independent of the attentions paid to him upon his first arrival in this country, he continued to receive marks of respect from bodies of men, and from individuals of various opinions in religion and politics, to whom he had been all his life before an utter stranger. Little reason therefore have his countrymen to represent his reception in America as unequal to his merits, or to calumniate the general character of the people here. His discoveries did not add to the credit of America as they had done to that of England, yet he was not obliged to withdraw his name from its Philosophical Society, disgusted with its illiberal treatment of himself and his friends. The Americans, comparatively speaking, had little opportunity of judging of his zeal for the real interests of religion, yet he was suffered to live in peace; and this country has not been disgraced by the destruction of a library and apparatus uniformly dedicated to the promotion of Science, and the good of mankind. It will be said that there were not such interests to oppose in America as in England. It is true, and it proves that the Americans have done well not to create such interests, and that the placing all the religious sects upon the same footing with respect to the government of the country, has effectually secured the peace of the community, at the same time that it has essentially promoted the interests of truth and virtue.

Being now settled at Northumberland with his mind at peace, and at ease in his circumstances, he seriously applied himself to those studies which he had long been compelled to desist from, and which he had but imperfectly attended to while he resided at Hackney. It is true that he spent his time there very agreeably, in a society of highly valued friends; but he did little compared to what he effected while he was at Birmingham, or what he has done during his residence here, owing to his time being very much broken in upon at Hackney by company. To prove how much he did in this country it is only necessary to refer to the list of the publications which he presented to the world in various branches of science, in theology and general literature. Here as in England, though more at leisure than formerly, he continued to apportion his time to the various occupations in which he was engaged, and strictly adhered to a regular plan of alternate study and relaxation, from which he never materially deviated.

It was while my father was at the academy that he commenced a practice which he continued until within three or four days of his death, of keeping a diary, in which he put down the occurrences of the day; what he was employed about, where he had been, and particularly an exact account of what he had been reading, mentioning the names of the authors, and the number of pages he read, which was generally a fixed number, previously determined upon in his own mind. He likewise noted down any hints suggested by what he read in the course of the day. It was his custom at the beginning of each year to arrange the plan of study that he meant to pursue that year, and to review the general situation of his affairs, and at the end of the year he took an account of the progress he had made, how far he had executed the plan he had laid down, and whether his situation exceeded or fell short of the expectations he had formed.

This practice was a source of great satisfaction to him through life. It was at first adopted as a mode of regulating his studies, and afterwards continued from the pleasure it gave him. The greater part of his diaries were destroyed at the riots at Birmingham, but there are still extant those for the year 1754, 1755 and several of the subsequent years.

As it will serve to shew the regularity with which he pursued his studies, and may possibly be instructive as well as amusing to the reader, I shall give a specimen of the manner in which he spent a year while he was at the academy, at Daventry, and for that purpose shall select his diary for the year 1755 when he was in his 22d year. The diary contains a particular account of what he read and wrote each day, and at different periods of the year he sums up in the following manner, the progress he had made in improvement, which I give as entered at the end of the diary.

* * * * *

Business done in January, February and March.

_Practical._

Howe’s blessedness of the righteous; Bennet’s pastoral care; Norris’s letters and some sermons.

_Controversial._

Taylor on Atonement; Hampton’s Answer; Sherlock’s discourses Vol. 1; Christianity not founded in Argument; Doddridge’s Answer; Warburton’s divine legation; Benson on the first planting of Christianity; King’s Constitution of the Primitive Church.

_Classics._

Josephus, Vol. 1, from page 390 to 770; Ovid’s Metamorphoses to page 139; Tacitus’s History, Life of Agricola, and Manners of the Germans.

_Scriptures._

John the Evangelist, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, 1st and 2d Corinthians, in Greek; Isaiah to the 8th chapter, in Hebrew.

_Mathematics._

Maclaurin’s Algebra to part 2d.

_Entertaining._

Irene; Prince Arthur; Ecclesiastical characters; Dryden’s fables; Peruvian tales; Voyage round the world; Oriental tales; Massey’s travels; Life of Hai Ebn Yokdam; History of Abdallah.

_Composition._

A Sermon on the Wisdom of God; An Oration on the means of Virtue; 1st Vol. of the Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion.

Business done from April 1st to June 23d.

_Practical._

Watts’s Catechism, and discourses on Catechizing; Fenelon’s spiritual works Vol. 1st and half of Vol. 2d; Saurin’s Sermons a few; Thomas a Kempis Book 1st to ch. 21; Cotton Mather’s life; Jenning’s on preaching Christianity.

_Controversial._

Towgood, Gill and Breckell on Baptism; Le Clerc on Inspiration; Whiston’s Historical preface; Emlyn’s narrative and humble enquiry; Apostolical Constitutions; Newton on the prophecies; Winder’s History of knowledge; Hoadly on the Sacrament; Lowman on the Revelation; Moral Philosopher; Hume’s Political discourses; Middleton’s fathers of the four first centuries; Middleton and Waterland’s controversy. ---- on the Demoniacs; Goodrich’s display of Human Nature.

_Classics._

Cicero’s 1st. Phillippic.

_Historical._

Universal History Vol. 15 and 16 and to page 488 of the 17th.

_Composition._

Second Vol. of the Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion; wrote an article on Edwards’s translation of the Psalms for the review.

From June 23d to September 1.

_Practical Writers._

Thomas a Kempis from Ch. 21 of Book 1st; Hartley on Man vol. 2d. May’s Prayers. Holland’s Sermons.

_Scriptures._

From the 1st Epistle of Timothy to the Revelations, and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in the Greek Testament; The books of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, in the Hebrew Bible.

_Classics._

Ovid from Book 9th; Demosthenes 1st Phillippic and 3 Olynthiacs; Herodotus Book 1st; Homer’s Iliad, Book 1, 2, 3; Sallust.

_History._

Universal History from Vol. 17 p. 488 to the end of Vol. 18. Neal’s History of the Puritans 4 Volumes.

_Philosophy._

The Anatomical Articles in the Universal Dictionary, several principal Algebraic ones, and all the letter A.

_Composition._

12 Sermons.

Business done in September.

_Practical._

Holland’s Sermons, Vol. 2d; Doddridge’s family Expositor Vol. 1.

_Scriptures._

John the Evangelist, in Greek.

Numbers, and to the 16th Chapter in Deuteronomy in Hebrew.

_Classics._

Homer’s Iliad, 12 books.

_Mathematical._

Euclid, Lib. 1, 2, 3.

_History._

Universal History, Vol. 19th.

_Miscellaneous._

Mason’s Student; One of Shakespeare’s plays.

_Composition._

4 Sermons.

Business done in October.

_Practical._

Doddridge’s Expositor Vol. 2d; Common Prayer Book; Fordyce’s Sermons on public Institutions.

_Scriptures._

Deuteronomy from Ch. 16 to the end; Ecclesiastes and Solomon’s Song in Hebrew and Greek.

_Classics._

Homer’s Iliad, Book P to the end.

_Mathematical._

Euclid, Lib, 4, 5, 6.

_Historical._

Universal History, Vol. 20th.

_Miscellaneous._

5 Shakespeare’s Plays.

_Composition._

3 Sermons.

Business done in November.

_Practical._

Abernethy’s Practical Sermons.

_Scriptures._

Job, in Hebrew and the Septuagint.

_Philosophy, Mathematics and Chemistry._

Euclid Lib. 11 and 12 slightly; Boerhave’s Theory of Chemistry a good part of Vol. 1st; Rowning’s Philosophy half of Vol. 1st.

_Classics._

Francis’s Horace, Odes 4 books.

_History._

Universal History part of Vol. 3d; Jewish Antiquities. History of the Council of Trent to page 133. Anson’s voyage by Walter.

_Plays._

4 of Shakespeare’s plays.

_Composition._

2 Sermons.

Business done in December.

_Practical._

Abernethy’s Posthumous sermons Vol. 2d; Clarke’s sermons Vol. 1st. Patric on Ecclesiastes.

_Scriptures._

Psalms, in the Hebrew and Septuagint.

_Philosophy._

Rowning’s Philosophy part 2d and 3d.

_Classics._

Francis’s Horace Vol. 2 and 3.

_Miscellaneous and Entertaining._

Malcolm on Music, half; 4 Shakespeare’s plays.

Half of the 1st Vol. of the Rambler.

Popes Ethic Epistles, a few.

_History._

Paul’s Council of Trent, to page 476; Life of the Duke of Marlborough.

_Composition._

4 Sermons.

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.