This little excursion made me more sensible than I should otherwise have been of the benefit of foreign travel, even without the advantage of much conversation with foreigners. The very sight of new countries, new buildings, new customs, &c. and the very hearing of an unintelligible new language, gives new ideas, and tends to enlarge the mind. To me this little time was extremely pleasing, especially as I saw every thing to the greatest advantage, and without any anxiety or trouble, and had an opportunity of seeing and conversing with every person of eminence wherever we came; the political characters by his Lordship’s connections, and the literary ones by my own. I was soon, however, tired of Paris, and chose to spend my evenings at the hotel, in company with a few literary friends. Fortunately for me, Mr. Magellan[13] being at Paris, at the same time, spent most of the evenings with me; and as I chose to return before his Lordship, he accompanied me to London, and made the journey very pleasing to me; he being used to the country, the language, and the manners of it, which I was not. He had seen much of the world, and his conversation during our journey was particularly interesting to me. Indeed, in London, both before and after this time, I always found him very friendly, especially in every thing that related to my philosophical pursuits.
[13] JOHN HYACINTH De MAGELLAN a descendant of the famous Navigator Magellan, was a Portuguese Jesuit, but far more attached to Philosophy than Christianity. He was much employed by his rich and noble correspondents abroad to procure philosophical Instruments from the Artists of Great Britain. He was a good judge of these, and being of a mechanical turn as well as a man of Science, he improved their construction in many instances. He was member of and attendant on almost all the philosophical Clubs and Meetings in London, and was generally furnished with early intelligence of philosophical discoveries from the continent. On the 17th of September 1785 he made a donation of 200 guineas to the American Philosophical Society, the interest whereof was to be appropriated annually as a premium for the most useful discoveries or improvements in navigation or natural philosophy, but to the exclusion of mere natural history. He died a few years ago, leaving Mr. Nicholson and the late Dr. Crawford his Executors. T. C.
As I was sufficiently apprized of the fact, I did not wonder, as I otherwise should have done, to find all the philosophical persons to whom I was introduced at Paris unbelievers in christianity, and even professed Atheists. As I chose on all occasions to appear as a christian, I was told by some of them, that I was the only person they had ever met with, of whose understanding they had any opinion, who professed to believe christianity. But on interrogating them on the subject, I soon found that they had given no proper attention to it, and did not really know what christianity was. This was also the case with a great part of the company that I saw at Lord Shelburne’s. But I hope that my always avowing myself to be a christian, and holding myself ready on all occasions to defend the genuine principles of it, was not without its use. Having conversed so much with unbelievers at home and abroad, I thought I should be able to combat their prejudices with some advantage, and with this view I wrote, while I was with Lord Shelburne, the first part of my Letters to a philosophical unbeliever, in proof of the doctrines of a God and a providence, and to this I have added during my residence at Birmingham, a second part, in defence of the evidences of christianity. The first part being replied to by a person who called himself Mr. Hammon, I wrote a reply to his piece, which has hitherto remained unanswered. I am happy to find that this work of mine has done some good, and I hope that in due time it will do more. I can truly say that the greatest satisfaction I receive from the success of my philosophical pursuits, arises from the weight it may give to my attempts to defend christianity, and to free it from those corruptions which prevent its reception with philosophical and thinking persons, whose influence with the vulgar, and the unthinking, is very great.
With Lord Shelburne I saw a great variety of characters, but, of our neighbours in Wiltshire, the person I had the most frequent opportunity of seeing was Dr. Frampton, a clergyman, whose history may serve as a lesson to many. No man perhaps was ever better qualified to please in a convivial hour, or had greater talents for conversation and repartee; in consequence of which, though there were several things very disgusting about him, his society was much courted, and many promises of preferment were made to him. To these, notwithstanding his knowledge of the world, and of high life, he gave too much credit; so that he spared no expence to gratify his taste and appetite, until he was universally involved in debt; and though his friends made some efforts to relieve him, he was confined a year in the county prison at a time when his bodily infirmities required the greatest indulgences; and he obtained his release but a short time before his death on condition of his living on a scanty allowance; the income of his livings (amounting to more than 400 £. per annum) being in the hands of his creditors. Such was the end of a man who kept the table in a roar.
Dr. Frampton being a high churchman, he could not at first conceal his aversion to me, and endeavoured to do me some ill offices. But being a man of letters, and despising the clergy in his neighbourhood, he became at last much attached to me; and in his distresses was satisfied, I believe, that I was one of his most sincere friends. With some great defects he had some considerable virtues, and uncommon abilities, which appeared more particularly in extempore speaking. He always preached without notes, and when, on some occasions, he composed his sermons, he could, if he chose to do it, repeat the whole verbatim. He frequently extemporized in verse, in a great variety of measures.
In Lord Shelburne’s family was Lady Arabella Denny, who is well known by her extensive charities. She is (for she is still living) a woman of good understanding, and great piety. She had the care of his Lordship’s two sons until they came under the care of Mr. Jervis, who was their tutor during my continuance in the family. His Lordship’s younger son, who died suddenly, had made astonishing attainments both in knowledge and piety, while very young, far beyond any thing that I had an opportunity of observing in my life.
When I went to his Lordship, I had materials for one volume of experiments on air, which I soon after published, and inscribed to him; and before I left him I published three volumes more, and had materials for a fourth, which I published immediately on my settling in Birmingham. He encouraged me in the prosecution of my philosophical enquiries, and allowed me 40 £. per annum for expences of that kind, and was pleased to see me make experiments to entertain his guests, and especially foreigners.
Notwithstanding the attention that I gave to philosophy in this situation, I did not discontinue my other studies, especially in theology and metaphysics. Here I wrote my Miscellaneous Observations relating to education, and published my Lectures on Oratory and Criticism, which I dedicated to Lord Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne’s eldest son. Here also I published the third and last part of my Institutes of Natural and Revealed religion; and having in the Preface attacked the principles of Dr. Reid, Dr. Beattie, and Dr. Oswald, with respect to their doctrine of Common Sense, which they made to supercede all rational inquiry into the subject of religion, I was led to consider their system in a separate work, which, though written in a manner that I do not intirely approve, has, I hope, upon the whole been of service to the cause of free inquiry and truth.[14]
[14] This reply of Dr. Priestley to the Scotch Doctors, though not written in a manner that his maturer reflection approved, compleatly set at rest the question of Common Sense as denoting the intuitive evidence of a class of moral and religious propositions capable of satisfactory proof, or of high probability from considerations ab extra. But Dr. Reid ought hardly to be classed with coadjutors so inferior as the Drs. Oswald and Beattie. The latter wrote something which he meant as a defence of the christian religion; but such defenders of christianity as Dr. Beattie and Soame Jenyns, are well calculated to bring it into contempt with men of reason and reflection.
T. C.