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Untitled Article
nions , so in reading the life of a celebrated character * we consider ourselves his constant attendants . We eriter into his sriews , attend to his pursuits , mark striking events in his journey through life , note the circumstances which occasioned his celebrity , and exaftihie the causes which concurred to produce
the original bias which determined his character . When the subject of the biography has occupied a considerable space in the annals of fame , and is himself the writer , the interest we feel is proportiariably increased ; and should the character have been eminently virtuous , the sources of instruction , especially to young minds ; are numerous and important .
The celebrated subject of these memoirs was born at Fieldhead , near Leeds , in Yorkshire , the 13 J : b March O . S . 17 33 r His father , Jonas Priestley , was a cloth-dresser . When very young , be was committed to the care of his mother ^ father , a farmer in the neighbourhood of W ^ kefiejd , with whom he eontinued , with little interruption , till his mother ' s death ,
which happened in 1 740 . On the death of his mother he was taken home , and sent to a school in the neighbourhood . A Mrs . Kcighly . a sister 6 f his father ' s , seeing her brother enciini-Fered with k large family , took him entirely to herself , and having no children of her owi > considered him as her child ; &T * d from this time she was truly a parent to him till her death in 1164 .
c < By this truly pious and excellent woman / " he observes , ' < who knew no other use of wealth , or of talents of any kind , than to do good , and who never spared herself for this purpose * I was sent to several schools in the neighbourhood , especially to a large free school tinder the care of a clergyman , Mr . Hague , under whom , at the age of twelve or fifteen , I fust t * egan to ifoa&e any progress in the Latin tongue , and acquired the elements of Greek . But about the same time that I began to learn Greek at this public school , I learned Hebrew on holidays of the Pissenting Minister of the plaice , Mr . Kirkby , and upon the removal of Mr . Hague from the free school , Mr . Kirkby tfpeninor a school of-his own , I was wholly under his care . With this
instruction Ihad acquired # pretty good knowledge of the learned languages at the age of sixteen : but from tliis time Mr . Kirkby s increasing infirmities obliged him to relinquish his school , and beginning , to be of a weekly consumptive habit , so that it was not thought advlseable to send me to any other place of education , I was left to conduct my studies as well # s J pould til } I went to the academy at
J ) a van try in the year \? 5 % ** From the tlmte 1 d Covered a&y fondness for b 6 oks , my aunt entertained hopes of my becoming ana iuister , and I readily entered into her views - , but my ill health obliged me to turn my thoughts another way , and , with a view to trac ^ e , I learned" the modern languages , JFrench , Italian , and High Dutch , without a master ; and in the first and last of them I translated and wrote letters for an uncle of mine , who was a merchant , and who intended to put me into a counting-herase in Li ^ dn . A hoase was actmally ^ engaged to receive w $
Untitled Article
43 a Memoirs , of Dr . Priestley +
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1806, page 430, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1727/page/38/
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