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their friends in tea parties , she soon became the life of the company , and was listened to with defer , ence and attention by some of the most eminent characters in the
University , Her conversation was at the same time sprightly , argumentativeand profound , and whilst she expressed herself fluently on all occasions , her language was equal , ly happy and correct . Her reputation , therefore , was soon
deservedly established , and in raaU ters of the first importance , she was frequently looked up to for advice . * Mt . Paley , indeed , who when rising into eminence as a public tutor , had been introduced to their acquaintance , used some . times to attack her boldest reason .
ing , with his quaint and lively re . partees . And yet Mrs . Jebb was amongst the first to discover , in his conduct , the germ of that liberal spirit , which afterwards ap . peared in his writings . But whilst her talents commanded
admiration , the sweetness of her disposition conciliated a very general esteem ; and in her it was soon discovered that superior powers of intellect were by ho means inconsistent with the liveliest sensibilities of a female heart .
At length the great controversy on the propriety of requiring sub . scription to articles of faith , as practised by the Church of England , led to a more general display of those abilities , which had been hitherto confined to the
intercourse of her private life * Mr . Jebb , conceiving every attempt to interfere with the rights of conscience in the interpretation of Scripture to be an infringement of the true Protestant principle , was one of the mo ^ t-active of the clerical petitioners , vindicating in the
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boldest language the justice of their claims to relief . And Mrs . Jebb , who entered into all his feelings , was equally strenuous in tbeirsup .
port ; by turns assailing the most formidable champions of subscri ption , whose productions appeared , like her own , in the Newspapers , or whose Sermons and Cha rge * more openly provoked her attack .
Amongst others she addressed herself repeatedly to Dr . Ran * dulph , * X > r . Hallifax , t and Dr . Balguyf , in the London Chronicle ^ under the signature of Priscilla ^ detecting the weak points of their
argument , and exposing the sophistry by which it was maintained . But superior to the little arts of controversy , she defended her cause by reasoning alone . " Cal . urnny /* she observed , in her letter to Dr . Hallifax , March 24 th .
1772 , " never gained a disciple , never satisfied a doubting mind ; invectives may harden the heart , but can never enlighten the understanding ; no difficulty was ever solved ttiKoLbuse . " '
« Are you , Dr . Hallifiuc , . ( continued she , ) u acquainted with the petitioners ? If you are , I think you must know them to be worthy of . your esteem , if you know them not , why call you them per 6 dious ? Why talk of their malignity ? Their ignorance of ' antiquity f
Why think you that they have an overweening fondness for novelties ; and say that they use undue arts to mislead the rising generation , and to bring in dam * nabte heresies ? Have they published their opinions ? ' If so , you should havedi .
rected us to their works . Or have you been intimately connected with them ? Haveyou been indulged with theirprivatc thoughts , and under ike mask of friendship dived into the secrets of their soul ? And do you thus requite their confidence ! it cannot be ; the honest Jieart
? President of C . C . C . and Archdeaton of Oxford . f Afterwards Bishop of St . Asdpfcu t Archdeacon of Winchester .
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5 £ 8 Memoirs of Mrs . Jebb .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1812, page 598, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1753/page/2/
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