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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), January 1815, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag

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    • HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
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      Memoir of the late Rev . Joseph Priestley , LL . D . F . R . S . $ rc . [ With the Portrait , we think it may be useful and agreeable to many of our readers to give a Memoir , of Dr . Priestley . We have taken the liberty , to copy the life published in

      the Eighth Volume of the General Biography , 4 to ., and drawn up , as appears from the signature , by the able and elegant pen of Dr . Aikin , and to adapt it more particularly to this work by the addition of notes , for which we are indebted to a friend ,

      to whom the commencement and the continuance of the Monthly Repository are chiefly owing , whose communications form a rich portion of the past volumes , and to whom the readers may still , it is hoped , look for entertainment and instruction . The

      whole of the notes are original and by the same friendly hand . Editor . ] JOSEPH PRIESTLEY , LL . D . F . R . S ., &c . a very eminent philosopher and divine , was born in

      March , 1 7 ^ 3 , at Field-head , near Leeds . Ins father was engaged in the clothing manufacture , and was a dissenter of the C alvinistic persuasion .

      " Jonas Priestley , the youngest son of Joseph Priestley , a maker and dresser of woollen cloth . " His son describes him as discovering * a strong- sense of religion , praying * with his family niorning and evening- , and carefully teaching * his children and servants the Assembly ' s Catechism , which was all the system of which he had any knowledge , " never giving- much attention to matters of speculation , and entertaining no bigoted aversion to those who differed from him . " Dr . Priestley ' s mother , who died in 1740 , when her son was in his seventh year , " was the only child of Joseph Swift , a farmer of Sliafton , a village about six miles south-east of Wakefield . " She was gratefully recollected my « er son as " a woman of exemplary

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      Joseph was in his youth adopted by an aunt , a woman of exemplary piety and benevolence , who sent him for education to several schools in the neighbourhood , -where he acquired a

      respectable degree of knowledge of the learned languages , including Hebrew . He was originally destined for the ministry ; but weak health causing his views to be turned towards trade , he learned some of the modern

      piety , careful to teach" him religion according" to her own convictions , and taking a particular occasion to inculcate moral principle by impressing- his mind " with a clear idea of the distinction of property , and the importance of attending to it . ' * Priestley ' s Mem . pp . 2 , 3 , 5 .

      2 She was his fathers sister , " married to a Mr . Keighley , a man who had distinguished himself for his zeal for religion , and for his pnhlic spirit / ' She died in 1764 , having survived her husband many years . Her nephew , from whom she deserved and received the grateful remembrance of a son , characterizes this u truly

      pious and excellent woman as one 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 j- —» truly Calvinistic in principle , hut far from confining- salvation to those who thought as she did on religious subjects . " He adds , that being * left in good circumstances , her home was the resort of all the

      dissenting- ministers in the neighbourhood without distinction , and those who were the most obnoxious on account of their heresy were almost as welcome to her , if she thought them honest and good men ( which she was not unwilling to do ) as any other . " Id . pp . 3 and (> .

      Jn this language he made himself " a considerable proficient , " during the interval between leaving * the gram mar-school , and going to the academy , " by instructing ^ a minister in his neighbourhood who had had no learned education . " He also " learned Chaldee and Syriac , s ^ nd just began to read Arabic / 5 Id , p . 10 ,

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      THE V fyc

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      No . C £ X . JANUARY , 1815 . [ Vol . X . » f '' " ¦¦ -- - - ¦¦¦ -., .- — -- ' ~~ m ¦ . . — — ¦ ¦ . ¦¦ —¦— | I , t

      History And Biography.

      HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY .

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      TOL , 3 U R

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/1/