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Leicester , Sir , April 3 , 1822 . f ' l 1 HE angry feeling which your cor JL respondent Homo has manifestec towards Mr . Hall in your last Reposi
tory , ( p . 168 , ) appears to me to be entirely groundless , for I cannot find a single word in the original edition of the Apology" concerning Dr . Priestley , that is omitted in the last edition . I think he must have had in his
memory two passages contained in Mr . HaLPs publication entitled " Christianity consistent with a Love of Freedom /* J and have forgotten the work In which they appeared . The first of the passages I refer to runs thus :
" The religious tenets of Dr . Priestley appear to me erroneous in the extreme , but I should be sorry to suffer any difference of sentiment to diminish my sensibility to virtue , or my admiration of genius . From him the poisoned arrow will fall pointless . His enlightened and active mind , his unwearied assiduity , the extent of his researches , the light he has poured into almost every department of science , will be the admiration of that period when the greater part of those
who have favoured , or tlio . se who have opposed him , will be alike forgotten Distinguished merit will ever rise superior to oppression , and will draw lustre from reproach . The vapours which gather round the rising sun , and follow it in its course , seldom fail at the close of it to form a magnificent theatre for its reception , and to invest with variegated tints and with a softened effulgence the luminary which they cannot hide . "
* ror which see VoL XVI- p . 6 ' M . Ei > . -f- We should he still further obliged to our correspondent could he procure for us a sight of those Memoirs , with the liberty of using any part of them which may suit our purpose . Ki > . I On occasion of ; i Sermon published by the Kcv . John Ciaytou , \ 7 Jl . Ku .
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In the oth ^ r passage he keenly re bukes Mr . Clayton tor having in * f mated to his congregation that the Birmingham Riots were a Jud gment and advises him not to suffer this itch for interpreting the counsels of Heaven to grow upon him , and concl udes thus :
" The best use he could make of his mantle would be to bequeath it to the use of posterity , as for the want of it i am afraid they will be in danger of fall . ing into some very unhappy mistakes * To their unenlightened eyes it will appear a reproach , that in the eighteenth
century , an age that boasts its science and improvement , the first philosopher in Europe , of a character unblemished , and of manners the most mild and gentle , should be torn from his family , and obliged to flee , an outcast and a fugitive , from the murderous hands of a frantic rabble : but
when they learn that there were not wanting teachers of religion who secretly triumphed in these barbarities , they will pause for a moment , and imagine they are reading the history of Goths or of Vandals . Erroneous as such a judgment must appear in the eyes of Mr . Clayton ,
nothing but a ray of his supernatural light could enable us to form a juster decision . Dr . Priestley and his friends are not the first that have suffered in a public cause ; and when we recollect , that those who have sustained similar
disasters have been generally conspicuous for a superior sanctity of character , what but an acquaintance with the counsels of Heaven can enable us to distinguish between these two classes of sufferers , and whilst one are the favourites of God ,
to discern in the other the objects of his vengeance . When we contemplate this extraordinary endowment , we are no longer surprised at the superiority he assumes through the whole of his discourse nor at that air of confusion and disorder
which appears in it , both of which we impute to his dwelling so much in the insufferable light , and amidst the corruscations and flashes of the divine glory ; a sublime but perilous situation , described with great force and beauty by Mr . Gray :
" 'He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time : The living throne , the sapphire blaze , Where angels tremble , while they gaze . He saw ; but , blasted with excess of light , Closed his eyes in endless night /* To these flowing eulogies on t' ^ illustrious 1 Viestley , may be added
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220 Reply to Homo on Hall ' s " Apology fw Freedom . "
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and respect , to conclude this in your own words to me in 1717 , that I am , and hope erer shall be , Yours and virtue ' Friend , JOHN FOX . Then follows his Lordship ' s answer , May 8 th , 1736 . * Mr . Clifford has in his possession some other memoirs by Mr . Fox , of the times in which he lived , f G . SOTHERN .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 220, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/28/
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