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We are favoured by the author with the proof sheets of this work , and shall take advantage of that circumstance to anticipate the publication by giving our readers some extracts from it as it passes through the press . In a brief introduction we are given to expect that these Memoirs will chiefly contemplate Dr . Priestley in his personal and ministerial character , and in his theological inquiries and exertions , rather than as a scientific experimentalist , or a writer on topics of civil policy and general literature . The plan which Mr . Rutt has adopted is to make Dr . Priestley ' s autobiography the text of his work , adding to it copious extracts from his Correspondence * especially with Mr . Lindsey and Mr . Belsham , supplying what is needful for the connexion and completion of the narrative , and appending to the whole those illustrative notes for which he possesses such copious materials in his own reading and personal recollections .
Assuming that many of our readers are acquainted with Dr . Priestley ' s brief but interesting account of himself , and reserving such general reflections as may suggest themselves to our minds upon his history and character till these records of them are more completely before us , we shall at present merely endeavour to give some notion of the additions and illustrations with which Mr . Rutt has enriched the document which forms the basis of his work .
The following extracts are from Dr . Priestley's account of a Tour ( now first printed ) which he made with Lord Shelburne in 1774 . The first part of it is in letters , addressed to the sons of that nobleman ; the remainder in
the form of a Journal . Its chief value now arises from its being frequently , as the observant reader cannot fail to notice , very characteristic of the writer .
" I was very much struck with the appearance of Calais , as it was the first fortified town I had ever seen ; being surrounded with a deep ditch and strong walls , built in such a manner as to make it very difficult to be taken by an enemy- St . Omers , Aire , Bethune , and Lisle , which we have seen since , are all fortified in the same manner ; and they have all spacious market places , where the inhabitants may be assembled , and where the soldiers can parade . All these towns are much better built than the generality of towna
in England . In Lisle , especially , the houses are curiously ornamented towards the street with figures of heads , festoons , and other decorations . The rooms in the inns which we have seen are exceedingly large and lofty ; and the furniture , though it has , in some respects , the air of great magnificence , is in general ill made , and not elegant ; most things being finished in a manner that we should be ashamed of in England . Their fire-places arc much unlike ours , but pretty enough , and they are all made for the burning of woodj , as the'country produces no coal . " Having dined at Calais , we reached St . Omers , but not till after it was
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MEMOIRS OF DR . PRIESTLEY , BY J . T . RUTT , ESQ .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1831, page 691, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2602/page/39/
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