It was by the regularity and variety of his studies, more than by intenseness of application, that he performed so much more than even studious men generally do. At the time he was engaged about the most important works, and when he was not busily employed in making experiments, he always had leisure for company, of which he was fond. He never appeared hurried or behind hand. He however never carried his complaisance so far as to neglect the daily task he had imposed upon himself; but as he was uniformly an early riser, and dispatched his more serious pursuits in the morning, it rarely happened but that he could accomplish the labours assigned for the day, without having occasion to withdraw from visitors at home, or society abroad, or giving reason to suppose that the company of others was a restraint upon his pursuits.
This habit of regularity, extended itself to every thing that he read, and every thing he did that was susceptible of it. He never read a bookwithout determining in his own mind when he would finish it. Had he a work to transcribe, he would fix a time for its completion. This habit increased upon him as he grew in years, and his diary was kept upon the plan I have before described, till within a few days of his death.
To the regularity and variety of his studies, must be added a considerable degree of Mechanical contrivance, which greatly facilitated the execution of many of his compositions. It was however most apparent in his laboratory, and displayed in the simplicity and neatness of his apparatus, which was the great cause of the accuracy of his experiments, and of the fair character which he acquired as an experimental chemist. This was the result in the first instance of a necessary attention to œconomy in all his pursuits, and was afterwards continued from choice, when the necessity no longer existed. I return from this digression which I thought necessary to give the reader a general view of my father’s occupations, and his manner of spending his time, to the circumstances attending the remaining years of his life.
At his first settling at Northumberland, there wasno house to be procured that would furnish him with the conveniencies of a library and laboratory in addition to the room necessary for a family. Hence in the beginning of the year 1795, being then fixed in his determination to move no more, he resolved upon building a house convenient for his pursuits. During the time the house was building, he had no convenience for making experiments more than a common room afforded, and he was thereby prevented from doing much in this way. Still, he ascertained several facts of importance in the year 1795 on the Analysis of Atmospheric Air, and also some in continuation of those on the generation of air from water.
He had however leisure and opportunity for his other studies and in 1795 he published observations on the increase of infidelity and he continued his Church History from the fall of the Western Empire to the reformation.
In the spring of 1796 he spent three months at Philadelphia and delivered there a set of discourses on the Evidences of Revelation, which he composed with a view to counteract the effect produced by the writings of unbelievers, which, as might be expected,was very great in a country where rational opinions in religion were but little known, and where the evidences of revelation had been but little attended to. It was a source of great satisfaction to him, and what he had little previous reason to expect, that his lectures were attended by very crowded audiences, including most of the members of the congress of the United States at that time assembled at Philadelphia, and of the executive officers of the government. These discourses which, in a regular and connected series, placed Christianity, and the evidences of its truth, in a more clear and satisfactory point of view than it had been usually considered in this country, attracted much attention, and created an interest in the subject which there is reason to believe has produced lasting effects. My father received assurances from many of the most respectable persons in the country, that they viewed the subject in a totally different light from what they had before done, and that could they attend places of worship, where such rational doctrines were inculcated, they should do it with satisfaction.
As my father had through life considered the office of a Christian minister as the most useful and honourable of any, and had always derived the greatestsatisfaction from fulfilling its duties, particularly from catechizing young persons, the greatest source of uneasiness therefore to him at Northumberland was, that there was no sufficient opportunity of being useful in that way. Though he was uniformly treated with kindness and respect by the people of the place, yet their sentiments in religion were so different from his own, and the nature and tendency of his opinions were so little understood, that the establishment of a place of Unitarian worship perfectly free from any calvinistic or Arian tenet, was next to impossible. All therefore that he could do in that way was, for the two or three first years, to read a service either at his own or at my house, at which a few (perhaps a dozen) English persons were usually present, and in time, as their numbers increased he made use of a school room near his house, where from twenty to thirty regularly attended, and among them some of the inhabitants of the place, who by degrees began to divest themselves of their prejudices with respect to his opinions. However small the number of persons attending, he administered the Lord’s supper, a rite upon which he always laid particular stress.
In the Autumn of 1795 he had the misfortune tolose his youngest son, of whom being much younger than any of his other children, and having entertained the hopes of his succeeding him in his Theological and Philosophical pursuits he was remarkably fond. He felt this misfortune the more severely as it was the first of the kind he had experienced, and particularly as it had a visible effect upon my mother’s health and spirits. He was however so constantly in the habit of viewing the hand of God in all things, and of considering every occurrence as leading to good, that his mind soon recovered its accustomed serenity, and his journey to Philadelphia mentioned above and the success which attended his first exertions in the cause of, what he deemed, pure and genuine christianity, led him to look forward with cheerfulness to the future, and gave him an energy in his pursuits, which was never exceeded in any part of his life. It was the same habit of viewing God as the author of all events, and producing good out of seeming evil, that enabled him to support himself so well under the greatest affliction that could possibly have befallen him, viz. the loss of his wife, my mother; who through life had been truly a help meet for him; supporting him underall his trials and sufferings with a constancy and perseverance truly praise worthy, and who as he himself, in noting the event in his diary, justly observes, “was of a noble and generous mind and cared much for others and little for herself through life.”
In the period between the above very afflicting events, though his conveniences for experimenting were not increased, owing to his house, and particularly his laboratory not being finished, he wrote a small treatise in defence of the doctrine of Phlogiston, addressed to the Philosophers in France. He likewise composed a second set of discourses of a similar kind to those delivered in Philadelphia the preceding winter. He preached and printed a sermon in defence of Unitarianism, and printed the first set of discourses; he compleated his Church History; he made additional observations on the increase of infidelity chiefly in answer to Mr. Volney; and drew up an Outline of all the Evidences in favour of Revelation.
In the spring of 1797 he again spent two or three months in Philadelphia, and delivered a second set of discourses, but partly from the novelty of the thing being done away, partly from the prejudices that beganto be excited against him on account of his supposed political opinions, (for high-toned politics began then to prevail in the fashionable circles) and partly owing to the discourses not being so well adapted for a public audience, though necessary to set the comparative excellence of Christianity in its true light, they were but thinly attended in comparison to his former set. This induced him to give up the idea of preaching any more regular sets of discourses. He however printed them, as likewise a sermon he preached in favour of the Emigrants. He also composed at this time a third and enlarged edition of his Observations on the increase of infidelity, a controversy with Mr. Volney, a tract on the Knowledge of a Future state among the Hebrews, which, with the works he composed the year before, he printed as he found means and opportunity. He revised his Church History, began his Notes on the Scriptures, and his Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those of the Hindoos.
Towards the end of 1797 and not before, his library and laboratory were finished. None but men devoted to literature can imagine the pleasure he derived from being able to renew his experiments withevery possible convenience, and from having his books once more arranged. His house was situated in a garden, commanding a prospect equal, if not superior, to any on the river Susquehanna, so justly celebrated for the picturesque views its banks afford. It was a singularly fortunate circumstance that he found at Northumberland several excellent workmen in metals, who could repair his instruments, make all the new articles he wanted in the course of his experimenting, as well as, he used to say, if not in some respects better than, he could have got them done in Birmingham; and in the society of Mr. Frederick Antis, the brother of Mr. Antis in England, and uncle of Mr. Latrobe the engineer, he derived great satisfaction. Mr. Antis was a man of mild and amiable manners, he possessed a very good knowledge of Mechanics the result of his own observation and reflection, and a fund of knowledge of many things which my father frequently found useful to resort to. The situation of Northumberland became abundantly more convenient than it was when he first came to the place. From there being no regular public post, there was now established a post twice a week to Philadelphia, and answers could bereceived to letters within a week, and the communication so much increased between the two places, that the price of the carriage of goods was reduced from 11s.-3d.to 6s.per Cwt. the distance being 132 miles.
Thus conveniently situated, he resumed the same kind of life he led at Birmingham, experimenting the greater part of the day, the result of which he published in the Medical repository of New-York. Having compleated his Church History, he finished his Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those of the Hindoos. He likewise proceeded as far as Leviticus in the design he had formed of writing Notes on all the books of Scripture, and made some remarks on the origin of all religions by Dupuis, but the greater part of the time that he spent in theology this year, was employed in recomposing the Notes on the New-Testament, which were destroyed at the riots.
In the course of the year 1799, he finished his Notes on all the books of Scripture, he published his Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those of the Hindoos, he likewise printed his Defence of the doctrine of Phlogiston above mentioned, and thegreater part of each day in the summer was employed in making the additional experiments he had projected.
It was in the year 1799, during Mr. Adams’s administration, that my father had occasion to write any thing on the subject of politics in this country. It is well known to all his friends, that politics were always a subject of secondary importance with him. He however took part occasionally in the conversations on that subject; which every person has a right to do, and which, about the time my father left England, no person could avoid doing, as the subject engrossed so large a part of the conversation in almost every company. He always argued on the side of liberty. He was however in favour only of those changes that could be brought about by fair argument, and his speculations on the subject of British politics did not go further than a reform in Parliament, and no way tended, in his opinion, to affect the form of government, or the constitution of the kingdom, as vested in Kings, Lords and Commons. He used frequently to say, and it was said to him, that though he was an Unitarian in Religion he was in that country a Trinitarian in politics.
When he came to America, he found reason to change his opinions, and he became a decided friend to the general principles and practice of a compleatly representative government, founded upon universal suffrage, and excluding hereditary privileges, as it exists in this country. This change was naturally produced by observing the ease and happiness with which the people lived, and the unexampled prosperity of the country, of which no European, unless he has resided in it some time, and has observed the interior part of it, can be a competent judge. But with respect to England, he still remained anxious for its peace and prosperity, and though he had been so hardly used, and though he considered the administration of the country, if not instigating at least conniving at the riots, no resentment existed in his breast against the nation. In his feelings he was still an Englishman. Though he might speculatively consider that the mass of evil and misery had arisen to such a height in England, and in other European countries, that there was no longer any hope of a peaceable and gradual reform, yet, considering at the same time that the great body of the people, like the Negroes in the West-Indies,were unprepared for the enjoyment of liberty in its full extent, and contemplating the evils necessarily attendant upon a violent change, he dreaded a revolution.
With respect to America he had never interfered publicly in politics, and never wrote an article that could be considered in that light in any respect, except one published in a newspaper called theAurora, signed aQuaker in Politics, published on the 26th and 27th of February, 1798, and entitled Maxims of Political Arithmetic,[32]and so little did he interest himself in the politics of this country, that he seldom if ever perused the debates in Congress, nor was he much acquainted with any of the leading political characters except three or four, and with these he never corresponded but with Mr. Adams prior to his being chosen president, and Mr. Jefferson. He never was naturalized, nor did he take part directly or indirectly in any election. He persevered in the same sentiments even when he was under reasonable apprehension that he should be banishedas an Alien: and though he advised his sons to be naturalized, saying it was what was daily done by persons who could not be suspected of wishing any ill to their native country, yet he would not; but said, that as he had been born and had lived an Englishman, he would die one let what might be the consequence.
[32]SeeAppendix, No. IV.
[32]SeeAppendix, No. IV.
About the year 1799, the friends of liberty in America were greatly alarmed by the advancement of principles disgraceful to America, and by a practice less liberal in many respects than under the monarchical form of the British government. Nothing else was the subject of conversation and my father who though never active in politics, at the same time never concealed his sentiments, uttered them freely in conversation, and they were of course opposed to the proceedings of the administration at the time. Added to this Mr. Thomas Cooper formerly of Manchester, and who at that time had undertaken for a short period, at the request of the printer, to edit a newspaper then printed at Northumberland, had published some very severe strictures on the conduct of the administration, which were soon after published in a pamphlet, under the title of Political Essays.
By many my father might be ignorantly supposed as the prompter on the occasion, as Mr. Cooper lived at that time with my father, and by those who knew better, it was made the ostensible ground of objection to my father, to conceal the real one. In truth he saw none of the essays until they were printed, nor was he consulted by Mr. Cooper upon any part of them. The consequence was, that all the bigotry and party zeal of that violent period was employed to injure him, and misrepresent his words and actions. He was represented as intriguing for offices for himself and his friend, and as an enemy to the government which they said protected him, while men who were themselves but newly naturalized, or the immediate descendants of foreigners, bestowed upon him the epithet of Alien, an epithet then used by the government party as a term of reproach, though the country was principally indebted to the capital, industry and enterprize of foreigners for the many improvements then carrying on. Such was the effect of all these slanderous reports, and such was the character of the administration, that it was intimated to my father, from Mr. Adams himself, that he wished he would abstain from sayingany thing on politics, lest he should get into difficulty. The Alien law which was passed under that administration, was at that time in operation, and a man without being convicted of, or even positively charged with, any offence, might have been sent out of the country at a moment’s warning, not only without a trial, but without the right of remonstrance. It was likewise hinted to my father as he has himself stated, that he was one of the persons contemplated when the law was passed, so little did they know of his real character and disposition. This occasioned my father to write a set of letters to the inhabitants of Northumberland; in which he expressed his sentiments fully on all the political questions at that time under discussion. They had the effect of removing the unfavourable impressions that had been made on the minds of the liberal and candid, and procured him many friends. Fortunately however the violent measures then adopted produced a compleat change in the minds of the people, and in consequence of it in the representation, proving by the peaceableness of it, the excellence of this form of government, and proving also that my father’s sentiments, as well as Mr. Cooper’s, were approved of by nine tenths of the people of the United States.
It is but justice however to mention that in the above remarks which have been made to represent my father’s political character in its true light, and to account for his writing on the subject of politics, I do not mean to reflect on all the federalists, and that though my father considered them all as in error, yet he acknowledged himself indebted to many of that party for the most sincere marks of friendship which he had received in this country, and that not only from his opponents in politics, but likewise from many of the principal clergymen of various denominations in Philadelphia, and particularly during his severe illness in that city, when party spirit was at the highest, it being at the time of Mr. Jefferson’s first election to the presidency.
As my father has given an account of those friends to whose kindness and generosity he was principally indebted from the commencement of his literary career, to the time of his coming to America, I think it my duty to follow his example, and to make on his part those acknowledgements which had he lived, he would have taken pleasure in making himself. To the Revd. Theophilus Lindsey, independent of the many marks of the most sincere friendship, which he wasconstantly receiving, he was occasionally indebted for pecuniary assistance at times when it was most wanting. Independent of 50 £. per annum, which Mrs. Elizabeth Rayner allowed him from the time he left England, she left him by her will £2000 in the 4 per cents. Mr. Michael Dodson who is well known as the translator of Isaiah left him £500, and Mr. Samuel Salte left him 100 £. The Duke of Grafton remitted him annually 40 £. Therefore though his expences were far greater than he expected, and though his house cost him double the sum he had contemplated, the generosity of his friends made him perfectly easy in his mind with respect to pecuniary affairs; and by freeing him from all care and anxiety on this head contributed greatly to his happiness, and to his successful endeavours in the cause of truth. Besides these instances of friendly attention, the different branches of his family have been, in various ways, benefited, in consequence of the respect paid to my father’s character, and the affectionate regard shewn by his friends to all who were connected with him.
But what gave my father most real pleasure was the subscription, set on foot by his friends in England,to enable him to print his Church History, and his Notes on all the Books of Scripture. The whole was done without his knowledge, and the first information he received on the subject was, that there was a sum raised sufficient to cover the whole expence.
About the time he died, some of his friends in England understood that he was likely to suffer a loss in point of income of £. 200 per annum. Without any solicitation, about forty of them raised the sum of £. 450, which was meant to have been continued annually while he lived. He did not live to know of this kind exertion in his favour. It is my duty however to record this instance of generosity, and I do it with pleasure and with gratitude. It likewise proves that though my father by the fearless avowal of his opinions, created many enemies, yet that the honesty and independence of his conduct procured him many friends.
The first year’s subscription has been transmitted to America, to defray the expence of publishing his posthumous works.
In the year 1800 he was chiefly employed in experiments, and writing an account of them for variouspublications. In this year also he published his treatise in defence of Phlogiston, he revised his Church History, the two first volumes of which are now reprinted with considerable additions, and he added to and improved his Notes on the Scriptures.
He spent some time in the spring of 1801 in Philadelphia, during his stay there he had a violent attack of fever which weakened him exceedingly, and from the effects of which he never perfectly recovered. Added to this the fever and ague prevailed at Northumberland and the neighbourhood, for the first time since his settlement at the place. He had two or three attacks of this disorder; which though they were not very severe, as he had never more than three fits at a time, retarded his recovery very much. He perceived the effect of his illness in the diminution of his strength, and his not being able to take as much exercise as he used to do. His spirits however were good, and he was very assiduous in making experiments, chiefly on the pile of Volta, the result of which he sent an account of to Nicholson’s Journal and the Medical Repository.
In 1802 he began to print his Church History, in consequence of the subscription raised by his friendsin England as before stated. Besides printing three volumes of that work, he wrote and printed a treatise on Baptism, chiefly in answer to the observations of Mr. Robinson on the subject. He likewise made some experiments, and replied to some remarks of Mr. Cruikshank in defence of the Antiphlogistic theory.
I am now to describe the last scene of his life, which deserves the reader’s most serious consideration, as it shews the powerful effect of his religious principles. They made him, not resigned to quit a world in which he no longer had any delight, and in which no hope of future enjoyment presented itself, but chearful in the certainty of approaching dissolution, and under circumstances that would by the world in general have been considered as highly enviable. They led him to consider death as the labourer does sleep at night as being necessary to renew his mental and corporeal powers, and fit him for a future state of activity and happiness. For though since his illness in Philadelphia in 1801 he had never recovered his former good state of health, yet he had never been confined to his bed a whole day by sickness in America until within two days of hisdeath, and was never incapacitated for any pursuit that he had been accustomed to. He took great delight in his garden, and in viewing the little improvements going forward in and about the town. The rapidly increasing prosperity of the country, whether as it regarded its agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, or the increasing taste for science and literature, were all of them to him a source of the purest pleasure. For the last four years of his life he lived under an administration, the principles and practice of which he perfectly approved, and with Mr. Jefferson, the head of that administration, he frequently corresponded, and they had for each other a mutual regard and esteem. He enjoyed the esteem of the wisest and best men in the country, particularly at Philadelphia, where his religion and his politics did not prevent his being kindly and cheerfully received by great numbers of opposite opinions in both, who thus paid homage to his knowledge and virtue. At home he was beloved; and besides the advantages of an excellent library, to which he was continually making additions, and of a laboratory that was amply provided with every thing necessary for an experimental chemist,he was perfectly freed, as he had happily been through life, in consequence of my mother’s ability and attention, from any attention to worldly concerns; considering himself, as he used to express himself, merely as a lodger, having all his time to devote to his theological and philosophical pursuits. He had the satisfaction of witnessing the gradual spread of his religious opinions, and the fullest conviction that he should prevail over his opponents in chemistry. He looked forward with the greatest pleasure to future exertions in both these fields, and had within the last month or six weeks been projecting many improvements in his apparatus, which he meant to make use of upon the return of warm weather in the spring. Notwithstanding, therefore, the many trials he underwent in this country, he had still great sources of happiness left, unalloyed by any apprehension of any material defect in any of his senses, or any abatement of the vigour of his mind. Consistent with the above was his declaration that, excepting the want of the society of Mr. L, Mr. B. and two or three other particular friends, which however was made up to him, in some, though in a small degree by their regular correspondence, hehad never upon the whole spent any part of his life more happily, nor, he believed, more usefully.
The first part of his illness, independent of his general weakness, the result of his illness in Philadelphia in 1801, was a constant indigestion, and a difficulty of swallowing meat or any kind of solid food unless previously reduced by mastication to a perfect pulp. This gradually increased upon him till he could swallow liquids but very slowly, and led him to suspect, which he did to the last, that there must be some stoppage in the œsophagus. Latterly he lived almost entirely upon tea, chocolate, soups, sago, custard puddings, and the like. During all this time of general and increasing debility, he was busily employed in printing his Church History, and the first volume of the Notes on Scripture; and in making new and original experiments, an account of which he sent to the American Philosophical Society in two numbers, one in answer to Dr. Darwin’s observations on Spontaneous generation, and the other on the unexpected conversion of a quantity of the marine acid into the nitrous. During this period, likewise, he wrote his pamphlet of Jesus and Socrates compared, and re-printed hisEssay on Phlogiston. He would not suffer any one to do for him what he had been accustomed to do himself; nor did he alter his former mode of life in any respect, excepting that he no longer worked in his garden, and that he read more books of a miscellaneous nature than he had been used to do when he could work more in his laboratory, which had always served him as a relaxation from his other studies.
From about the beginning of November 1803, to the middle of January 1804, his complaint grew more serious. He was once incapable of swallowing any thing for near thirty hours; and there being some symptoms of inflammation at his stomach, blisters were applied, which afforded him relief; and by very great attention to his diet, riding out in a chair when the weather would permit, and living chiefly on the soft parts of oysters, he seemed if not gaining ground, at least not getting worse; and we had reason to hope that if he held out until spring as he was, the same attention to his diet with more exercise, which it was impossible for him to take on account of the cold weather, would restore him to health. He, however, considered his life as veryprecarious, and used to tell the physician who attended him, that if he could but patch him up for six months longer he should be perfectly satisfied, as he should in that time be able to complete printing his works. The swelling of his feet, an alarming symptom of general debility, began about this time.
To give some idea of the exertions he made even at this time, it is only necessary for me to say, that besides his miscellaneous reading, which was at all times very great, he read through all the works quoted in his comparison of the different systems of the Grecian Philosophers with christianity, composed that work, and transcribed the whole of it in less than three months. He took the precaution of transcribing one day in long hand what he had composed the day before in short hand, that he might by that means leave the work complete as far as it went, should he not live to complete the whole. During this period he composed in a day his second reply to Dr. Linn.
About this time he ceased performing divine service, which he said he had never before known himself incapable of performing, notwithstanding he hadbeen a preacher so many years. He likewise now suffered me to rake his fire, rub his feet with a flesh-brush, and occasionally help him to bed. In the mornings likewise he had his fire made for him, which he always used to do himself, and generally before any of the family was stirring.
In the last fortnight in January he was troubled with alarming fits of indigestion; his legs swelled nearly to his knees, and his weakness increased very much. I wrote for him, while he dictated, the concluding section of his New Comparison, and the Preface and Dedication. The finishing this work was a source of great satisfaction to him, as he considered it as a work of as much consequence as any he had ever undertaken. The first alarming symptom of approaching dissolution was his being unable to speak to me upon my entering his room on Tuesday morning the 31st of January. In his Diary I find he stated his situation as follows: “Ill all day—Not able to speak for near three hours.” When he was able to speak he told me he had slept well, as he uniformly had done through the whole of his illness; so that he never would suffer me, though I frequently requested he would do it, to sleep in thesame room with him; that he felt as well as possible; that he got up and shaved himself, which he never omitted doing every morning till within two days of his death; that he went to his laboratory, and then found his weakness very great; that he got back with difficulty; that just afterward his grand-daughter, a child of about six or seven years old, came to him to claim the fulfilment of a promise he had made her the evening before, to give her a fivepenny bit. He gave her the money, and was going to speak to her, but found himself unable. He informed me of this, speaking very slowly a word at a time; and added, that he had never felt more pleasantly in his whole life than he did during the time he was unable to speak. After he had taken his medicine, which was bark and laudanum, and drank a bason of strong mutton broth, he recovered surprizingly, and talked with cheerfulness to all who called upon him, but as though he was fully sensible that he had not long to live. He consented for the first time that I should sleep in the room with him.
On Wednesday, February 1, he writes, “I was at times much better in the morning: capable of some business: continued better all day.” Hespake this morning as strong as usual, and took in the course of the day a good deal of nourishment with pleasure. He said, that he felt a return of strength, and with it there was a duty to perform. He read a good deal in Newcome’s Translation of the New Testament, and Stevens’s History of the War. In the afternoon he gave me some directions how to proceed with the printing his work in case he should die. He gave me directions to stop the printing of the second volume, and to begin upon the third, that he might see how it was begun, and that it might serve as a pattern to me to proceed by.
On Thursday, the 2d, he wrote thus for the last time in his Diary: “Much worse: incapable of business: Mr. Kennedy came to receive instructions about printing in case of my death.” He sat up, however, a great part of the day, was cheerful, and gave Mr. Cooper and myself some directions, with the same composure as though he had only been about to leave home for a short time. Though it was fatiguing to him to talk, he read a good deal in the works above mentioned.
On Friday he was much better. He sat up agood part of the day reading Newcome; Dr. Disney’s Translation of the Psalms; and some chapters in the Greek Testament, which was his daily practice. He corrected a proof-sheet of the Notes on Isaiah. When he went to bed he was not so well: he had an idea he should not live another day. At prayer-time he wished to have the children kneel by his bedside, saying, it gave him great pleasure to see the little things kneel; and, thinking he possibly might not see them again, he gave them his blessing.
On Saturday, the 4th, my father got up for about an hour while his bed was made. He said he felt more comfortable in bed than up. He read a good deal, and looked over the first sheet of the third volume of the Notes, that he might see how we were likely to go on with it; and having examined the Greek and Hebrew quotations, and finding them right, he said he was satisfied we should finish the work very well. In the course of the day, he expressed his gratitude in being permitted to die quietly in his family, without pain, with every convenience and comfort he could wish for. He dwelt upon the peculiarly happy situation in which it had pleased the Divine Being to place him in life; and the great advantagehe had enjoyed in the acquaintance and friendship of some of the best and wisest men in the age in which he lived, and the satisfaction he derived from having led an useful as well as a happy life.
On Sunday he was much weaker, and only sat up in an armed chair while his bed was made. He desired me to read to him the eleventh chapter of John. I was going on to read to the end of the chapter, but he stopped me at the 45th verse. He dwelt for some time on the advantage he had derived from reading the scriptures daily, and advised me to do the same; saying, that it would prove to me, as it had done to him, a source of the purest pleasure. He desired me to reach him a pamphlet which was at his bed’s head, Simpson on the Duration of future Punishment. “It will be a source of satisfaction to you to read that pamphlet,” said he, giving it to me. “It contains my sentiments, and a belief in them will be a support to you in the most trying circumstances, as it has been to me. We shall all meet finally: we only require different degrees of discipline, suited to our different tempers, to prepare us for final happiness.” Upon Mr. —— coming into his room, he said, “You see, Sir, I am still living.”Mr. —— observed, he would always live. “Yes,” said he, “I believe I shall; and we shall all meet again in another and a better world.” He said this with great animation, laying hold on Mr. ——’s hand in both his.
Before prayers he desired me to reach him three publications, about which he would give me some directions next morning. His weakness would not permit him to do it at that time.
At prayers he had all the children brought to his bed-side as before. After prayers they wished him a good night, and were leaving the room. He desired them to stay, spoke to them each separately. He exhorted them all to continue to love each other. “And you, little thing,” speaking to Eliza, “remember the hymn you learned; ‘Birds in their little nests agree,’ &c. I am going to sleep as well as you: for death is only a good long sound sleep in the grave, and we shall meet again.” He congratulated us on the dispositions of our children; said it was a satisfaction to see them likely to turn out well; and continued for some time to express his confidence in a happy immortality, and in a future state, which would afford us an ample field for the exertion of our faculties.
On Monday morning, the 6th of February, after having lain perfectly still till four o’clock in the morning, he called to me, but in a fainter tone than usual, to give him some wine and tincture of bark. I asked him how he felt. He answered, he had no pain, but appeared fainting away gradually. About an hour after, he asked me for some chicken broth, of which he took a tea-cup full. His pulse was quick, weak, and fluttering, his breathing, though easy, short. About eight o’clock, he asked me to give him some egg and wine. After this he lay quite still till ten o’clock, when he desired me and Mr. Cooper to bring him the pamphlets we had looked out the evening before. He then dictated as clearly and distinctly as he had ever done in his life the additions and alterations he wished to have made in each. Mr. Cooper took down the substance of what he said, which, when he had done, I read to him. He said Mr. Cooper had put it in his own language; he wished it to be put in his. I then took a pen and ink to his bed-side. He then repeated over again, nearly word for word, what he had before said; and when I had done, I read it over to him. “That is right; I have now done.”About half an hour after he desired, in a faint voice, that we would move him from the bed on which he lay to a cot, that he might lie with his lower limbs horizontal, and his head upright. He died in about ten minutes after we had moved him, but breathed his last so easy, that neither myself or my wife, who were both sitting close to him, perceived it at the time. He had put his hand to his face, which prevented our observing it.
The above account, which conveys but a very inadequate idea of the composure and chearfulness of his last moments deserves the attention of unbelievers in general, particularly of Philosophical Unbelievers. They have known him to be zealous and active in the pursuit of Philosophical truths and to be ever ready to acknowledge any mistakes he may have fallen into. By the perusal of these Memoirs they have found that he gradually, and after much thought and reflection abandoned all those opinions which disgrace what is usually called christianity in the eyes of rational men and whose inconsistency with reason and common sense has most probably been the cause of their infidelity and of their total inattention to the evidences of christianity. These opinions he abandoned,because he could not find them supported either in the Scriptures or in the genuine writings of the early Christians. They must be sensible that the same desire for truth and the same fearless spirit of enquiry and the same courage in the open avowal of the most obnoxious tenets would have led him to have discarded religion altogether had he seen reason so to do, and there is little doubt but that he would have been subject to less obloquy by so doing than by exposing the various corruptions of christianity in the manner he did. They have seen however that in proportion as he attended to the subject his faith in christianity increased and produced that happy disposition of mind described in these Memoirs. The subject is therefore well deserving of their attention and they should be induced from so fair an example, and the weight due to my father’s opinions, to make themselves fully acquainted with the arguments in favour of christianity before they reject it as an idle fable.
Many unbelievers have, no doubt, borne with great patience severe calamities; they have suffered death with great fortitude when engaged in a good cause, and many have courted death to serve theirfriends or their country. It must however be allowed that there is no great merit in meeting death with fortitude when it cannot be avoided, and likewise that the above cases cannot be absolutely calculated upon, as there is no sufficient motive to account for their conduct. But upon a truly practical christian there is the greatest dependance to be placed for acting well in all the situations in which he may be found, his highest interest being connected with the performance of the greatest duties; and even supposing that many persons, who are not christians, from favourable circumstances attendant upon their birth and education, and from a naturally happy temperament of body and mind, may, and, it must be allowed do acquire a habit of disinterested benevolence and may in general be depended upon to act uniformly well in life, still the christian has a decided advantage over them in the hour of death, as to consider death as necessary to his entering upon a new and enlarged sphere of activity and enjoyment, is a privilege that belongs to him alone.