Memoirs of William Hazlitt
Ch. II: 1791-95
William Hazlitt to the editor of the Shrewsbury Chronicle [Summer] 1791
“Tis really surprising that men—men, too, that aspire
to the character of Christians—should seem to take such pleasure in
endeavouring to load with infamy one of the best, one of the wisest, and one of
the greatest of men.
“One of your late correspondents, under the signature
of ΟΥΔΕΙΣ, seems desirous of
having Dr. Priestley in ![]()
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chains, and indeed
would not perhaps (from the gentleman’s seemingly charitable disposition)
be greatly averse to seeing him in the flames also. This is the Christian! This
the mild spirit its great Master taught. Ah! Christianity, how art thou
debased! How am I grieved to see that universal benevolence, that love to all
mankind, that love even to our enemies, and that compassion for the failings of
our fellow-men that thou art contracted to promote, contracted and shrunk up
within the narrow limits that prejudice and bigotry mark out. But to
return;—supposing the gentleman’s end to be intentionally good, supposing
him indeed to desire all this, in order to extirpate the Doctor’s
supposedly impious and erroneous doctrines, and promote the cause of truth; yet
the means he would use are certainly wrong. For may I be allowed to remind him
of this (which prejudice has hitherto apparently prevented him from seeing),
that violence and force can never promote the cause of truth, but reason and
argument or love, and whenever these fail, all other means are vain and
ineffectual. And as the Doctor himself has said, in his letter to the
inhabitants of Birmingham, ‘that if they destroyed him, ten others
would arise, as able or abler than himself, and stand forth immediately to
defend his principles; and that were these destroyed, an hundred would
appear; for the God of truth will not suffer his cause to lie
defenceless.’
“This letter of the Doctor’s also, though it
throughout breathes the pure and genuine spirit of Christianity, is, by another
of your correspondents, charged with ![]()
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sedition and heresy; but, indeed,
if such sentiments as those which it contains be sedition and heresy, sedition
and heresy would be an honour; for all their sedition is that fortitude that
becomes the dignity of man and the character of Christian; and their heresy,
Christianity. The whole letter, indeed, far from being seditious, is peaceable
and charitable; and far from being heretical, that is, in the usual acceptance
of the word, furnishing proofs of that resignation so worthy of himself. And to
be sensible of this, ’tis only necessary, that any one laying aside
prejudice read the letter itself with candour. What, or who, then, is free from
the calumniating pen of malice, malice concealed, perhaps, under the specious
disguise of religion and a love of truth?
“Religious persecution is the bane of all religion;
and the friends of persecution are the worst enemies religion has; and of all
persecutions, that of calumny is the most intolerable. Any other kind of
persecution can affect our outward circumstances only, our properties, our
lives; but this may affect our characters for ever. And this great man has not
only had his goods spoiled, his habitation burned, and his life endangered, but
is also calumniated, aspersed with the most malicious reflections, and charged
with everything bad, for which a misrepresentation of the truth and prejudice
can give the least pretence. And why all this? To the shame of some one, let it
be replied, merely on account of particular speculative opinions, and not
anything scandalous, shameful, or criminal in his moral character.
‘Where I see,’ says the great and admirable Robinson, ![]()
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‘a spirit of intolerance, I think I
see the great Devil.’ And ’tis certainly the worst of devils. And
here I shall conclude, staying only to remind your anti-Priestlian
correspondents, that when they presume to attack the character of Dr. Priestley, they do not so much resemble
the wren pecking at the eagle, as the owl, attempting by the flap of her wings,
to hurl Mount Etna into the ocean; and that while Dr.
Priestley’s name ‘shall flourish in immortal
youth,’ and his memory be respected and revered by posterity,
prejudice no longer blinding the understandings of men, theirs will be
forgotten in obscurity, or only remembered as the friends of bigotry and
persecution, the most odious of all characters.
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)
Dissenting theologian, schoolmaster, and scientist; he was author of
The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments
(1767).
Anthony Robinson (1762-1827)
Educated at Bristol Baptist College, he was a sugar refiner and a Baptist minister before
becoming a Unitarian; a friend of Henry Crabb Robinson and William Hazlitt, he contributed
to the
Analytical Review and the
Monthly
Repository. His wife and daughter suffered from mental illness.
