The Free Lance.
“His good blade carves the casques of men, for the Free Lance
thrusteth sure."
Vol. XIV.
JOSEPH PRIESTLEY.
AT a time wlien all England was rent and torn with
political struggles and religious dissension, when
to stand for what was right and just was to incur
the displeasure and disapproval of one’s countryman, there
was born in the home of an humble clothier, Jonas Priestley,
in the West Riding, Yorkshire, England, on March the
thirteenth, seventeen hundred and thirty-three, a boy who
was destined to astonish the world with his works and who
was to write his name indelibly on the highest pinnacle of
fame. No boy ever started on the broad pathway of human
toil and trouble with a less brilliant outlook than did Joseph
Priestley. But, though his early home life lacked the ad
vantages of the nobler born, yet there was in that quiet, re
ligious home that which has been the guiding star, the bea
con upon the mountain top to many beautiful and majestic
characters, —the ever watchful eye of a devout mother’s love
and the manly sacrificing example of a religious father.
Here in this humble home among the hills of Yorkshire was
instilled into Joseph a love of truth and right and here lie
chose his life’s motto, “Fight for Truth and Right.”
Eager for enlightenment and chafing under the disad-
OCTOBER, 1900.
(Senior Oration .)
No. 4.