New York, where he was welcomed by the Philosophical Soci
ety with arms outstretched to take' him into their fold. A
sum of one thousand dollars was raised in New York for a
course of ten lectures, a chair was offered to him by the Uni
,versity of Pennsylvania, but spurning- all offers he journeyed
on to Northumberland, Pennsylvania, to spend the rest of
his days in peace with his son. Thus “like the eag-le he
built his eyry upon the mountain top, inaccessible to vulg-ar
intrusion. In the pure atmosphere he dwelt n„t above hu
man spite, jealousy, and detraction but above their annoy
ances. The shafts of big-ots and fools were aimed at him
but they could not penetrate that triple armor which Philoso
phy, Enthusiasm and Truth had thrown around him.” As
he was the friend of the most noted men so he soon made
friends of America’s brig-htest intellectual lig-lits. The great
idea of his life in America was the establishment of a uni
versity at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, in accord with
his views ol education. Never tiring-, never ceasing", he
worked on until the last day of his life, his last wish being
that he might be spared but a six months longer in order
that he might complete an unfinished work. On the morn
ing of the sixth of February, eighteen hundred and four, he
dictated an alteration in a pamphlet his son read to him and
then with the remarks “That is right” and “I have now
done,” he passed away in deep and conscious communion
with his God, to be laid away, one of the great majority, in
the little country cemetery at Northumberland, where
naught but a block of marble marks the resting place of this
illustrious one.
Such was the life of Priestley, the theologian and poli
tician, and were we to call back into the dead past and ask
of Priestley which of his life’s labors and works he would de
sire us most to honor, back would come the answer in tones
ringing with confidence and faith, “My religious works.”
To-day, however, it is not his religious nor political works