u--restore you to every domestic and philosophical enjoyment,
prosper you in every undertaking, beneficial to mankind, render
you, as you have been to your own, the ornament of this country,
and crown you at last with immortal felicity and honour.

And to this the venerable scientist was pleased to say:

Gentlemen,

I think myself greatly honoured, flying as I do, from ill
treatment in my native country, on account of my attachment to the
cause of civil and religious liberty, to be received with the
congratulations of "a Society of Freemen associated to cultivate
the love of liberty, and the enjoyment of a happy Republican
government." Happy would our venerable ancestors, as you justly
call them, have been, to have found America such a retreat for
them as it is to me, when they were driven hither; but happy has
it proved to me, and happy will it be for the world, that in the
wise and benevolent order of Providence, abuses of power are ever
destructive of itself, and favourable to liberty. Their strenuous
exertions and yours now give me that asylum which at my time of
life is peculiarly grateful to me, who only wish to continue
unmolested those pursuits of various literature to which, without
having ever entered into any political connexions my life has been
devoted.

I join you in viewing with regret the unfavourable prospect of
Great Britain formerly, as you say, the nurse of science, and of
freemen, and wish with you, that the unhappy delusion that country
is now under may soon vanish, and that whatever be the form of its
government it may vie with this country in everything that is
favourable to the best interests of mankind, and join with you in
removing that only disgraceful circumstance, which you justly
acknowledge to be an exception to the enjoyment of equal liberty,
among yourselves. That the Great Being whose providence extends
alike to all the human race, and to whose disposal I cheerfully
commit myself, may establish whatever is good, and remove whatever
is imperfect from your government and from every government in
the known world, is the earnest prayer of,

Gentlemen,

Your respectful humble servant.

As Priestley had ever gloried in the fact that he was a teacher, what
more appropriate in this perio