that is in us," we ought not to be offended with those who invite us to exercise our best faculties on the ground of natural and revealed religion,-on whatever can interest us as inhabitants of this world, and as expectants of a life to come.

We have hazarded these observations as introductory to the notice of a man whose labours have excited the most violent prejudices, who met with hard treatment from his countrymen, and who, being now removed from this scene of contention, calls on posterity fairly and candidly to appreciate his character. A time will come, (says he,) when they will do me justice.'

Joseph Priestley, the son of a maker and dresser of woollen cloth, was born, March 13, (O.S.) 1733, at Fieldhead, six miles south-west of Leeds in Yorkshire; he obtained the usual education of a regular Dissenting Minister, and first settled at Needham Market, Suffolk, with a small congregation, on the petty salary of £30 a year. Though the first principles instilled into him. were Calvinistic, his mind soon took an heterodox turn; and his early labours in the ministry were far from being popular. He tells us that he felt at Needham the results of a low des- . pised situation; yet while he comments on the neglects which he experienced at this period of his obscurity, he mentions with apparent satisfaction the effects of his subsequent popu larity on those who formerly refused to hear him. Visiting that country some years afterwards, when I had raised myself to some degree of notice in the world, and being invited to preach in that very pulpit, the same people crowded to hear me, though my elocution was not much improved, and they professed to admire one of the same discourses they had formerly despised.' We believe this to be a very common case.

At Needham, Mr. P. endeavoured to add to the scantiness of his income by undertaking the task of a schoolmaster, but without effect, since his learning could not here atone for his heterodoxy. When, however, he afterward removed to Nantwich in Cheshire, the plan of a school was adopted with success. From this place he was invited to Warrington, to become a tutor in the Academy or College instituted in that town; and during his residence in this situation, he not only increased the stock of his knowlege, but consulted the enlargement of his comforts by taking to himself a wife peculiarly adapted to a studious husband. This proved (says he) a very suitable and happy connection, my wife being a woman of an excellent understanding, much improved by reading, of great fortitude. and strength of mind, and of a temper in the highest degree affectionate and generous; feeling strongly for others, and little for herself. Also, greatly excelling in every thing relating

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to household affairs, she entirely relieved me of all concern of that kind, which allowed me to give all my time to the prosecution of my studies, and the other duties of my station.'

During his continuance at Warrington, the memorialist published, among other works, his History of Electricity, and his Chart of Biography; the last of which procured for him the title of LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh, and the former introduced him into the Royal Society. Though we are not presented with any composition in verse, Dr. P. informs us that he occasionally indulged himself in making rhymes; and that, if he never attained to the rank of a poet, his verses had at least the good fortune of inducing Mrs. Barbauld (then Miss Aikin) to cultivate the Muses. From Warrington, he removed to Leeds; where he continued his theological and philosophical pursuits. It was at this period of his life that he became a Socinian, in consequence of his having read Dr. Lardner's Letter on the Logos; and that he wrote his first pamphlet on Fixed Air, which was soon followed by his Experiments an Air, published in the Philosophical Transactions, for which he received the Copley Medal.

Having by his friend Dr. Price been recommended to the Earl of Shelburne, afterward Marquis of Lansdowne, Dr. Priestley left Leeds in order to form a part of the establishment of that nobleman, on a salary of 250k, per annum, and a residence. With Lord Shelburne he visited the continent; and his observations on the philosophers whom he encountered at Paris, in the year 1774, merit particular notice:

As I was sufficiently apprized of the fact, I did not wonder, as I otherwise should have done, to find all the philosophical persons to whom I was introduced at Paris unbelievers in christianity, and even professed Atheists. As I chose on all occasions to appear as a christian, I was told by some of them, that I was the only person they had ever met with, of whose understanding they had any opinion, who professed to believe christianity. But on interrogating them on the subject, I soon found that they had given no proper attention to it, and did not really know what christianity was. This was also the case with a great part of the company that I saw at Lord Shelburne's. But I hope that my always avowing myself to be a christian, and holding myself ready on all occasions to defend the genuine principles of it, was not without its use. Having conversed so much with unbelievers at home and abroad, I thought I should be able to combat their prejudices with some advantages, and with this view I wrote, while I was with Lord Shelburne, the first part of my Letters to a philosophical unbeliever, in proof of the doctrines of a God and a providence.'

Various other works were published by Dr. P. while he remained in the family of this nobleman; but the connection

was

was not of long continuance; and it appears by the remarks made after its dissolution, that the philosopher derived as little satisfaction from it as the peer:

Reflecting on the time that I spent with Lord Shelburne, being as a guest in the family, I can truly say that I was not at all fascinated with that mode of life. Instead of looking back upon it with regret, one of the greatest subjects of my present thankfulness is the change of that situation for the one in which I am now placed; and yet I was far from being unhappy there, much less so than those who are born to such a state, and pass all their lives in it. These are generally unhappy from the want of necessary employment, on which account chiefly there appears to be much more happiness in the middle classes of life, who are above the fear of want, and yet have a sufficient motive for a constant exertion of their faculties; and who have always some other object besides amusement.

I used to make no scruple of maintaining, that there is not only most virtue, and most happiness, but even most true politeness in the middle classes of life. For in proportion as men pass more of their time in the society of their equals, they get a better established habit of governing their tempers; they attend more to the feelings of others, and are more disposed to accommodate themselves to them. On the other hand, the passions of persons in higher life, having been less controlled, are more apt to be inflamed; the idea of their rank and superiority to others seldom quits them; and though they are in the habit of concealing their feelings, and disguising their passions, it is not always so well done, but that persons of ordinary discernment may perceive what they inwardly suffer. On this account, they are really intitled to compassion, it being the almost unavoidable consequence of their education and mode of life.'

The next era in Dr. Priestley's history was his settlement at Birmingham; where, till the period of the riots, he spent his time much to his satisfaction: but where, in consequence of the great freedom of his theological writings, a scene of affliction was preparing for him, which must remain an indelible stain on the liberality of this country, at the conclusion of the eighteenth century. We wish that we could draw a veil over this part of the memoir; for no controversial indiscretion, or even violence, on the part of Dr. P., could authorize the method which his enemies took to silence him. He may not be justified in asserting that the friends of the court, if not the prime ministers themselves, were the favourers of the riot: but the ministers of the king did not consult the honour of the nation, by omitting to extend to this philosophic sufferer the most ample indemnification: especially as the sum awarded him at the Warwick Assizes was very inadequate to his loss. So unpopular was he become, chiefly on the score of his Unitarian publicafions, that London scarcely afforded him a refuge; and after having meditated to settle at Hackney, where

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he had been invited to succeed his late friend Dr. Price, he deemed it expedient to seek an asylum in the American States. He felt, however, some difficulty in renouncing his country; and he subjoins some reasons which, in addition to those previously given in the preface to his Fast sermon, ultimately induced him to take this step:

The bigotry of the country in general made it impossible for me to place my sons in it to any advantage. William had been some time in France, and on the breaking out of the troubles in that country he had embarked for America, where his two brothers met him. My own situation, if not hazardous, was become unpleasant, so that I thought my removal would be of more service to the cause of truth than my longer stay in England. At length, therefore, with the approbation of all my friends without exception, but with great reluctance on my own part, I came to that resolution; I being at a time of life in which i could not expect much satisfaction as to friends and society, comparable to that which I left, in which the resumption of my philosophical pursuits must be attended with great disadvantage, and in which success in my still more favourite pursuit,. the propagation of Unitarianism, was still more uncertain.'

Even at sea, Dr. Priestley's pen was not idle; and under all the difficulties which he encountered in America, he contrived to write several valuable publications, particularly the conclusion of his History of the Christian Church. The memoirs, as composed by himself, are dated Northumberland, March 24, 1795, when he completed the 62d year of his age.

This memoir, which is written in a plain and unaffected manner, enumerates the friends with whom Dr. P. was intimate, the pecuniary kindnesses which he received, and the works which he sent to the press but in our abstract it was impossible for us to descend to all these particulars. In the continuation, by his son, we are presented with a view of Dr. Priestley's life from the time of his leaving England, in April, 1794, to his death, Feb. 6, 1804. It is the object of the son to vindicate the memory of his father against the insinuations of enemies; and particularly to counteract the report industriously circulated in England, that Dr. P.'s abilities were undervalued in America. For this purpose, we are informed of the attentions which were paid to the Doctor on his first arrival in that country, and the marks of respect which he continued to receive from individuals and bodies of men: but it is certain that he did not meet with any success in the propagation of Unitarianism, since his congregation at Northumberland never exceeded thirty persons; and he never solicited to be naturalized, resolving to die as he had been born,

an

an Englishman. Whatever objections may be made to the articles of Dr. P.'s creed, no man ever displayed a firmer faith in the perfect providence of God, or met death with a more cheerful hope in a future resurrection.

Subjoined to the Memoirs are five Appendices, containing distinct dissertations on Dr. Priestley's discoveries in Chemistry; on his metaphysical, political, and miscellaneous writings; and a summary of his religious opinions. In these Essays, we are invited to consider the prominent features of his life, and to review his principles as a philosopher, metaphysician, politician, and theologian.

The account of Dr. P.'s experiments on factitious Airs is prefaced by a display of the previous discoveries of Mayow; who knew how to make artificial air from nitrous acid and iron, but all the extraordinary properties of this gas remained unobserved by him as well as by others, until collected and imprisoned by Dr. Priestley, and exposed to the question under his scrutinizing eye. Indeed, as an experimentalist, Dr. Priestley stands unrivalled.'-'In the short period of two years, Dr. P. announced to the world more facts of real importance, and extensive application, and more enlarged and extensive views of the occonomy of nature, than all his predecessors in Pneumatic Chemistry had made known before.' The writer attempts, at the end of this appendix, to prop Dr. P.'s discarded theory of Phlogiston: but the advocate seems himself to despair of success.

The second appendix includes a long examination of Dr. Priestley's two Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit and on Philosophical Necessity; in the former of which the mechanism of the mind is asserted, and in the latter the doctrine of Necessity. Here the reporter warmly espouses the tenets of his author, and seems to treat those who hold the doctrine of a soul with no little contempt. We are told, towards the conclusion, that the time seems to have arrived, when the separate existence of the human soul, the freedom of the will, and the eternal duration of future punishment, like the docrines of the Trinity, and Transubstantiation, may be regarded as no longer entitled to public discussion.' What a short way of settling two of the most perplexing controversies!

This essayist subjoins his notion of the true way of studying M taphysics: For my own part, I am persuaded that no Theory of the mind can be satisfactory, which is not founded on the history of the Body. I know of no legitimate passport to Metaphysics but Physiology.' We agree with him that Physiology is certainly an excellent hand-maid to Metaphysics.

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