the Philosophical Character ofDr Priestley. 11 



felt to be his primary duty as a minister of religion. This is 

 not the fit occasion to pronounce an opinion of the fruits of 

 those inquiries, related as they are to topics which still con- 

 tinue to be agitated as matters of earnest controversy. In 

 Ethics, in Metaphysics, in the philosophy of Language and in 

 that of General History, he expatiated largely. He has given 

 particular histories of the Sciences of Electricity and of Optics, 

 characterized by strict impartiality, and by great perspicuity of 

 language and arrangement. Of the mathematics, he appears 

 to have had only a general or elementary knowledge ; nor, per- 

 haps, did the original qualities, or acquired habits, of his mind 

 fit him to excel in the exact sciences. On the whole, though 

 Dr Priestley may have been surpassed by many, in vigour of 

 understanding and capacity for profound research, yet it would 

 be difficult to produce an instance of a writer more eminent 

 for the variety and versatility of his talents, or more meritorious 

 for their zealous, unwearied, and productive employment. 



APPENDIX. 



Since the foregoing pages were written, I have added a few 

 remarks on a passage contained in a recent work of Victor 

 Cousin, in which that writer has committed a material error as 

 to the origin of Dr Priestley''s philosophical discoveries. " La 

 chimie,"" he observes, " est une creation du dixhuitieme siecle, 

 une creation de la France ; c'est TEurope entiere qui a appele 

 chimie Fran^aise le mouvement qui a imprime a cette belle sci- 

 ence une impulsion si forte et une* direction si sage ; c''est k 

 Texemple et sur les traces de Lavoisier, de Guyton, de Four- 

 croy, de Berthollet, de Vauquelin, qui se sont formes et que 

 marchent encore les grands chimistes etrangers, ici l^riestley et 

 Davy ; 1^ Klaproth et Berzelius."** (Cours de PHistoire de la 

 Philosophic, tom i. p. 25.) 



It is to be lamented that so enlightened a writer as Victor 

 Cousin, yielding, in this instance, to the seduction of national 

 vanity, should have advanced pretensions in behalf of his 

 countrymen, which have no foundation in truth or justice. No- 

 thing can be more absurd or unprofitable than to claim honours 



