10 Dr Henry's Estimate of 



confirmed, his own views and results. Every hint which he 

 had derived from the writings or conversation of others was un- 

 reservedly acknowledged. As the best way of accelerating the 

 progress of science, he recommended and practised the early 

 publication of all discoveries ; though quite aware that, in his 

 own case, more durable fame would often have resulted from a 

 delayed and more finished performance. " Those persons," he 

 remarks, " are very properly disappointed, who, for the sake of a 

 little more reputation, delay publishing their discoveries till 

 they are anticipated by others." 



In perfect consistency with that liberality of temper which 

 has been ascribed to Dr Priestley, it may be remarked also, that 

 he took the most enlarged views of the scope and objects of Na- 

 tural Science. In various passages of his works he has enforced, 

 with warm and impressive eloquence, the considerations that 

 flow from the contemplation of those arrangements in the na« 

 tural world, which are not only perfect in themselves, but are 

 essential parts of one grand and harmonious design. He strenu- 

 ously recommends experimental philosophy as an agreeable re- 

 lief from employments that excite the feelings or overstrain the 

 attention ; and he proposes it to the young, the high-born, and 

 the affluent, as a source of pleasure unalloyed with the anxieties 

 and agitations of public life. He regarded the benefits of its 

 investigations, not merely as issuing in the acquirement of new 

 facts, however striking and valuable ; nor yet in the deduction 

 of general principles, however sound and important ; but as 

 having a necessary tendency to increase the intellectual power 

 and energy of man, and to exalt human nature to the highest 

 dignity of which it is susceptible. The springs of such in- 

 quiries he represents as inexhaustible ; and the prospects, that 

 may be gained by successive advances in knowledge, as in them- 

 selves " truly sublime and glorious.*" 



Into our estimate of the intellectual character of an indivi- 

 dual, the extent and the comprehensiveness of his studies must 

 always enter as an essential element. Of Dr Priestley it may 

 be justly affirmed, that few men have taken a wider range over 

 the vast and diversified field of human knowledge. In devo- 

 ting, through the greater part of his life, a large portion of his 

 attention to theological pursuits, he fulfilled, what he strongly 



