Biographical Memoir ofDr Priestley. 



illustrious from their birth or merit, who would not leave Eng- 

 land without becoming acquainted with so great a man ; — it was 

 there that, for eleven years, he divided his time between the study 

 of the sciences, the instruction of youth, and the exercise of chari- 

 ty, the principal duty of his ministry. It possessed but a single 

 ornament, but that ornament was invaluable, — the immense col- 

 lection of instruments, many of them invented and constructed 

 by himself, the focus whence had issued so many new truths, 

 so many discoveries that had been useful to these madmen 

 themselves, for they were almost all labouring people from Bir- 

 mingham ; and, among the numerous manufactures of that city, 

 there was scarcely one that did not owe some improvement in 

 its processes to the discoveries of Priestley. But of what avail 

 is gratitude against party spirit ? Besides, what do the popu- 

 lace know of such services ? Every thing was crushed into 

 dust ; the preparations that had been in trial for several months, 

 and that were to resolve important questions, were destroyed ; 

 the registers of observations kept for several years were com- 

 mitted to the flames ; various works that were in progress, a 

 considerable library, containing notes, additions, and commen- 

 taries, underwent the same fate. In a few moments the whole 

 house was burnt, or rased to the ground. 



What an appalling moment ! an old man, almost seventy, 

 witnessing the destruction in a moment of what fifty years of 

 unremitting assiduity, and an economy of every day-— of every 

 minute — ^had with so much labour procured him : not his mo- 

 derate fortune, that was nothing ; but the work of his hands, 

 the conceptions of his mind, all that he still retained of ideas 

 and experiments for the meditations of the rest of his life ! His 

 family, who had removed him to some distance on the ap- 

 proach of the mob, actually tore him away from this horrible 

 spectacle. 



The insurrection lasted three days, and the houses of his 

 friends experienced the same fate as his own. As is usual, it 

 was the victims that were accused, and the journals did not fail 

 to announce that among Priestley's papers were found the 

 proofs of a grand conspiracy. This calumny was sufficiently 

 refuted by his subsequent residence, during two years, near 



