Dr. Henry on the Philosophical Character of Dr. Priestley. 215 



the most generous motives, be pursued it with an entire dis- 

 reo-ard to his own peculiar interests. He neither sought, nor 

 accepted when offered, any pecuniary aid in his philosophical 

 pursuits that did not leave him in possession of the most 

 complete independence of thought and of action. Free from 

 all little jealousies of contemporaries or rivals, he earnestly 

 invited other labourers into the field which he was cultivating; 

 (rave publicity, in his own volumes, to their experiments ; and, 

 with true candour, was as ready to record the evidence which 

 contradicted, as that which confirmed, his own views and re- 

 sults. Every hint which he had derived from the writings 

 or conversation of others, was unreservedly acknowledged. 

 As the best way of accelerating the progress of science, he 

 recommended and practised the early publication of all dis- 

 coveries; 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 Natural Science. In various passages of his works he has 

 enforced, with warm and impressive eloquence, the considera- 

 tions that flow from the contemplation of those arrangements 

 in the natural world, which are not only perfect in themselves, 

 but are essential parts of one grand and harmonious design. 

 He strenuously recommends experimental philosophy as an 

 a<neeable relief 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 inquiries he represents as inexhaustible ; and 

 the prospects that may be gained by successive advances m 

 knowledge, as in themselves " truly sublime and glorious." 



Into our estimate of the intellectual character of an indivi- 

 dual, the extent and the compreliensiveness of his studies must 

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

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

 •' ^ the 



