II 



Dr. ' 





P R I 



v. iih triumph to the revolution which had then 

 in 1 rancr. These observations exposed him to th<- 

 invectives of I5urke, in his Reflections on the 

 7i% solution in France. 



Dr. Price had lost his wife in 1786; and in 1-Y1>. 

 IT.'M. he had been seized with a fever, from which he 

 i ist recovering, when he was attacked with a 

 painful disorder, which had thrratened him for several 

 years. Of this attack he died, on the 19th March, 

 ] 7<)1 , in the 68 J) year of his age. 



HeMiIes the articles which we have mentioned, Dr. 

 Trice communicated to the Phil. Tranx. for 1770, a 

 paper On t/te Effects of the Aberration of Light on the 

 time of a Transit of Venus. In the .<ame work for 

 I 774, he printed a letter on the Insut<'lihj of Marshy 

 Situations ; and in the volume for 1775, lie published 

 his Observations on the Difference between the Duration 

 of Human Life in Towns and in Country Parishes and 

 Milages. His Short and Easy Theorems on Annuities 

 were printed in the Transactions for 1776. 



Few individuals have enjoyed greater celebrity than 

 Dr. Price, both for talents and personal character. His 

 nature was strongly marked with humility and unaf- 

 fected modesty. The philanthropy which distinguishes 

 his writings was exhibited in a practical form, by the 

 devotion of a fifth part of his annual income to chari- 

 table purposes. 



PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH, a celebrated English philo- 

 sopher and divine, was born at Field-head, about six 

 miles from Leeds, on the 24th March, 1773. His fa- 

 ther, Jonas Priestley, was a woollen manufacturer, and 

 a dissenter of the Calvinistic persuasion. An aunt, Mrs. 

 Keighly, by whom Joseph was early adopted, gave him 

 a good education at several schools in the neighbour- 

 hood ; and being intended for a dissenting clergyman, 

 he was sent, in 1752, to the academy at Daventry, 

 then kept by Dr. Ashworth, the successor of Dr. Dod- 

 dridge. After spending three years at this institution, 

 where he had imbibed the doctrines of Hartley, and 

 the principles of Arianism, he settled as a minister at 

 Needham Market, in Suffolk, in an obscure dissenting 

 meeting-house, where his income never exceeded L.30 

 per annum. After a residence of three years in that 

 situation, he undertook the charge of a congregation at 

 Nantwich, in Cheshire, where he superintended also 

 a school, teaching in public and in private about twelve 

 hours every day. In 1761 he published an English 

 Grammar, which was his first work ; and, in the same 

 year, he was called by the trustees of the academy at 

 Warrington to the situation of tutor in the languages. 

 In this situation he continued for six years, engaged in 

 the occupation of teaching, and in various literary and 

 scientific pursuits. His History of Electricity, which 

 he published in 1767, in one volume 4to. and which he 

 dedicated to the Earl of Morton, the president of the 

 Royal Society, first brought him into notice as an 

 experimental philosopher. This work passed through 

 several editions, and was translated into several foreign 

 languages. While he was engaged in this work, he 

 received the degree of LL. D. from the university of 

 Edinburgh ; and on the 12th June, 1766, he was elect- 

 ed a member of the Royal Society of London. 



During his residence at Warrington, Dr. Priestley 

 married the daughter of Mr. Isaac Wilkinson, an iron- 

 master in Wales, by whom he had a family. Thus com- 

 fortably settled, though with the small income of L.100 

 per annum, and L.I 5 for each boarder, Dr. Priestley de- 

 voted himself tothe labours of literature; but a difference 



VOL. XVII. FART I. 



15,3 



P R I 



having arisen !>etween Dr. Taylor and the trustees of Pritty, 

 the academy, in which the other teacher* were neces- 

 sarily involved, Dr. Prientley was induced to accept an *"" " v "" 1 

 invitation to Mill-hill chapel, Leeds, where he went 

 in 1767. In this new situation, the accidental prox- 

 imity of a brewery directed Dr. Priestley's attention, in 

 1 7"8, to the subject of pneumatic chemistry, which he 

 afterwards prosecuted with such distinguished success. 

 II'- invented the apparatus still used by chemists in 

 this branch of their science. 



In 1772. he published a pamphlet on the method of 

 impregnating water with fixed air, and on the prepara- 

 tion and medicinal uses of artificial mineral waters. In 

 the same year, he read to the Royal Socii-ty his Obter- 

 vationt on different kinds of air, for which he obtained 

 the Copley medal, " the palm and laurel of the Roy- 

 al Society," as Sir John Pringle denominated it in pre- 

 senting it to Dr. Priestley. 



The success of his Hitlory of Electricity, induced 

 pur author to conceive the extensive design of print- 

 ing a similar historical account of the other sciences. 

 He accordingly published in 1772, in one volume 4to. 

 when he was in Leeds, his History and Present State of 

 Discoveries relating to Vision, Light, and Colour t, a work 

 which, though both instructive and amusing, contains 

 but a very superficial history of optical discovery, and 

 is obviously written by one whose acquaintance with 

 that science was very limited and imperfect. The sale 

 of this book did not answer the expectations of its au- 

 thor, and indeed does not seem to have defrayed its 

 expences. 



In the year 1773, the Earl of Shelburne, afterwards 

 Marquis of Lansdowne, was induced, by a recom- 

 mendation from Dr. Price, to engage Dr. Priestley as 

 a librarian and literary Companion, with a salary of 

 L.250 a year and a house. He accordingly took up 

 his residence at Colne, near his Lordship's seat in Wilt- 

 shire, and during seven years he continued in that si- 

 tuation, attending Lord Shelburne during his resi- 

 dence in London. In 177*, he accompanied his Lord- 

 ship abroad, and travelled with him through Holland, 

 France, and part of Germany. 



While he was living with Lord Shelburne, he brought 

 out the first three volumes of his Experiments on Air, 

 and he collected the materials for a fourth volume, 

 which was published after his removal to Birming- 

 ham. 



The pursuits of experimental chemistry did not pre- 

 vent our author from directing his attention to his fa- 

 vourite subject of metaphysics. In 1 775, he published 

 his Examination of the Doctrine of Common Sense, 

 as held by Drs. Reid, Beattie, and Oswald ; a book 

 which he assures us was written in a fortnight. Hav- 

 ing become a convert to materialism, he published, 

 in 1777, his Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit, in 

 which that system is openly supported. This work 

 was followed by A defence of Unitarianism, or the sim- 

 ple Humanity of Christ, and of the Doctrine of Ne- 

 cessity ; and it has been thought probable, that the 

 odium which these works entailed upon the author, 

 was the ground of a coolness on the part of Lord Shel- 

 burne, which led to the dissolution of their connexion. 

 Dr: Priestley retained an annuity of L.I SO for life ; and 

 it has been said that when the bond was burnt during 

 the riots at Birmingham, his Lordship transmitted to 

 him another. The cause of his separation from Lord 

 Shelburne is not known. One of his biographers, how- 

 ever, states that Lord Shelburne declined receiving ay 



