PRICE PRIESTLEY. 



685 





1778. When Pitt became prime-minister, he con- 

 suited doctor Price, in his schemes for the reduction 

 of the national debt ; and the establishment of the 

 sinking fund was the result of his recommendation. 

 (See Sinking Fund.) At the commencement of the 

 French revolution, in a sermon (published in 1789) 

 On the Love of Country, he warmly expressed his 

 delight at the emancipation of the French people. 

 This discourse produced Burke's Reflections, in 

 which doctor Price was severely treated. He died 

 April 19, 1791. Besides many papers in the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society, of which he was a fel- 

 low, he published Sermons on the Christian Doc- 

 trine, as received by the different Denominations of 

 Christians (8vo ), and several single sermons and 

 political pamphlets. 



PRICE. See Value. 



PRICKLY PEAR. This term is frequently ap- 

 plied to various species of cactus, but more com- 

 monly to the C. opuntia, a fleshy and succulent 

 plant, destitute of leaves, covered with fasciculi of 

 spines, and consisting of flattened joints, inserted 

 upon each other. The flowers are pretty large, 

 yellow, having numerous petals and stamens. They 

 are succeeded by a purplish and edible fruit. 



PRIDEAUX, HUMPHREY, a learned English 

 divine, born in 1648, was educated at Oxford, and, 

 while at the university, published the ancient in- 

 scriptions from the Arundel marbles, under the title 

 of Marmora Oxoniensia. Lord chancellor Finch, 

 earl of Nottingham, gave him a prebend in Nor- 

 wich cathedral, and lord North bestowed on him 

 the rectory of Bladen, which, on taking the degree 

 of D. D., he exchanged for the benefice of Soham, 

 in Norfolk. He was subsequently promoted to the 

 archdeaconry of Suffolk, and, in 1702, made dean 

 of Norwich. His death took place November 1, 

 1724. Besides his great work entitled the Old and 

 New Testament connected in the History of the 

 Jews and neighbouring Nations, of which there are 

 many editions, he was the author of the Life of 

 Mohammed (8vo.) ; the Original and Right of 

 Tithes (8vo.) ; Ecclesiastical Tracts (8vo.), &c. 



PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH, an eminent philosopher 

 and divine, was born in March, 1733, at Fieldhead, 

 near Leeds. His father was a clothier, of the Cal- 

 vinistic persuasion, in which he was also himself 

 brought up, under the protection of an aunt, who, 

 after he had attained a respectable degree of clas- 

 sical acquirement in several schools of the neigh- 

 bourhood, finally placed him at the dissenting aca- 

 demy at Daventry, with a view to the ministry. 

 He spent three years at this school, when he became 

 acquainted with the writings of doctor Hartley, 

 which made a great impression upon his mind ; and 

 he was gradually led into a partiality for the Arian 

 hypothesis. On quitting the academy, he accepted 

 an invitation to become minister of Needham Mar- 

 ket, in Suffolk, when, being suspected of heretical 

 opinions, he received little encouragement ; and, 

 after a residence of three years, he undertook the 

 charge of a congregation at Namptwich, in Che- 

 shire, to which he joined a school. Here his repu- 

 tation increased; and, in 1761, he was invited by 

 the trustees of the dissenting academy at Warring- 

 ton to occupy the post of tutor in the languages. 

 At Warrington, his political opinions were mani- 

 fested in an Essay on Government. He also pub- 

 lished an Essay on a Course of Liberal Education, 

 and his useful Chart of Biography. A visit to 

 ' London having introduced him to doctors Franklin, 

 Watson and Price, he was encouraged to compose a 

 History of Electricity, which first appeared in 1767, 

 and procured him an admission into the royal so- 

 ciety ; he had previously obtained the title of doctor 



of laws from the university of Edinburgh. In the 

 same year, he accepted an invitation to preside 

 over a congregation at Leeds, where his religious 

 opinions became decidedly Sociuian. At Leeds his 

 attention was first drawn to the properties of fixed 

 air ; and here he also composed his History and 

 Present State of Discoveries relating to Vision, 

 Light, and Colours. After a residence of six years 

 at Leeds, he accepted an invitation from the earl of 

 Shelburne, afterwards marquis of Lansdowne, to 

 reside with him as a companion, in the nominal 

 capacity of librarian. While forming a part of the 

 establishment of this nobleman, he occupied himself 

 in scientific pursuits, and, in 1773, gave to the 

 Philosophical Transactions a paper on the different 

 kinds of air, which obtained the prize of Copley's 

 gold medal. This was followed by three volumes, 

 the publication of which forms an era in the history 

 of aeriform fluids. In 1775, he published his Ex- 

 amination of the Doctrine of Common Sense, as held 

 by doctors Reid, Beattie and Oswald, and soon af- 

 ter published the treatise of Hartley. He had al- 

 ready declared himself a believer in the doctrine of 

 philosophical necessity, and, in a dissertation an- 

 nexed to his edition of Hartley , expressed some 

 doubts of the immateriality of the sentient principle 

 in man. This doctrine he still more forcibly sup- 

 ported in his Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit 

 (1777) ; and the obloquy which these works brought 

 on him producing a coolness in his patron, the con- 

 nexion was dissolved, the doctor retaining an an- 

 nuity of 150 per annum, by original agree- 

 ment. He next removed to Birmingham, where he 

 became once more minister of a dissenting congre- 

 gation, and occupied himself in his History of the 

 Corruptions of Christianity, and History of the early 

 Opinions concerning Jesus Christ. His Familiar 

 Letter to the Inhabitants of Birmingham was writ- 

 ten in support of the claims of the dissenters for a 

 repeal of the test acts. The era of the French re- 

 volution added to the usual animosity of theological 

 dispute. The anniversary of the capture of the 

 Bastile being celebrated at Birmingham, a mob 

 assembled, and although doctor Priestley was not 

 present, proceeded to his house, which, with his 

 library, manuscripts and apparatus, fell a prey to 

 the flames. The outrage was countenanced by too 

 many exercising both lay and clerical influence, 

 and the legal compensation which he obtained fell 

 considerably short of his real losses. On quitting 

 Birmingham, he was chosen to succeed his friend 

 doctor Price at Hackney, where he remained some 

 time in the cultivation of his scientific pursuits, un- 

 til, finally, goaded by party enmity to seek an asylum 

 in the United States, which he reached in 1794, 

 and took up his residence at Northumberland, in 

 Pennsylvania. In America he dedicated his whole 

 time to his accustomed pursuits, until a severe ill- 

 ness laid the foundation of a debility in his digestive 

 organs ; and a gradual decay followed, which ter- 

 minated his existence, February 6, 1804, in his 

 seventy-first year. He had composed, not long be- 

 fore, his Jesus and Socrates compared. Doctor 

 Priestley was an ardent controversialist, chiefly in 

 consequence of extreme simplicity and openness of 

 character, but no man felt less animosity towards 

 his opponents than he did ; and many who enter- 

 tained the strongest antipathy to his opinions were 

 converted into friends by his gentleness and urbanity 

 in personal intercourse. As a man of science, he 

 stands high in the walk of invention and discovery; 

 and to no one has pneumatic chemistry been so 

 much indebted. As a metaphysician, his elucida- 

 tion of Hartley's theory of association, his works 

 upon philosophical necessity and upon materialism; 



