I JOSEPH PRIESTLEY 33 



knew that two of the old elemental bodies, air 

 and water, are compounds, and that a third, fire, 

 is not a substance but a motion. The great 

 industries that have grown out of the applica- 

 tions of modern scientific discoveries had no 

 existence, and the man who should have foretold 

 their coming into being in the days of his son, 

 would have been regarded as a mad enthusiast. 



In common with many other excellent persons, 

 Priestley believed that man is capable of reaching, 

 and will eventually attain, perfection. If the 

 temperature of space presented no obstacle, I 

 should be glad to entertain the same idea ; but 

 judging from the past progress of our species, I 

 am afraid that the globe will have cooled down 

 so far, before the advent of this natural millen- 

 nium, that we shall be, at best, perfected Esqui- 

 maux. For all practical purposes, however, it is 

 enough that man may visibly improve his condi- 

 tion in the course of a century or so. And, if the 

 picture of the state of things in Priestley's time, 

 which I have just drawn, have any pretence to 

 accuracy, I think it must be admitted that there 

 has been a considerable change for the better. 



I need not advert to the well-worn topic of 

 material advancement, in a place in which the 

 very stones testify to that progress in the town 

 of Watt and of Boulton. I will only remark, in 

 passing, that material advancement has its share 

 in moral and intellectual progress. Becky Sharp's 



