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LAVOISIER. 



IN the Lives of Black, Priestley, Watt, and Cavendish, 

 it has been necessary to mention the claims of Lavoisier, 

 first as a competitor with the great philosophers of the 

 age for the honour of their discoveries, yet as an in- 

 truder among them by his attempts to show that he had 

 himself, though unknown to them and ignorant of their 

 inquiries, made the same steps nearly at the same. time. 

 The history of that great man, which we are now to 

 consider, will enable us to perceive clearly the evidence 

 upon which the charge rests, both the proof of his having 

 preferred those claims, and the proof that they were 

 groundless. But it will also enable us to perceive how 

 vast his real merits were, and how much remained his 

 own of the discoveries which have built up the science 

 of modern chemistry, even after all those plumes have 

 been stript away that belonged to others. 



It is a very great error to suppose that the truths of 

 philosophy are alone important to be learnt by its stu- 

 dents; that provided these truths are taught, it signifies 

 little when or by whom or by what steps they were dis- 

 covered. The history of science, of the stages by which 

 its advances have been made, of the relative merits by 

 which each of our teachers was successively made 

 famous, is of an importance far beyond its being sub- 

 servient to the gratification even of an enlightened 

 and learned curiosity. It is eminently calculated to 

 further the progress which it records; it conveys pecu- 

 liarly clear and discriminating ideas upon the doctrines 

 taught, and the proofs they rest on; it suggests new 

 inquiries, and encourages the prosecuting of new re- 



