APPOINTED PROFESSOR: STUDIES IN PHILADELPHIA. 109 



tianity than you or I do." " Speak for yourself, sir," I re- 

 plied ; " for, although I am accounted a heretic in P^ngland, 

 I do believe what you call this mummery of Christianity.'" 

 Dr. Priestley, whom I saw on various occasions, when in- 

 vited to dine, accepted the invitation, but took out his 

 memorandum-book and noted the engagement, remarking 

 that he had now only an artificial memory. He died in his 

 seventy-first year, at Northumberland, February 6th, 180i. 

 After rejecting the doctrine of Phlogiston in early years, 

 he resumed it at a later period of life ; and it was reported 

 at Philadelphia that he was occupied on his death-bed in 

 correcting the proof of a new pamphlet on that subject 

 He died from inanition, being unable to take any food, 

 his digestive powers being gone. 



Summer of 1803, at New Haven. On my return to New 

 Haven in March, 1803, I resumed the instruction of a class 

 in the ordinary routine of college studies. I had pre- 

 viously, in conjunction with my respected colleague and 

 friend, Rev. Ebenezer Grant Marsh, carried a class through 

 the three years from 1799 to 1802. In the fourth year 

 the class passed into the hands of the President, and was 

 graduated in 1803. I ought to have been released from all 

 other duties of instruction, that I might devote my time 

 entirely to professional study ; but the College was poor, 

 and it was necessary to economize in the labor of the offi- 

 cers, as well as in all other ways. Still, I found time to 

 perform some experiments, and to construct apparatus 

 which would be available in my future labors. I devoted 

 as much time as possible to scientific studies, and was thus 

 the better prepared to resume my residence in Philadel- 

 phia during the next winter. 



Brief Residence in Princeton. At this celebrated seat of 

 learning, an eminent gentleman, Dr. John Maclean, resided 

 as the Professor of Chemistry, &c. I early attained an 



