158 PRIESTLY. 



never afterwards improved it by any systematic course of study. 

 Even in chemistry, the science which he best knew, and in which 

 he made so important a figure, he was only half-taught, so that he 

 presents one of the memorable examples of knowledge pursued, 

 science cultivated, and even its bounds extended, by those whose 

 circumstances made their exertions a continued struggle against 

 difficulties which only genius like theirs could have overcome. 

 After studying for some years at the Dissenting Academy founded 

 by Mr. Coward at Daventry (afterwards transferred to London), 

 Priestly quitted Daventry and became minister of a congregation 

 at Needham Market, in Suifolk, where his salary never exceeded 

 thirty pounds. He had been brought up in the strictest Calvinistic 

 principles, but he very soon abandoned these, and his tenets con- 

 tinued in after life to be those of the moderate Unitarians, whose 

 leading doctrine is the proper humanity of Christ, and who confine 

 all adoration to one Supreme Being. Priestly's religious opinions 

 proving distasteful to his congregation at Needham Market, caused 

 him to remove in 1758 to Nantwich, in Cheshire, where he obtained 

 a considerable number of pupils, which greatly increased his income 

 and enabled him by strict frugality to purchase a scanty scientific 

 apparatus, and commence a study of natural philosophy. In 1761, 

 Priestly removed to Warrington, where he was chosen to succeed 

 Dr. Aitken as tutor in the belles lettres at that academy. On settling 

 at Warrington he married the daughter of Mr. Wilkinson, an iron- 

 master in Wales, by whom he had several children. His literary 

 career may be said to have commenced here, and having once begun 

 to publish, his appeals to the press were incessant and on almost 

 every subject. The universality and originality of his pursuits may 

 be judged from his delivering at Wavrington a course of lectures on 

 anatomy, while his published works during the next seven or eight 

 years comprise : ' The Theory of Language and Universal Gram- 

 mar,' 1762; 'On Oratory and Criticism,' 1777; 'On History and 

 General Policy,' 1788; ' On the Laws and Constitution of England,' 

 1772 ; ' On Education,' 1765 ; ' Chart of Biography,' 1765 ; ' Chart of 

 History,' 1769. During the same period appeared, in 17(57, his work 

 entitled, * A History of Electricity,' &c., which was so well received 

 that it went through five editions. This was followed in 1772 by a 

 ' History of Vision.' In 1767, on account of a dispute with the 

 Warrington trustees, Priestly removed to Leeds, where he became 

 minister of the Mill-Hill Chapel, and wrote many controversial 

 books and pamphlets. In after times he wrote ' Letters to a Phi- 

 losophical Institution ;' ' An Answer to Gibbon ;' ' Disquisitions on 

 Matter and Spirit ;' ' Corruptions of Christianity ;' ' Early Opinions 

 on Christ ;' ' Familiar Letters to the Inhabitants of Birmingham ;' 

 ' Two different Histories of the Christian Church ;' ' On Education ;' 

 ' Comparison of Heathen and Christian Philosophy ;' ' Doctrine of 

 Necessity ;' ' On the Roman Catholic Claims ;' * On the French Be- 



