I. 



SCIENCE AND CULTURE. 



Six years ago, as some of my present hearers may 

 remember, I had the privilege of addressing a large 

 assemblage of the inhabitants of this city, who had 

 gathered together to do honour to the memory of 

 their famous townsman, Joseph Priestley; 1 and, if 

 any satisfaction attaches to posthumous glory, we 

 may hope that the manes of the burnt-out philosopher 

 were then finally appeased. 



No man, however, who is endowed with a fair 

 share of common sense, and not more than a fair share 

 of vanity, will identify either contemporary or post- 

 humous fame with the highest good ; and Priestley's 

 life leaves no doubt that he, at any rate, set a much 

 higher value upon the advancement of knowledge, 

 and the promotion of that freedom of thought which 

 is at once the cause and the consequence of intel- 

 lectual progress. 



Hence I am disposed to think that, if Priestley 

 could be amongst us to-day, the occasion of our 

 meeting would afford him even greater pleasure than 

 the proceedings which celebrated the centenary of his 



1 See Joseph Priestley, p. 94, infra. 

 S> B 



