V.] JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. 97 



senting Academy at Warrington, in which capacity, 

 besides giving three courses of lectures, he taught 

 Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, and read lectures 

 on the Theory of Language and Universal Grammar, 

 on Oratory, Philosophical Criticism, and Civil law. 

 And it is interesting to observe that, as a teacher, 

 he encouraged and cherished in those whom he in- 

 structed, the freedom which he had enjoyed, in his 

 own student days, at Daventry. One of his pupils tells 

 us that, 



" At the conclusion of his lecture, he always encouraged his 

 students to express their sentiments relative to the subject of it, 

 and to urge any objections to what he had delivered, without 

 reserve. It pleased him when any one commenced such a con- 

 versation. In order to excite the freest discussion, he occasion- 

 ally invited the students to drink tea with him, in order to 

 canvass the subjects of his lectures. I do not recollect that he 

 ever showed the least displeasure at the strongest objections 

 that were made to what he delivered, but I distinctly remember 

 the smile of approbation with which he usually received them : 

 nor did he fail to point out, in a very encouraging manner, the 

 ingenuity or force of any remarks that were made, when they 

 merited these characters. His object, as well as Dr. Aikin's, was 

 to engage the students to examine and decide for themselves, 

 uninfluenced by the sentiments of any other persons." x 



It would be difficult to give a better description of a 

 model teacher than that conveyed in these words. 



From his earliest days, Priestley had shown a 

 strong bent towards the study of nature ; and his 

 brother Timothy tells us that the boy put spiders 

 into bottles, to see how long they would live in the 

 same air a curious anticipation of the investigations 



1 " Life and Correspondence of Dr. Priestley," by J. T. Rutt. Vol. 

 i. p. 50. 



H 



