V.] JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. 113 



him by a large body of his countrymen, 1 and which 

 found its expression in the malignant insinuations in 

 which Burke, to his everlasting shame, indulged in 

 the House of Commons. 



Without containing much that will be new to 

 the readers of Hobbes, Spinoza, Collins, Hume, and 

 Hartley, and, indeed, while making no pretensions 

 to originality, Priestley's " Disquisitions relating to 

 Matter and Spirit/' and his " Doctrine of Philoso- 

 phical Necessity illustrated," are among the most 

 powerful, clear, and unflinching expositions of materi- 

 alism and necessarianism which exist in the English 

 language, and are still well worth reading. 



Priestley denied the freedom of the will in the 

 sense of its self-determination ; he denied the exist- 

 ence of a soul distinct from the body ; and as a 

 natural consequence, he denied the natural immor- 

 tality of man. 



In relation to these matters English opinion, a 

 century ago, was very much what it is now. 



A man may be a necessarian without incurring 



i " In all the newspapers and most of the periodical publications I 

 was represented as an unbeliever in Revelation, and no better than an 

 atheist." "Autobiography," Rutt. vol. i p. 124. "On the walls of 

 houses, etc., and especially where I usually went, were to be seen, in 

 large characters, ' MADAN FOR EVER ; DAMN PRIESTLEY ; NO PRESBY- 

 TERIANISM ; DAMN THE PRESBYTERIANS/ etc. etc.; and, at one time, I 

 was followed by a number of boys, who left their play, repeating what 

 they had seen on the walls, and shouting out, ' Damn Priestley ; damn 

 him, damn him, for ever, for ever,' etc. etc. This was no doubt a lesson 

 which they had been taught by their parents, and what they, I fear, 

 had learned from their superiors." " Appeal to the Public on the 

 Subject of the Riots at Birmingham." 



