SCIENCE AND CULTUKE. 



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 ; * and, if any satis- 

 faction 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 posthumous 

 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 intellectual 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 chief discovery. 



9**' 



* See Joseph Prics'.h'i, p. 102, infra. 



