JOSEPH PEIESTLEY. 105 



appointed "tutor in the languages" in the Dissenting 

 Academy at Warrington, in which capacity, besides giv- 

 ing three courses of lectures, he taught Latin, Greek, 

 French, and Italian, and read lectures on the Theory 

 of Language and Universal Grammar, on Oratory, Phil- 

 osophical Criticism, and Civil law. And it is interest- 

 ing to observe that, as a teacher, he encouraged and 

 cherished in those whom he instructed, the freedom 

 which he had enjoyed, in his own student days, at Dav- 

 entry. One of his pupils tells us that, 



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

 dents to express their sentiments relative to the suhject of it, and 

 to urge any objections to what he had delivered, without reserve. 

 It pleased him when any one commenced such a conversation. In 

 order to excite the freest discussion, he occasionally 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 dis- 

 pleasure at the strongest objections that were made to what he de- 

 livered, 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." * 



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 



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

 p. 50. 



