84 Biographical Account of [Feb. 



procured him celebrity. After the publication of this work. Dr. 

 Percival, of Manchester, then a student at Edinburgh, procured 

 him the title of Doctor of Laws from that University. Here he 

 married a daughter of Mr. Isaac Wilkinson, an ironmonger iq 

 Wales; a woman whose good qualities he has highly extolled, 

 and who died after he went to America, 



In the academy he spent his time very happily, but it did not 

 flourish. A quarrel had broken out between Dr. Taylor and the 

 trustees, in consequence of which all the friends of that 

 gentleman were hostile to the institution. This, together with 

 the smallness of his income, lOOl. a-year, and 151. for each 

 boarder, which precluded him from making any provision for his 

 family, induced him to accept an invitation to take charge of 

 Mill-hill chapel, at Leeds, where he had a considerable 

 acquaintance, and to which he removed in 1767' 



Here he engaged keenly in the study of Theology, and pro- 

 duced a great number of works, many of them controversial. 

 Here too, he commenced his great chemical career, and 

 published his first tract on Air. He was led accidentally to 

 thiiik of pneumatic chemistry, by living in the immediate 

 vicinity of a brewery. Here, too, he published his history of 

 the Discoveries relative to Light and Colours, as the first part of 

 a general history of experimental philosophy : but the expense 

 of this book was so great, and the sale so limited, that he did 

 not ventyre to prosecute the undertaking. Here, likewise, he 

 commenced and published three volumes of a periodical work, 

 entitled the Theological Repository, which he continued after he 

 settled in Birmingham. 



After he had been six years at Leeds, the Earl of Shelburne 

 (afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne) engaged him, at the 

 recommendation of Dr. Price, to live with him as a kind of 

 librarian and literary companion, at a salary of 2501. a-year and 

 ^ house. W'iih his Lordship he travelled through Holland, 

 France, and part of Germany, and spent some time in Paris. 

 He was delighted vvith this excursion, and expressed himself as 

 thoroughly convinced of the great advantage to be derived from 

 foreign travel. All tlie philosophers and politicians in Paris were 

 imhelievers, and even professed Atheists ; and as Dr. Priestley 

 chose to appear before them as a Christian, they told him he was 

 the first person they had met with of whose understanding they 

 had any opinion wiio was a believer of Christianity: but upon 

 interrogating them closely, he found that none of them had any 

 knowledge either of the nature or principles of the Christian 

 rehgion. While vi'ith Lord Shelburne, he published the first 

 three volumes of his Experiments on Air; and had collected' 

 materials for a fourth, which he published soon after settling at 

 Birmingham. Here, also, he published his attack upon Drs, 

 5 ' ' 



