68 
FIRST REPORT- 1831. 
and in the anxiety which he evinced to reconcile to it new phe¬ 
nomena, which were considered by almost all other philosophers 
as proofs of its utter unsoundness. But this anxiety, it must 
be remembered, was chiefly apparent at a period of life when 
most men feel a reluctance to change the principle of arrange¬ 
ment, by which they have been long accustomed to class the 
multifarious particulars of their knowledge. 
In all those feelings and habits that connect the purest morals 
with the highest philosophy (and that there is such a connexion 
no one can doubt), Dr. Priestley is entitled to unqualified esteem 
and admiration. Attached to science by the most generous 
motives, he pursued it with an entire disregard to his own pecu¬ 
liar interests. He neither sought, nor accepted when offered, 
any pecuniary aid in his philosophical pursuits, that did not 
leave him in possession of the most complete independence of 
thought and of action. Free from all little jealousies of con¬ 
temporaries or rivals, he earnestly invited other labourers into 
the field which he was cultivating; gave publicity in his own 
volumes to their experiments; and, with true candour, was as 
ready to record the evidence which contradicted, as that which 
confirmed, his own views and results. Every hint, which he 
had derived from the writings or conversation of others, was 
unreservedly acknowledged. As the best way of accelerating 
the progress of science, he recommended and practised the 
early publication of all discoveries; though quite aware that, in 
his own case, more durable fame would often have resulted 
from a delayed and more finished performance. “ Those per¬ 
sons,” he remarks, “are very properly disappointed, who, for 
the sake of a little more reputation, delay publishing their dis¬ 
coveries till they are anticipated by others.” 
In perfect consistency with that liberality of temper which 
has been ascribed to Dr. Priestley, it may be remarked also, 
that he took the most enlarged views of the scope and objects 
of Natural Science. In various passages of his works he has 
enforced, with warm and impressive eloquence, the considera¬ 
tions that flow from the contemplation of those arrangements 
in the natural world, which are not only perfect in themselves, 
but are essential parts of one grand and harmonious design. 
He strenuously recommends experimental philosophy as an 
agreeable relief from employments, that excite the feelings or 
overstrain the attention; and he proposes it to the young, the 
high-born, and the affluent, as a source of pleasure unalloyed 
with the anxieties and agitations of public life. He regarded 
the benefits of its investigations, not merely as issuing in the 
acquirement of new facts, however striking and valuable; nor 
