The name of this philosopher will undoubtedly be enrolled by the historian with those of the illustrious few of whom Englishmen are justly proud!-it will often be repeated in the same breath with the names of Bacon, Newton, and Boyle.

Dr. Priestley endured the ordeal of persecution with a philosophic serenity which must have been admirable even to his enemies. Posterity will do justice to the memory of this great man, and the author of this sketch has felt the purest intellectual pleasure in the production of even an imperfect memorial of departed genius.

The Index.

ADDISON, his valediction, 41

Appendix, containing extracts from Dr. Priestley's works, illustrative of his character, 95.

Birmingham, cause of the riots at, 23-commemoration of the French Revolution celebrated in this town, 25 outrages of the rioters, 26-several of them tried at Warwick, 30.

Beddoes, Dr. his experiments with oxygen gas, ridiculed, 62.

Education, its importance demonstrated, 81.

Fashionable world, excessive dissipation and depravity of, 87.

Franklin, Dr. the principal philosopher of America, 36-the intimate friend of Dr. Priestley, 55.

PREFACE.

AN account of the progress of a virtuous man through a variety of trying vicissitudes, must ever be a gratification to the reader of sensibility. Such a man was the subjet of this biographical sketch, and the most remarkable events of his history, are here detailed with truth; and impartiality.

This little work is enriched with anecdotes, com-municated to the author, by persons who were long eye-witnesses to the dignified conduct of Dr. Priestley, as a public character, and to his domestic habits as a private individual. It may be observed that his Biographer ought to be a man highly endowed with eloquence, to give an animated picture of his superlative merit; but his fame is fully established by his own inestimable productions, and the more simple

The name of this philosopher will undoubtedly be enrolled by the historian with those of the illustrious few of whom Englishmen are justly proud!-it will often be repeated in the same breath with the names of Bacon, Newton, and Boyle.

Dr. Priestley endured the ordeal of persecution with a philosophic serenity which must have been admirable even to his enemies. Posterity will do justice to the memory of this great man, and the author of this sketch has felt the purest intellectual pleasure in the production of even an imperfect memorial of departed genius.