expectations that he would become a distinguished Calvanistic teacher.

И To qualify him for the important task of instructing others in the most important of all knowledge, young Priestley was sent hy his pious aunt to the academy at Daventry to study divinity, under the care of Dr. Ashworth. At the time he entered the academy he was very sincere in his belief of the Doctrine of the Trinity, but in his twentieth year, when engaged in a course of theological studies, he became an Arian.

In the year 1753 Mr. Priestley was chosen pastor to a congregation at Needham in Suffolk; but his Arian sentiments were so offensive to his flock that they gradually deserted him. An impediment in his speech, also, contributed to render him unpopular as a preacher, and although he afterwards in some measure corrected this defect, his voice continued low and faultering.

Deserted by his flock, Mr. Priestley circulated proposals for opening a school, and his "Miscellaneous Thoughts on Education" prove how well he was qualified for the task of a preceptor. But notwithstanding his multifarious

attainments and the solicitations of those friends who knew his worth, he could not obtain a single pupil! such was the effect of prejudice, and such the dread that he would inculcate impious sentiments, that the common reply was, "What! send my son to an Arian!"

Mr. Priestley afterwards removed to Nantwich, in Cheshire, where he officiated as minister to a small congregation of dissenters, at a salary of 301. per annum. This necessitated him to open an academy, where he gave proofs of his excellent qualifications for the instruction of youth, and his pupils made an admirable proficiency under his tuition. While engaged in this two-fold charge, of preceptor to youth, and pastor to those of riper years, Mr. Priestley accidentally became acquainted with a clergyman of the established church; of whom he speaks with cordial friendship: "At Nantwich" says he, "the Vicar of Acton, at the distance of one mile, had a room in his house which he called mine, and which I always made use of whenever it was convenient to me to spend an evening and sleep from home, which I never did, except with him. He said that he had never known a dissenter before me, but a common love of science brought us acquainted, and I have now in

my possession a telescope made with his own hands, which he gave me as a token of his friendship."*

In this obscure situation Mr. Priestley continued for some years, which he employed in the acquirement of useful knowledge; when, in the year 1761, he received an invitation to fill the chair of professor in the languages and belles lettres in Warrington Academy. This arduous office he performed with the utmost dignity and propriety, aud his understanding was enlarged by new philosophic attainments. His first literary production was a Treatise on the Rudiments of English Grammar, which was published in a duodecimo volume in 1761, and afterwards republished with improvements in one volume octavo.

In 1765, while he continued at Warrington Academy, he published Charts of Universal History and Biography.

Soon after his settlement at Warrington, Mr. Priestley was united to Miss Wilkinson, daugh

* Vide preface to "Letters to the Rev. Edward Burn, 1790,"

ter to Mr. Wilkinson, of Bristol. At the time of their marriage, in 1762, he was 29 years of age, and his consort nineteen.

In consequence of the death of some of the principal supporters of Warrington Academy, it fell into decay; but its fame will endure while Mrs. Barbauld's elegant poem is admired by the lovers of the muse.

Before the dissolution of this literary establishment, our author in 1767 published an History of Electricity in a quarto volume, and was presented with the academic honours of LL. D. for his ingenious productions. He soon afterwards received an invitation from an opulent congregation of dissenters at Mill Hill in Leeds, to preside as their pastor. His acceptance of this offer brought him once more into the vicinity of his natal spot; and he continued at Leeds five years, during which period he made a number of philosophical experiments, afterwards published in his "History of Discoveries concerning Vision, Light, and Colours."* The Doctor's experiments with fireworks are yet remembered

* Published in 1772, in 2 volumes quarto.

by several of the inhabitants of Leeds; and the people of that town, in general, treated him with great respect, and looked upon him as a very extraordinary man.

By a natural association of ideas they considered their own reputation united with that of their townsman, and were not a little proud of the Doctor's increasing celebrity. The society of Mr. Michel, a clergyman of the established church, contributed much to the philosophic discoveries of the Doctor, who speaks of him with the greatest respect, in the work above-mentioned. According to his own account Dr. Priestley became a Socinian in the thirty-sixth year of his age, or some time in the course of 1769.

The year 1772 was a memorable period to our philosopher; his Observations on different kinds of Air, were published in the Phil. Trans. For this valuable paper the Doctor received the gold medal of the Royal Society, and was elected a member of that illustrious body.

In 1773 Dr. Priestley was appointed chaplain and librarian to the Marquis of Lansdown. Accordingly he left Leeds, and went to reside