Spirited Vindication of the moral conduct of Dr. Priestley, by a minister of the Gospel, 88.

Savile, Sir George, a steady patriot, 67.

Stanhope, Earl of, 57.

Thompson, Mr. a letter from, respecting Doctor Priestley's pursuits in America, 34.

Women, their influence over the morals and behaviour of men, 85—a friendly hint to that beautiful part of the human species, 86.

Young men. Dr. Priestley's advice to, 83.

ERRATUM.

Page 27, line 15:-For " on seeing the flames of his dwelling ascend, he exclaimed, &c." read, on hearing the shouts of the mob, he exclaimed, &c.

N. B. Dr. Priestley's house was demolished by the rioters with different instruments, and not consumed by fire. He observes in his " Appeal," "They could not get any fire, though one of them was heard to offer two guineas for a lighted candle; my son, whom we left behind us, having taken the precaution to put out all the fires in the house; and others of my friends got all the neighbours to do the same. I afterwards heard that much pains was taken, but without effect, to get fire from my large electrical machine, which stood in the library."

THE LIFE

OF

JOSEPH PRIESTLEY,

LL.D. &c.

LEARNING and talents, have ever commanded the respect and the admiration of mankind. In the dawn of science, indeed, the inventors of the useful arts were deified by those to whom they became benefactors by their discoveries; and the skilful in agriculture, were considered as super-human.

Even in the more enlightened ages of Greece and Rome, their poets and philosophers were venerated by the people as persons under the influence of divine inspiration; and although the

B

Athenians in an evil hour sacrificed the immortal Socrates to their unjustifiable prejudices, they afterwards evinced the conviction of error by the erection of a statue in honour of his memory.

If polite heathens, thus persecuted and thus honoured an illustrious character; shall more polité and polished christians refuse to do justice to the memory of the greatest philosopher of the age? Shall Englishmen so long celebrated for their liberality to men of science, of whatever clime, refuse the wreath of immortality to their own countryman, who was an ornament to their literature, and an honour to their nation. Shall the inventor of the most trifling utensil be protected by a patent and rewarded by the public for his useful invention, while Priestley, the man who analysed the most subtle of the elements, is suffered to slumber in the tomb without one honorary memorial, except his own imperishable works? Forbid it national justice, patriotism, and science!

Yorkshire claims the honour of being the birth place of Joseph Priestley, the subject of the following memoirs. He was born on the 24th of March, 1733, at Field-head, near Bir

stall, eight miles from Leeds. His father was a respectable and opulent manufacturer of broad cloth, but Joseph was destined for higher pursuits. In the seventh year of his age he was taken into the protection of Mrs. Keighley, his aunt, who being childless adopted him. Under the eye of this lady, who was a strict Calvanist, our philosopher received his first religious impressions: he daily read a portion of the scriptures to her, and his mind was thus imbued with the purest moral precepts, which had a powerful influence on his conduct through life.

His aunt, for whom he felt the utmost affection, even to filial reverence, engaged to pay the expence of his education, and he received the first rudiments of learning from the Rev. Mr. Scott, a dissenting minister, who was master of the Grammar Shool at Battley, a village near Leeds. His proficiency in study, and his attainments in this seminary, even at the age of eleven, excited the admiration of his friends. When not engaged in the study of languages, the books which he most delighted to peruse were on religion, particularly the allegories of the ingenious Bunyan; and this early in-. clination to read the works of pious men, induced his friends to look forward with high