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    flammable air , iSMPthe generation of air from water , were added to the stock of facts iu this branch of chemistry * On the whole , it may be affirmed that to no single inquirer has pneumatic chemistry been indebted so much a $ to Dr . Priestley , whose

    discoveries gave it a new form , and chiefly contributed to make it the basis of a system which has superseded all prior ones , and opens a boundless field for improvement in the knowledge of nature and the processes of art . It is remarkable however that he himself remained to

    the end of his life attached to that phlogistic theory which he had imbibed , and which the French chemists had been supposed entirely to have overthrown * Some of his latest writings of this class were attacks upon the antiphlogistic theory , of which he lived to be the sole

    eminent opposer . It is proper to observe , that no experimentalist was ever more free from jealousy , or the petty vanity of prior discovery . The progress of knowledge was his sole

    object , regardless whether it was promoted by himself or another ; and he made public the results of his experiments while they were yet crude and unsystematic , for the purpose of engaging others in the same track of

    inquiry . In the science of metaphysics , Dr . Priestley distinguished himself as the strenuous advocate of Dr . Hartley ' s theory of association , upon which he founded the systems of materialism and of necessity , as legitimate inferences . No writer has treated these

    abstruse subjects with more acuteness and perspicuity ; and notwithstanding the load of obloquy heaped upon him on account of the supposed tendencies of his doctrines ( obloquy which he disregarded , and tendencies which he denied ) , he established

    a high reputation in this branch of philosophy , and effected a great change in the mass of public opinion . Indifference may hereafter prevail respecting these topics ; but as long as they remain subjects of discussion , liis writings will probably be considered as the ablest elucidations and

    defences of the theories proposed in them . In theology , Dr . Priestley , if not absolutely the founder of a sect , is yet to be regarded as a great leader

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    among a particular class of Christians . Passing through all the changes from Calvinism to Arianism , Socinianism , and finally to an Unitarian system in some measure his own , he remained

    through the whole progress a firm believer in the Jewish and Christian revelations , and their zealous defender against all attacks . As it was not in his temper to be either dubious or indifferent , he entered with greater earnestness than most of those called rational dissenters into disputations upon doctrinal points j and ,

    30 Dr . Priestley , in 1772 , when be quitted the congregation at Leeds , appears to have regarded the pulpit as almost entirely sacred to the important business of inculcating- just maxims of conduct , and

    recommending a life and conversation becoming the purity of the gospel . "" Pref . Farewell Serm . p . 7 . This inoffensive , though as experience has shewn , inadequate method of Christian teaching " , has heen highly approved and is probably still adopted by some who have not Dr .

    Priestley ' s opportunities of fully declaring * themselves on other occasions . Dr . Priestley himself must have gradually made his pulpit-instructions more declaratory of his opinions , while he so generally preferred the primitive custom of an exposition to the comparative innovation of a sermon .

    The Biographer has well remarked that Dr . Priestley u entered more than rational dissenters * in general " into doctrinal points . " He had indeed reason to complain of those dissenters who , confining their

    published sentiments to Christian generalities , left him to be regarded as almost singular in his heretical aberrations , a very monster in theology . An excellent man , whom we had the happiness to know , the early and constant friend of Dr .

    Priestley , fell , we think , under this charge , probably from his mildness of disposition , certainly from no sordid motive . I ) r . Kippis , in his Life of Lardner , 1788 ( p . 61 ) , proposes , "" when certain pressing engagements are discharged , to impart to the public a few candid reflections on some

    late , and indeed still subsisting theological disputes . " Yet it was left to his friend who preached the sermon on his justly lamented death to inform the congregation whose Christian instruction and * devotion Dr . K . had promoted for many years , that he was an Unitarian . The present writer

    well knew a lady , who had been long of his congregation , and his intimate friend , who expressed surprise and disapprobation when once Dr . Priestley preached for him . It must , we think , be admitted , that neither this excellent man , nor Lardner , not to mention Locke and Newioi >

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    12 Memoir of the late Rev . Joseph Priestley , LL . D . F . R . S . | r # .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/12/