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less its use , by affording Dr . Priestley advantages in improving his knowledge of the world , and in pursuing his scientific researches , which he could not have enjoyed as minister to a dissenting congregation . The manners and sor . ietv of a nobleman ' house
were not , however , perfectly congenial to one whose tastes were simple , and whose address , though by no means coarse or offensive , was plain and unceremonious . The treatment . he met with was polite and respectful , both from his noble patron , and
the distinguished characters who often composed part of the company . He -was entirely free from restraint with respect to his pursuits , and this was the period of some of those exertions which raised his reputation as a philosopher to the highest point . Im
1773 there had appeared in the Philosophical Transactions a paper of his on different kinds of air , which obtained the prize of Copley ' s medal . This , with many additions , was reprinted in 1774 , dedicated to Lord Shelburne , and was followed by three more volumes . The abundance of
new and important matter in these publications , which form an era in that knowledge of aeri-form fluids which is the basis of modern chemical science , made the name of Priestley familiar in all the enlightened countries of Europe , and produced for him an accumulation of literary
honours . It was his constant practice to employ himself in various pursuits at the same time , whereby he avoided the langour consequent upon protracted attention to a single object , and came to each in turn as fresh as if he had
spent an interval of entire relaxation . This effect he pleaded as his apology to those who apprehended that the great diversity of his studies would prevent him from exerting all the force of his mind upon anv one of
them ; and ia fact , he proceeded to such a length in every pursuit that interested him , as fully to justify in his own case the rule which he followed . It was during a course of original experiments which fully exerciied his faculties of invention arid
ob-© n the subject I soon found that tliey had given no proper attention to it , and did not really know what Christianity was / Mem . jp . 74 , and M . Repos . Vol . i . p . 485 .
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servation , that be was also employing his reasoning powers in those deep metaphysical inquiries by which lie acquired high distinction as a philosopher of another class . In 1775 , while still resident with Lord Shelburne , he published his Examination of the Doctrine of Conimon-seuse as
held by the three Scotch writers , Drs . Reid , Beattie , and Oswald . This work was preparatory to his purpose of introducing to public notice the Hartleian theory of the human mind ,
which he soon after published in a more popular and intelligible form than that given to it by the author himself . 19 He had already declared himself a believer in the doctrine of
philosophical necessity - and in a dissertation prefixed to his edition of Hartley , he expressed some doubts of the immateriality of the sentient principle in man . Notwithstanding the
obloquy thus brought upon him as a favourer of infidelity , or even of atheism , he was not deterred from pursuing the subject , —for it was ever his principle to follow what he was convinced-teHbe truth whithersoever
it would lead him , regardless of consequences—and becoming , upon closer inquiry , an intire convert to the material hypothesis , or that of the homogeneity of man ' s nature , he pub * lished , in 1777 , " Disquisitions on 1
Matter and Spirit , ' in which he gave a history of the doctrines concerning the soul , and openly supported the system he had adopted . It was followed by a defence of Socinianism , and of the doctrine of necessity . It is
18 These writers , as was remarked in M . Rep . Vol . ii . p . 61 , are arraigned in the Examination for their metaphysical delinquency with a solemnity almost ludicrous . They had indeed disgraced their
pens and injured their cause , by affecting * to slight Locke and to treat Hartley as below criticism . Dr . Priestley ( Mem . 78 . ) describes this work as written in a manner he did not entirely approve . " A manner so unusual with Dr . Priestley and so unworthy of him deserved his severer
censure . 19 Dr . Hartley ' s work " On Man '' was first published in 1749 , in 2 vols . To attract attention to his " Theory of
Association , Dr . Priestley separated it from the Evidences of Christianity , and the practical part which formed the second volume , arid from the theory of rib rations interspersed through the first . 20 The first volume of the Disquisition
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6 Memoir of the late Rev . Joseph Priestley , LL . D . F * U . & fyc *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/6/
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