Joseph Priestley

“ It was about this time that the popular phenomena of chemistry and electricity more decidedly took their stand in the field of science, and irresistably seized hold on the attention of the world: phenomena, highly amusing in themselves, strongly attractive from their novelty, of evident and immediate application, and that promised an incalculable harvest of honourable and useful discovery, to such as would become their votaries. ”

“ That as all the common phenomena of mind, can be accounted for from the known facts of organized matter without the souls, and as none of them can possibly be attributed to the soul without the body, there is no necessity to recur to any gratuitous theory in addition to the visible corporeal frame. That the doctrine of the soul originated in ignorance, and has been supported by imposture; that it involves gross contradictions and insuperable difficulties, and is no more countenanced by true religion than by true philosophy. ”

“ The whole course of my studies, from early life, shews how little politics of any kind have been my object. Indeed to have written so much as I have in theology, and to have done so much in experimental [Pg 149] philosophy, and at the same time to have had my mind occupied, as it is supposed to have been, with factious politics, I must have had faculties more than human. Let any person only cast his eye over the long list of my publications, and he will see that they relate almost wholly to theology, philosophy, or general literature. ”

“ It was set on foot to be as it were a rallying point for the English, who were at that time emigrating to America in great numbers, and who it was thought, would be more happy in society of the kind they had been accustomed to, than they would be, dispersed, as they now are, through the whole of the United States. It was farther thought, that by the union of industry and capital, the wilderness would soon become cultivated and equal to any other part of the country in every thing necessary to the enjoyment of life. ”

“ The Metaphysics of the present day require also, a more accurate attention to the Theory of Grammar than has hitherto been paid by writers on the subject. [Pg 340] Perhaps I do not assert too much in saying that we have had no grammarians worth notice, none who have thrown light on the principles of Grammar, but Locke and Horne Tooke. What dreadful confusion has arisen from treating words denoting what are called abstract ideas, as if they were the exponents of real individual existence? Whereas they are merely signs of artificial classification without any individual archetype. ”

“ Abridgments, do not answer this purpose; the theories that dictated the experiments are not detailed, their truth or their fallacy cannot be judged of, and sufficient merit is not attributed to the labours of the discoverer, or the bearings of his facts on his theory, sufficiently explained. To attain gradually to the summit of the temple of science, we must not only build on the foundations of our predecessors, but know somewhat of their intentions at the time of laying them. ”

“ In this almost universal prevalence of a spirit so extremely hostile to me and my friends, and which would be gratified by my destruction, it cannot be any matter of surprise, that a son of mine should wish to abandon a country in which his father has been used as I have been, especially when it is considered that this son was present at the riot in Birmingham, exerting himself all the dreadful night of the 14th of July, to save what he could of my most valuable property ”

“ Not that I would insinuate, that the belief of a separate soul, like some other opinions that might be mentioned, has been generally taught by professors who disbelieve it; for plausible arguments are not wanting, to give it that currency which it has so long received among the wisest and the best of men: nor that an established priesthood of any age or country, or of any religion, is a mere compound of fraud and imposture, for I well know that the wise and the good are abundant in this class of society, as well as in others. ”

“ He shews clearly how all the faculties ascribed to the soul, thought, reflection, judgement, memory, and all the passions selfish and benevolent, may be resolved into one simple undeniable law of animal organization, without the necessity of any hypothesis such as that of a separate soul. Yet he does not appear distinctly to have seen the full weight and tendency of his own reasoning, and he adopts a theory on the subject, loaded with more difficulties and absurdities, than even the common hypothesis. ”

“ It is much to be lamented, that a man of Dr. Franklin’s general good character, and great influence, should have been an unbeliever in christianity, and also have done so much as he did to make others unbelievers. To me, however, he acknowledged that he had not given so much attention as he ought to have done to the evidences of christianity, and desired me to recommend to him a few treatises on the subject, such as I thought most deserving of his notice, but not of great length, promising to read them, and give me his sentiments on them. ”

“ But none of these unexpected discoveries appear to me to have been so extraordinary as that I am about to relate (viz. the spontaneous emission of dephlogisticated air from water containing a green vegetating matter) and it may serve to admonish all persons who are engaged in similar pursuits, not to overlook any circumstance relating to an experiment, but to keep their eyes open to every new appearance and to give due attention to it however inconsiderable it may seem. ”

“ For every effect must have some adequate cause, and therefore the odium that I have incurred must have been owing to something in my declared sentiments, or conduct, that has exposed me to it. In my opinion, it cannot have been any thing but my open hostility to the doctrines of the established church, and more especially to all civil establishments of religion whatever. This has brought upon me the implacable resentment of the great body of the clergy; and they have found other methods of opposing me besides argument, and that use of the press which is equally open to us all. ”

“ Priestley have not been always acknowledged with the candour and liberality that men of science would expect from Lavoisier.
Mayow had more than ordinary discernment in comparing known facts, and drawing conclusions from them, but he does not appear to have had the talent of imagining decisive experiments, of varying them, of observing and noting all the natural phenomena attendant upon them, or sufficient industry in pursuing them. It is one thing to make a plausible conjecture, and another to verify it. ”

“ Not that it derogates from the character of a philosopher to wish for the [Pg 261] applause of those who know how to appreciate his merit, or who are benefited by his exertions; such an anxiety is laudable when it does not lead to encroachments on the literary rights of others; nor is it at all desireable under the present circumstances of human nature, to expect from men of science an attention to their pursuits arising from motives of pure benevolence alone, and excluding all views, hopes, and expectations of the gratifying tribute of public approbation. ”

“ With these views of the present and the future, it is no wonder that he submitted with perfect resignation to the inevitable vicissitudes of human life, and looked forward to futurity, as a period of existence when his capacity for receiving happiness would be greater because his capacity for communicating it would be enlarged. ”

“ Every sensation therefore, and every idea dependent on, or resulting from the state of the sensory, is the necessary effect of the laws of organization by which that state was produced. But we neither have nor can have any sensation or any idea, but what is so dependent, or but what thus results; for we can neither feel nor think without the brain. The words we use for the Phenomena termed mental, are mere terms of classification and arrangement of the sensations and ideas thus produced, and their combinations. ”

“ To demand more would be as absurd as to oblige every man, by the law of marriage, to maintain that his particular wife was absolutely the handsomest, and best tempered woman in the world; whereas it is surely sufficient if a man behave well to his wife, and discharge the duties of a good husband. ”

“ Priestley’s connection with Lord Shelburne must be gratifying to every friend of science and literature, notwithstanding the subsequent separation. To such persons the character of a nobleman who like Lord Shelburne, devotes so much of his time, and so much of his income to the pursuits of knowledge, and the encouragement of those who eminently contribute to enlighten mankind, cannot but be interesting. ”

“ It is not, I believe, usual for young persons in dissenting academies to think much of their future situations in life. Indeed, we are happily precluded from that by the impossibility of succeeding in any application for particular places. We often, indeed, amused ourselves with the idea of our dispersion in all parts of the kingdom after living so happily together; and used to propose plans of meeting at certain times, and smile at the different appearance we should probably make after being ten or twenty years settled in the world. ”

“ Dr. Ashworth was earnestly desirous to make me as orthodox as possible, yet, as my behaviour was unexceptionable, and as I generally took his part in some little things by which he often drew upon himself the ill-will of many of the students, I was upon the whole a favourite with him. I kept up more or less of a correspondence with Dr. Ashworth till the time of his death, though much more so with Mr. Clark. This continued till the very week of his melancholy death by a fall from his horse at Birmingham, where he was minister. ”

“ I help thinking that much of the labours of the French philosophers in this department of science would never have been undertaken, if they had not been called forth by the previous discoveries, not of Lemery, Margraaf, Bayen, Macquer, and Beaumè, but of Hales, Black, and Macbride; of Cavendish and Priestley and Scheele. [57] Would to God there were no other object of contest between the rival nations of Great Britain and France, but which should add most to the sum of human knowledge, and contribute most to the means of human happiness. ”

“ The very antient opinion also of a state of existence after death, prevalent in the most uncivilized as well as enlightened states of society, confirmed this opinion of a separate and immortal part of the human system: for it was sufficiently evident, that no satisfactory hopes of a futurity after death, could be founded on the perishable basis of the human body. ”

“ I being at a time of life in which I could not expect much satisfaction as to friends and society, comparable to that which I left, in which the resumption of my philosophical pursuits must be attended with great disadvantage, and in which success in my still more favourite pursuit, the propagation of unitarianism, was still more uncertain. ”

“ About the year 1799, the friends of liberty in America were greatly alarmed by the advancement of principles disgraceful to America, and by a practice less liberal in many respects than under the monarchical form of the British government. Nothing else was the subject of conversation and my father who though never active in politics, at the same time never concealed his sentiments, uttered them freely in conversation, and they were of course opposed to the proceedings of the administration at the time. ”

“ It has been a misfortune to this question, that it has seldom been treated by persons who knew any thing of the organization or physiology of the human frame; and that it has been complicated with all the prejudice arising from the theological tenets of those who opposed the doctrine of necessity. Every physician knows, though metaphysicians know little about it, that the laws which govern the animal machine, are as certain and invariable as those which guide the planetary system, and are as little within the [Pg 327] controul of the human being who is subject to them. ”

“ He was however so constantly in the habit of viewing the hand of God in all things, and of considering every occurrence as leading to good, that his mind soon recovered its accustomed serenity, and his journey to Philadelphia mentioned above and the success which attended his first exertions in the cause of, what he deemed, pure and genuine christianity, led him to look forward with cheerfulness to the future, and gave him an energy in his pursuits, which was never exceeded in any part of his life. ”

“ Indeed, moral evil is of no farther consequence than as it produces physical evil to the agent, or to others. And as we see in the system of inanimate nature, that general good is the result of partial and temporary evil, and that though the one follows necessarily from general laws as the result [Pg 331] of the other, the good manifestly predominates, so in the moral system, we have a right from analogy to predict, that good will be the ultimate result of the apparent evil we observe in it: that we shall be the wiser for knowing what is to be avoided ”

“ Et c’est la puissance de cette substance qui en rend la volonté efficace. La puissance va à l’etre, la sagesse ou l’entendement au vrai, & la volonté au bien. Et cette cause intelligente doit etre infinie de toutes les manieres, & absolument parfaite en puissance, en sagesse & en bonté, puisqu’elle va à tout ce qui est possible. Et comme tout est lié, il n’y a pas lieu d’en admettre plus d’une. Son entendement est la source des essences, & sa volonté est l’origine des existances. Voilà en peu de mots la preuve d’un Dieu unique avec ses perfections, & par lui l’origine des choses. ”

“ It has always been thought, at least, that our constitution authorises the free proposal, and discussion, of all theoretical principles whatever, political ones not excepted. And though I might now recommend a very different form of government to a people who had no previous prejudices or habits, the case is very different with respect to one that has; and it is the duty of every good citizen to maintain that government of any country which the majority of its inhabitants approve, [Pg 137] whether he himself should otherwise prefer it, or not. ”

“ With respect to the finite beings, by whom evil is permitted to take place, there can be no doubt on this scheme, but the balance of existence will be happiness even to them, whenever by proper discipline they are fitted to enjoy it. Perhaps it may be doubted without infringing on the reverence due to the supreme disposer of all events, whether it would be consistent with his justice, knowingly and voluntarily to bring into existence, a sentient being, destined to be permanently miserable. ”