each other; except that he has adopted fome things contained in my first volume, the second edition of which had been published fome time before I had fo much as heard the name of Dr. H S. "In this business, therefore, there must have been fome miftake (I hope not yours) which I am told it behoves me to enquire into. I am, with real regard, Shelbarne-house, Nov. 30, 1775. Dear Sir, Your very humble fervant, J. PRIESTLEY. "This letter I delivered to the doctor at the royal fociety, on the day in which it is dated; and the fame day, having received farther information concerning the bufinefs, I wrote the following letter to Dr. H―s. SIR, "I have this day been informed, from undoubted authority, that you have charged me with having publifhed, as my own, experiments, that I learned of you; but though I have enquired of feveral perfons, who all agree in the fact, of the charge in general, none can tell me what the particulars of it are. I must therefore beg that you would yourself inform me concerning them. A man of honour would have given me an opportunity of vindicating myfelf, before he had published my accufation to others. Shelburne-house, Nov. 30, 1775; "The next day I lefby, and on Dec. DEAR SIR, 3, I am, Sir, Your very humble fervant J. PRIESTLEY. received the following aufwer from Dr. Brockthat which follows from Dr. H. S. "The experiments which I faw you inftitute at Shelburne-house appeared fo nearly the fame with a greater variety of fuch as I had feen in three courfes of chemistry given by Dr. H―s, that, in juftice to my abfent friend, I was urged, poffibly to violate the laws of hofpitality, by declaring in the inftant, that none of the divers experiments you was then pleafed to exhibit were novel to me, except one concerning the Swedish fluor. "Whether your difcoveries were prior to thofe of Dr. H I must leave to the determination of others, it being at this distance of time, not easy for me to afcertain to whom the priority of these claims belongs. Whenever this fubject has occurred in converfation, I have repeated what I had, with the moft pure intentions, declared in your prefence; never apprehending you had caufe of offence, on fubjects s entertained wherein, by your own declaration, you and Dr. H notions totally repugnant. "I fincerely with your philofophical improvements may obtain every merited honour: at the fame time I fhould feel myself unjust to fupprefs candid applaufe to another gentleman, of whofe unwearied labours I have been a conftant witness more than a year and half paft. I am, with great refpect, Norfolk-freet, Nov. 30, 1775. Dear Sir, Your moft obedient humble fervant, SIR, SIR, "Nine months are elapfed fince I informed you, in plain, but the leaft offenfive terms, that I wished to decline your vifits and correfpondence. You know the motives of a conduct fo candid, and with all fo repugnant to my own intereft as a teacher. You now cannot feri-oufly expect that I fhould repeat what you well know-that I should enumerate the things which you affume as your own, and which I had previously fhewn and taught. "If any other gentleman had propofed the queftion contained in your letter, an answer would be neceffary; and I fhould commence it with comparifons of the dates of Dr. Priestley's rapid publications, with the dates of my courfes of chemistry. "For the future I will add to the charge against you, that you have treated others as you have treated me; and that your originality in experiments confifts chiefly in the knack of rendering the phenomena, which all practical chemists have obferved and understood, perfectly myfterious and furprizing to others. "The only part of your letter, then, which requires an answer, is that wherein you hint that a man of honour would remonftrate to you, instead of uttering the truth to others. Herein your notions of honour and mine differ widely. I fpeak freely fuch truths as can be well vouched, but I never remonitrate, except when a gentleman has inadvertently offended. I am, Sir, Your humble fervant, Greek-ftreet, Soho, Dec. 3, 1775 BRY. H-3.. This letter, from Dr. Higgins, Dr. Priestley tells us, contains fuch grofs rudeness, manifeft fhuffling, and abfurdity, as may make the friends of the writer blush for him.-How eafily do we fee a mote in the eye of a brother, while even a beam remains in our own! The impartial reader will very probably think Dr. P. not much lefs grofs, rude, fhuffling, and abfurd, in the courfe of this contemptible fquabble: of which we cannot fpeak with greater propriety than Dr. Brockleby has done in the conclufion of his next letter, in anfwer to the rigid and preremptory cathecizing of his friend Prieffley. "I will now end this very irkfome bufinefs, fays he, with one remark, that the moft fublime philofopher, who weighed diftant worlds as in a balance, and taught wondering mortals many of the most secret laws of nature, as they operate on all matter, had fo great an averfion to dealing in controverfy, that I know, on good authority, the world had like to have been deprived of the Principia, when he apprehended the publication of that book might involve him in any altercation with his cotemporaries; whilft, in our days, on the contrary, I am, against my will, drawn into this long and tedious letter, to fettle whether a philofopher, high in modern rank, has the exclufive privilege in this or that phlogisticated vapor of the mineral, vegetable, or animal kingdoms." That Dr. Brocklefby, who, Dr. Pricftley fneeringly remarks, "has not the character of being the most accurate man in the world," may not have fo clearly conceived the philofophical diftin&tion between experiments, manifeftly exhibiting fo little difference, is very probable; Dr. Priestley himfelf owning it has been with difficulty he could make make many even of his philofophical acquaintance, enter clearly into his conceptions. Dr. Brocklesby's candour, however, on this occafion, does as much honour to his temper and difpofition, as his eftimation of the importance of Dr. P.'s difcoveries reflect credit on his judgment. That the Doctor himself entertains the most exalted idea of them, appears from his thinking it worth while to defend thus tooth and nail his exclufive right to what he, inconfiftently enough at other times, affects to be only a mere adventitious implement of human induftry in difcovering. From the very particular account of his whole intercourse with Dr. Higgins, which he has taken the trouble to lay before the public, we thall felect only what he calls the catastrophe. "I come now, fays he, to the catastrophe of our acquaintance, of which he has given very different accounts, and concerning which I have formed different conjectures, in confequence of viewing it in dif ferent lights, as I fhould do any remarkable appearance in philofophy. As I always told him, when I applied to him for any fubftance, or preparation, what I wanted it for, I fometimes afked him whether he could not recommend to me fomething else that was likely to anfwer my purpose better; and fometimes he would tell me, and fometimes he declined it; almost always concluding the converfations we had upon thefe fubjects with telling me that I must attend a complete courfe of chemistry. I always replied, that I had not time for it; never fufpecting what he was aiming at all the while; till at length, upon his urging me on this head more strongly than before, and my telling him more peremptorily than before, that I really could not spare time for any fuch thing, he faid very abruptly, that "his time was fo much "taken up with neceffary bulinefs, that, without meaning any perfon "in particular, he was obliged to come to a general refolution, to anfwer no queftions but fuch as he was paid for." This, in a moment, difclofed to me, (as I then concluded) what I was aftonished I should not have difcovered before, viz. that his little object had been to get my fubfcription for attending his courfe. Difconcerted as I was, I had the prefence of mind to commend his refolution, as very neceflary for a person of his many engagements; and after this I called upon him no more. "Till this laft converfation, which was in his own houfe, while he was fhaving himfe f, and confequently did not engross any of his valuable time, I had feen nothing in his behaviour (making the reasonable allowances above-mentioned) that could give me offence, nor did I perceive any mark of his having conceived the leaft diflike to my vifits. Even this very last time that I was with him, part of his converfation was, to all appearance, very friendly. He then mentioned to me, particularly, Mr. Wilfon's Book on Phosphori, and expreffed the ftrongest difapprobation of his treatment of me in it; faying, he bated fuch things among philofophers; and added, that he had freely told a friend of Mr. Wilfon, who would be fure to tell him again, that, befides the malice of the thing, he was quite wrong with respect to the fact. "Could I imagine that aman who talked to me in this manner, was, at the fame time withing to get rid of me? I therefore conclude, that his determination was occafioned by the converfation that immediately followed this, and by which he found that I abfolutely refused to at tend tend his lecture; whether his view was merely to get my fubfcription money, which I then imagined to be his object, as thofe of my friends to whom I told the story can witnefs: or whether he meant to engage my attendance upon his lecture with a view to fomething farther, as I now conjecture, viz. that he might have the honour of being my inftractor, and thereby have a pretence for laying claim to all my experiments. "That I took up too much of his time, I am fatisfied is an after-invention; and in his letter to me he makes no complaint of that kind, but alludes to fomething elfe, which he fays I know, but concerning which I can only form conjectures. "When I confider every thing relating to this business, I cannot eafily fatisfy myself with any hypothefis, to account for Dr. H's beha viour to me. He is a man altogether unknown to the world. He has not diftinguished himlelf by any philofophical discovery that I have yet heard of, and the airs he may give himfelf in his clafs, or in converfation, are nothing to the world at large. He may, in fact, be as great a man as Lord Bacon, Sir Ifaac Newton, or Mr. Boyle; and if his performances fhould correfpond to the idea that his printed Syllabus is calculated to give us of him, he must be a greater man than any of them, and indeed greater than all the three put together. But then this cannot be known to the world, till his experiments, proving the difcoveries that he has announced, be actually made, and an account of them be published, which will require at least fome months, (though before that time his fubfcribers may have an opportunity of knowing whether he be, in fact, the great man that he gives himself out to be or not; and fome of them, it can hardly be doubted, will have zeal or indifcretion enough to whisper the fame of their maftor, whatever injunétion his modefty may lay them under) and during the time that I had the honour of his acquaintance, he had not fo much as announced his importance to the world; for his famous Syllabus was not then published, fo that even now, and much more fo far back as the fpring of the prefent year, he must be confidered as an obfcure perfon, to whom confequently, the countenance of a perfon more known to the word might be fuppofed to be of ufe. "Now, with refpect to myfelf, whether it has come to me by inheritance, or by acquifition, juft or unjuft, whether it is owing to good fortune, or defert, it is fact, that I have been fome years in poffeflion of the most refpectable acquaintance that this country can furnish; and as it is almoft univerfally true of English Philofophers, that they are much more celebrated abroad than at home, this has, of courfe, been the cafe with myfelf as well as others, and, by fome accident or other, perhaps in a greater proportion with respect to me than most others; in confequence of which, being naturally warm, and I will add conftant in my attachments, it could not but be much in my power to befriend any man in the fituation of Dr. H―s; who, one would imagine, would, therefore, rather wish to be brought forward by my friendship, than rafhly make me his enemy.' (To be continued.) LIST of BOOKS and PAMPHLETS, Recently published, of which a more particular account is deferred. ART. 19. Dr. Burney's Hiftory of Mufic. 4to H. 11s. 6d. Robinson. ART. 20. Reflections Critical and Moral on the Letters of the late Earl of Chesterfield. By Thomas Hunter, M. A. 4s. Cadell. ART. 21. Obfervation. on the Bill intended to be offered to Parliament for the better Relief and Employment of the Poor. Cadell. IS. ART. 22. Subfcription; or Hiftorical Extracts. 2s. 6d. Hay. ART. 23. A Letter to a young Nobleman fetting out on his Travels. Is. 6d. Owen. ART. 24. De Utilitate Linguæ Arabica, in Studiis Theologicis, Oratio; habita Oxonii, in Schola linguarum, vii Id. Aprilis, 1775Auctore Jofepho White, A. M. 1s. 6d. White. ART. 25. A Defeription of the County of Middlefex, (including London and Westminster.) 3s. 6d. Snagg. . ART. 26. The Duty of Hearers. A Sermon preached at Palgrave, in Suffolk, at the Ordination of the Rev. Mr. Barbauld, Mr. Beynon, Mr. Alderfon, and Mr. Pilkington, Sept. 13, 1775By John Whitefide. Is. Buckland. ART. 27. Afhort Account of the prefent Epidemic Cough and Fever. By William Grant, M. D. 6d. Cadell. ART. 28. A Differtation on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to brute Animals. By Humphry Primatt, D. D. 4s. Johnfon. ART. 29. AGrammar of the Arabic Language. 10s. 6d. Murray. ART. 30. An Addrefs to the People, on the Subject of the Contests between Great-Britain and America. 3d. Wilkie. ART. 31. The Hiftory of the Old Fringed Petticoat; a Fragment. 6d. Bew. ART. 32. An Effay on Field Fortification. By J. C. Pleydell. Is. Nourse. ART. 33. A Farming Calendar. IS. Bell. ART. 34. A Letter to the Author of a Pamphlet, entitled; "Confiderations upon the different Modes of finding Recruits for the Army." With a fhort Addrefs to the King's Servants. Is. Bew. ART. 35. The History of Lady Anne Neville, Sifter to the late Earl of Warwick. A Novel. 5s. Jewed, or 6s. bound. Cadell. ART. 36. A folemn Declaration of Mr. Daniel Perreau, addressed to the Public, written by himself. 1s. Evans, Strand. ART. 37. An eafy Introduction to Book-keeping. 1s. 6d. Newbery. ART. 38. An Enquiry into the Nature, Caufe and Cure of a fingular Difeafe of the Eyes, hitherto unknown, and yet common, produced by the Ufe of certain mercurial Preparations. By J. P. Marat, M. D. 15. Nicoll. |