Priestley in America Part 13

Yesterday he had strength enough to look over a revise of the _Annotations_ he was publishing on the Old and New Testament, and this morning he dictated in good language some notices which he wished his son Mr. Priestley to add to his unpublished works. I am sure you will sincerely regret the decease of a man so highly eminent and useful in the literary and philosophical world, and so much presumably your friend.

Yes, the valiant old champion of a lost cause was no more. Two days before his death "he went to his laboratory"--but, finding his weakness too great, with difficulty returned to his room. Loyal to his science to the very end!

To American chemists he appeals strongly because of his persistent efforts in research. His coming to this country aroused a real interest in the science which has not waned in the slightest since his demise.

When the sad news reached the Hall of the American Philosophical Society, Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton was chosen to eulogize Priestley.

This notable event took place on January 3rd, 1805. The _Aurora_ reported:

Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, one of the vice-presidents of the American Philosophical Society, having been previously appointed by the society to deliver an eulogium to the memory of their late a.s.sociate, Dr. Joseph Priestley, the same was accordingly delivered in the First Presbyterian Church in this city, on Thursday the 3rd inst. before the society, who went in a body from their hall to the church, preceded by their patron, the governor of the state. Invitations were given on this occasion to the Revd.

Clergy of the city; the college of Physicians; the Medical Society; the gentlemen of the Bar, with the students at Law; the trustees and faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, with their students in the Arts and in Medicine; the judges and officers of the federal and state Courts; the foreign ministers and other public characters then in the city; the mayor; aldermen and city councils: the trustees and session of the First Presbyterian Church; the directors of the City Library; the directors and Physicians of the Pennsylvania Hospital, of the Alms House, and of the Dispensary; the proprietor and Director of the Philadelphia Museum; and the contributors towards the Cabinet and Library of the Society. After the conclusion of a very interesting eulogium, the society returned their thanks to the orator, and requested a copy for the purpose of publication.

One's curiosity is quickened on thinking what Barton said in his address. Search in many directions failed to bring forth the Eulogium.

It had been ordered to be printed in the Transactions of the Society.

This was never done. But there was a minute (seven years later) in the meeting of the Society (Nov. 6, 1812) to the effect that

Dr. Barton's request for permission to withdraw it (Eulogium) to be enlarged and published separately was referred for consideration to the next meeting.

The request was granted at the next meeting, but nowhere among Barton's literary remains was the precious doc.u.ment to be found. Lost very probably--when it might have revealed so much.

Priestley's death was deeply mourned throughout the land. The public prints brought full and elaborate accounts of his life, and touching allusions to the fullness of his brilliant career. Such expressions as these were heard,--

As a metaphysician he stands foremost among those who have attempted the investigation of its abstruse controversies.

As a politician he a.s.siduously and successfully laboured to extend and ill.u.s.trate those general principles of civil liberty which are happily the foundation of the Const.i.tution of his adopted Country,--

His profound attention to the belles-lettres, and to the other departments of general literature, has been successfully exemplified among his other writings, by his lectures on oratory and criticism, and on general history and policy,--

Of the most important and fashionable study of _Pneumatic Chemistry_ he may fairly be said to be the father.

He was a man of restless activity, but he uniformly directed that activity to what seemed to him the public good, seeking neither emolument nor honour from men. Dr. Priestley was possessed of great ardour and vivacity of intellect.... His integrity was unimpeachable; and even malice itself could not fix a stain on his private character.

And what a splendid tribute is contained in the following pa.s.sages from Cuvier:

Priestley, loaded with glory, was modest enough to be astonished at his good fortune, and at the mult.i.tude of beautiful facts, which nature seemed to have revealed to him alone. He forgot that her favours were not gratuitous, and if she had so well explained herself, it was because he had known how to oblige her to do so by his indefatigable perseverance in questioning her, and by the thousand ingenious means he had taken to s.n.a.t.c.h her answers from her.

Others carefully hide that which they owe to chance; Priestley seemed to wish to ascribe all his merit to fortuitous circ.u.mstances, remarking, with unexampled candour, how many times he had profited by them, without knowing it, how many times he was in possession of new substances without having perceived them; and he never dissimulated the erroneous views which sometimes directed his efforts, and from which he was only undeceived by experience.

These confessions did honour to his modesty, without disarming jealousy. Those to whom their own ways and methods had never discovered anything called him a simple worker of experiments, without method and without an object "it is not astonishing,"

they added, "that among so many trials and combinations, he should find some that were fortunate." But real natural philosophers were not duped by these selfish criticisms.

Many encomiums like the preceding--yes, a thousandfold--could easily be gathered if necessary to show the regard and confidence held for this remarkable man to whom America is truly very deeply indebted.

Some years ago the writer paid a visit to the G.o.d's Acre of Northumberland. He arrived after dark and was conveyed to the sacred place in an automobile. Soon the car stopped. Its headlights illuminated the upright flat stone which marked the last resting place of the great chemist, and in that light not only was the name of the sleeper clearly read but the less distinct but legible epitaph:

Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. I will lay me down in peace and sleep till I wake in the morning of the resurrection.

Pondering on these lines there slowly returned to mind the words of Franklin's epitaph,--Franklin, who, years before, had encouraged and aided the n.o.ble exile, who was ever mindful of the former's goodness to him:

The Body of Benjamin Franklin Printer (Like the cover of an old book Its contents torn out And stript of its lettering and gilding) Lies here food for Worms But the work shall not be lost For it will (as he believed) appear once more In a new and more elegant Edition Revised and corrected by The Author

And then, by some strange mental reaction, there floated before the writer the paragraph uttered by Professor Huxley, when in 1874 a statue to Priestley was unveiled in the City of Birmingham:

Our purpose is to do honour ... to Priestley the peerless defender of national freedom in thought and in action; to Priestley the philosophical thinker; to that Priestley who held a foremost place among the 'swift runners who hand over the lamp of life,' and transmit from one generation to another the fire kindled, in the childhood of the world, at the Promethean altar of science.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Chemistry in Old Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila., Pa.]

[Footnote 2: Correspondence of Priestley by H. C. Bolton, New York, 1892.]

[Footnote 3: Mr. Berthollet discovered that oxygenated muriatic gas, received in a ley of caustic potash, forms a chrystallizable neutral salt, which detonates more strongly than nitre.]

[Footnote 4: Nine Famous Birmingham Men--Cornish Brothers, Publishers, 1909.]

[Footnote 5: James Woodhouse--A Pioneer in Chemistry--J. C. Winston Co., Phila.--1918.]

[Footnote 6: James Woodhouse--A pioneer in Chemistry--J. C. Winston Co., Phila.--1918.]

[Footnote 7: See _Chemistry in America_, Appleton & Co. and _Chemistry in Old Philadelphia_, The J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, Pa.]

[Footnote 8: The original of this letter is now the property of Dr. C.

A. Browne, New York. He graciously permitted it to be inserted here.]