The doctrine of phlogiston established, and that of the composition of water refuted / by Joseph Priestley.

  • Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804.
Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The doctrine of phlogiston established, and that of the composition of water refuted / by Joseph Priestley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    But the evidence of thia great truth, tho' of the moft fatisfaftory kind, notbein^;^ that o[ fcnjt, but re- quiring attention and njltCiion, pcrlons much engag- ed in the bufinefs of the world, and even in literary and fcientificul purluits, are not always convinced by it. It alfo requires a candid and well difpolcd mind, and therefore philofophers (who have their prejudices as well as other men} are not always chriflians. A- mong thofe of this clafs I am, however, happy in being able to rank not a few, who would do honour to any caufe ; and the number of truly philofophical chrifli- ans, I am well perfuaded, will in due time increafc. As Paul faid to king Agrippa, who faid that he had almoft; perfuaded him to be a chriftian, that he wilhed that both he, and all who then heard him, •* were both almoft, and altdgether, fuch ashe himfelf was, except his bonds; fo there is no greater hap- pinefs that I can wifti to all my philofophical friend?, than that, with rcfpett to religion, and their future prof- pefts, they were what I am, without the calumnies, and the ftill more fcrious injuries, to which I have been, cxpofed. Without a view to this future fituation. all our purfuits appear to me to have little in rhem tJiat isin- tcrefting, eipecially in the decline of life, and the near profpeft of death, which, if it put a period to our ex- iftance, involves every thing in everlafting darknefs, leaving us uncertain whether even the world itfclf, and the whole race of man, as well as all other animals, may not be doomed to deftruflion. How gloomy is this profpeS, and how dead and indifferent does it render a relleifting mind to every great purfuit. How thankful, then, ought we to be for an alTu- rance of an endlefs flate of cxiftence, and in circum- ftances infinitely more favourable than the prefent. The evidence of this great doftrinc (m comparifon with which every other inquiry is as nothing) is lure-