1733-1804
DURING the reign of George II. and six years before the war with Spain, Joseph Priestley was born on 13th March 1733, at Fieldhead, a hamlet near Leeds. He was destined to be a remarkable man in more ways than one, whose work will live as long as time endures, and whose moral character was above reproach.
Priestley's father was a cloth dresser, and his mother a farmer's daughter. The mother dying when Priestley was seven years old, the home, managed by his father's sister, became the meeting-place of numerous dissenting ministers, who helped to mould the character of the boy, for in after life his work became divided between science on the one hand, and theology, metaphysics, and politics on the other. During his schooldays and subsequently he acquired a knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldean, Arabic, French, Italian, and Dutch; also logic, metaphysics, mathematics, and natural philosophy. Although not blessed with the best of health, he was always of a cheerful temperament, so much so that he
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