who did me the honour of admitting me to share intheir instructive conversations. I never think of thehours I so happily spent in that company, without re-gretting that they are never to be repeated; for I seeno prospect of an end to this unhappy war in my time.Dr. Priestley, you tell me, continues his experimentswith great success.”
Though not strictly applicable to the subject underdiscussion, the following extract from another letterof the Doctor’s, of nearly the same date, embodiesso much of his largeness of views, and is so propheticin spirit, that it is worthy of insertion in this place.The letter is addressed to Priestley :—
“ I always rejoice to hear of your being still em-ployed in experimental researches into Nature, and of thesuccess you meet with. The rapid progress true sciencenow makes, occasions my regretting sometimes that Iwas born so soon. It is impossible to imagine the heightto which may be carried, in a thousand years, the powerof man over matter. We may, perhaps, learn to deprivelarge masses of their gravity, and give them absolutelevity, for the sake of easy transport. Agriculture maydiminish its labour and double its produce; all diseasesmay by some means he prevented or cured, not except-ing even that of old age, and our lives lengthened atpleasure even beyond the antediluvian standard.”
This gives us a reflective view of the progress ofscience at this period amongst the Fellows of theSociety, which the American philosopher contributedto advance; for, although living in France , we findhim occasionally transmitting papers for insertion inthe Philosophical Transactions .