intimate correspondence with the most illustrious scholars of that and other countries. It may serve to denote the versatility of his genius, and the varied fields of learning he explored, to give the titles of some of his works: "Charts of History and Biography;" "History of Electricity;" "Discoveries relating to Vision, Light, and Colours;" "Lectures on the Theory and History of Language;" "Principles of Oratory and Criticism." Here were fields enough, one might have thought, to engage and satisfy all the speculations and capacities of the most active mind. But they were all too narrow for Priestley, or were occupied by him merely as the side-grounds of mental recreation wherein his intellectual powers were recruited for the more arduous campaigns of theological and political controversy. His religious and political opinions brought down upon him the fury of the mob's fanaticism in 1781, which all his learning as a philosopher could not avert. His house was burnt, and with it—what was worth the value of a whole town of more brick and mortar—his library, his philosophical apparatus, and manuscripts, including his correspondence with the most illustrious men in the world of science. He retired to London from Birmingham, where he received addresses of sympathy and admiration from different parts of his own country and also from France. But these rather fanned
