In the unceasing activity of Priestley and Lavoisier we may trace the influence of the restlessness of the age; but in the quietness and strength of the best work of these men, and notably in the work of Black; in the calmness with which Priestley bore his misfortunes at Birmingham; in the noble words of Lavoisier, "I am not unwilling to part with life, but I ask time to finish my experiments, because the results will, I believe, be for the good of humanity"—we see the truth of the assertion made by one who was himself a faithful student of Nature—
"Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her."
FOOTNOTES:
[4] The translation is taken from Thomson's "History of Chemistry."
[5] Nevertheless, in other places Lavoisier most readily acknowledges the merits of Priestley.
[6] A similar method of reasoning was employed so far back as the tenth century: thus, in an Anglo-Saxon "Manual of Astronomy" we read, "There is no corporeal thing which has not in it the four elements, that is, air and fire, earth and water.... Take a stick and rub it on something, it becomes hot directly with the fire which lurks in it; burn one end, then goeth the moisture out at the other end with the smoke."
