great personality that even those with .whom lie contended
most bitterly became, after they learned to know him, liis
most intimate friends..
While objectively his great discovery in chemistry re
mains andwillremaina wonderful factor in chemical science,
the progress of that science, siuce his day, has so far left be
hind what.he knew of principles, of materials, and of appara
tus, that.he appears already chiefly as a personag'e in chemi
cal history. Like Bacon, he pointed the way into a rich
realm he could not enter and to-day I speak of him not in
sorrow but in triumph because he was a great scientist, be
cause he brought his labors and fame from intolerant England
to a welcoming America, because he was a man of large and
varied learning, because he was a righteous man, honest,
pure, just and true, and because these traits are the heralds
of the highest type of mankind. All may not be able to tra
verse the wide realms of science or penetrate deeply the mys
teries of nature, yet all can pay due tribute of respect and
reverence to the man who stands with Galileo, Newton, Har
vey, Franklin, and Humboldt, grand, collosßal, and enduring;
one of the great high priests in the boundless and beautiful
temple of nature. And while in the lapse of everlasting time
all human names may be forgotten, many ages will have come
and gone, and left their silent footmarks upon the earth be
fore the name of Joseph Priestley will have passed from the
records and memories of his fellowmen; for he has written it
in letters of light and glory upon the highest and broadest
pillar of the universe. By right of genius and labor he takes
rank with the dead but sceptered sovereigns who still rule
our spirits from their urns.