THESE consist principally of his Grammar and Lectures on the Theory of Language, his Lectures on Oratory and Criticism, and those on General History and Civil Policy.

The Grammar was first published in 1761. A month after the second edition of it, Dr. Lowth's Grammar came out. The third and last edition of Dr. Priestley's was in 1772. I do not observe any peculiarity in this work. It seems like all Dr. Priestley's writings and compilations, sensible, plain, and intelligible. Dr. Lowth had at that time more reputation in the world than Dr. Priestley; his lectures de sacrà poesi Hebrœorum, having deservedly procured him the respect of the literary part of the public. His grammar therefore seems to have interfered with the circulation of Dr. Priestley's.

The Lectures on the Theory of Language and Universal Grammar were printed at Warrington in 1762 in one volume duodecimo. I believe though printed and delivered to the students, it was never fully published; I shall therefore give an account of the subjects treated in this small work, more at length, than if the treatise itself had been generally known.

The first lecture after the introduction is on Articulation, or the power of modulating the voice. This is peculiar, as Dr. Priestley thinks, to the human species. Brute animals, emit sounds, and varieties of sound, the effect and expression of passions and sensations; they have also gestures to make known their wants and feelings: but the superior capability of the organs of speech is perhaps the most important characteristic of humanity.