John McEvoy

In a sermon on the words of St Paul, «And they that are Christ's, have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences», Robert Grosseteste expressed that interior spirituality of the cross which he shared, notably, with the Franciscans. The sermon is located in his sermon-collection but it has not been edited or studied hitherto. Brief though it is, it merits publication and translation, for it instantiates its author's biblical and practical approach both to theology and to the interior life of the believer.

The appearance of Priestley's electrical work as a brief and irrelevant prelude to his more substantial chemical enquiries may explain why it has been strangely overlooked by historians of science. It was only fairly recently that Sir Philip Hartog sought to rectify this situation with the affirmation that ‘Priestley's electrical work offers the key to Priestley's scientific mind’. Attacking traditional chemical historiography for tracing Priestley's opposition to Lavoisier's theory to a deficiency in his scientific sensibilities, Hartog insisted that Priestley's natural philosophy can properly be understood only in relation to his ‘profound convictions on scientific method’ as fully expressed in the History of electricity. Only thus would Priestley's scientific thought be related correctly to his ‘work as a whole’