Nor was any man less averse to the innocent pleasures of social enjoyment than Dr. Priestley, or better calculated as well as more inclined to contribute to the common stock of amusing, and instructive conversation. It cannot indeed be truly said of him, as Dr. Johnson[62] once related of himself, that he had never refused an invitation to dinner on account of business but once in his life, yet no man more readily found leisure for social intercourse. This arose from his habit of dividing his time into certain portions appropriated to his respective pursuits, and determining to perform a certain quantity of literary duty, within the assigned period. [62] On that day, (Dr. Johnson said) as it was an unusual deprivation, he found himself disinclined, and unable to attend steadily to the work that led him to refuse the invitation. He walked about his library occasionally looking over first one book and then another until about four o’clock when weary of staying within he went to a tavern to dine. Dr. Johnson had for a long time a dislike to Dr. Priestley who bore two of the characters most in disrepute with Dr. Johnson, that of a whig and a dissenter. Dr. Priestley’s pursuits also consisting so largely of heterodox theology, which Dr. Johnson abominated, and experimental philosophy which he heartily despised, they had hardly a common point of union. Toward the latter part of Johnson’s life, they met; and upon the friendly terms that ought to obtain between two men, who, each in their way, deserved so well of the republic of letters. The first edition of his history of Electricity, was in 1767: it went through another edition in 1769, and a third in 1775. It was published at a very happy time, when electricity was a favourite object of attention to many respectable men of science then living, and it contributed in a great degree to turn the public attention toward the study of these phenomena. Very much of what has been done since may be fairly attributed to the popularity given to this branch of experimental philosophy by Dr. Priestley. Nor did he confine himself to a mere narration of the labours of others; the second volume contains many new experiments of his own, and some of them form very curious and important additions to the stock of electrical knowledge.[63] The discoveries of the last thirty years, particularly including those of Galvanic Electricity, are so numerous, and so dispersed in volumes difficult to be procured, that a continuation of this history is a desideratum in the scientific world; at one time there was an expectation of seeing it from the pen of Mr. Nicholson, whose general knowledge, and industry, as well as his attention to this branch of philosophy in particular, render him peculiarly qualified for the task. But the proposals he communicated to Dr. Priestley, on the subject, were not pursued to effect.[64]