RICHARD, Fellow of the Royal Society of London and of the Academy of Sciences, New England, was born at Tynron in Glamorganshire on the 22d of February 1723. His father was a dissenting minister at Bridgend in that county, and died in 1739. At eight years of age he was placed under a Mr Simmons of Neath; and four years afterwards he was removed to Pentwyn, in Caernarvonshire, where he was placed under the Rev. Samuel Jones, whom he represented as a man of a very enlarged mind, and who first inspired him with liberal sentiments of religion. Having lived as long with him as with Mr Simmons, he was sent to Mr Griffith's academy at Talgarth in Breconshire. In 1740 he lost his mother, upon which he quitted the academy and proceeded to London. Here he was settled at the academy of which Mr Eames acted as the principal tutor, under the patronage of his uncle, the Rev. S. Price, who was for upwards of forty years co-pastor with Dr Watts. At the end of four years he left this academy, and resided with Mr Streatchfield, of Stoke Newington, in the quality of domestic chaplain; whilst at the same time he regularly assisted Dr Chandler at the Old Jewry, and occasionally assisted others. Having lived with Mr Streatchfield nearly thirteen years, he was induced to change his situation, and in the year 1757 married Miss Blundell of Leicestershire. He then settled at Hackney; but being shortly afterwards chosen minister at Newington Green, he lived there until the death of his wife, which took place in 1786, when he returned to Hackney. He was next chosen afternoon preacher at the meeting-house in Poor Jewry Street; but this he resigned on being elected pastor of the Gravel-pit Meeting, Hackney, and afternoon preacher at Newington Green. These he resigned with a farewell sermon in February 1791. Shortly afterwards he was attacked with a nervous fever, which reduced him to such a degree, that, worn out with agony and disease, he died on the 19th of April 1791. He bequeathed his property to a sister and two nephews.

In morals, Dr Price's principles were those of Cudworth and Clarke; and by many persons who have themselves adopted a very different theory, he is allowed to have defended these principles with greater ability than any other writer in the English language. In metaphysics he was a very great admirer of Plato, from whom he borrowed his doctrine concerning ideas. He was a firm believer in the immateriality of the soul; but with Dr Law, the learned bishop of Carlisle, he thought that from death to the resurrection of the body it remains in a dormant and quiescent state. He contended for its indivisibility, but maintained, at the same time, its extension; which, in the celebrated controversy with Dr Priestley, furnished the latter with some advantages which his own acuteness would never have obtained. In propagating his political principles, which were republican, he sometimes expressed himself with undue vehemence; and he was a zealous enemy to all religious establishments, which in his opinion encroach upon that liberty with which Christ has made us free. His faith respecting the Son of God was what has sometimes been called Low Arianism, and sometimes Semi-Arianism. From a very early age he claimed the privilege of thinking for himself on every subject. His father was a rigid Calvinist, and spared no pains to instil his own theological dogmas into the tender mind of his son; but young Richard would often start his doubts and difficulties, and sometimes incur the old man's displeasure by arguing against his favourite system with a perplexing ingenuity, and a solidity that could not easily be overturned. He had once the misfortune to be caught reading a volume of Clarke's sermons, which his father, in great wrath, snatched from him and threw into the fire. Perhaps he could not have taken a more effectual method to make the book a favourite, or to excite the young man's curiosity in regard to the other works of the same author; and it is by no means improbable but that this orthodox bigotry contributed more than any other circumstance to lay the foundation of his son's Arianism. An elegant notice of Price's moral system will be found in the Second Preliminary Dissertation.

In 1763 or 1764 he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed largely to the transactions of that learned body; in 1769 he received from Aberdeen a diploma creating him Doctor of Divinity; and in 1783 the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by the college of Yale in Connecticut. As in the year 1770 he refused an American degree which had been conveyed to him by Dr Franklin, his acceptance of one, thirteen years afterwards, can be attributed only to his extravagant attachment to a republican form of government.

To posterity his works will be his monument. They are—A Review of the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals, 1758; Some Observations on Providence, 1767, 8vo; Observations on Rever- sionary Payments, 1771, 8vo; A Letter to Mr. North on Debts, 1773, 8vo; Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, 1776; On the Rationality and Necessity, in a Correspondence between Dr Price and Dr Priestley, 1779; On Annuities, Assurance, and Population, 1779, 8vo; On the Population of England, 1780; On the Public Debts, Finances, and Loans, 1783, 8vo; On Reversionary Payments, 1783, 2 vols.; On the Importance of the American Revolution, 1784; besides Sermons, and a variety of papers in the Philosophical Transactions on Astronomy and other philosophical subjects. (The Memoirs of the Life of Richard Price, D.D., by Wm. Morgan, F.R.S., London, 1815, 8vo.)

Thomas, an eminent Welshman, was born near Builth in Brecknockshire in 1788, and was educated for the church at the college of Brecknock. After settling down as vicar of Cwmdu in 1825, he appeared before the public as a man of great and many-sided activity. There Pribrard was scarcely a gentlemanly accomplishment which he did not practise. He was an excellent swimmer, and an adept in archery and other athletic games. He carved in wood, modelled in wax and cork, etched with success, and played upon the Welsh harp. Nor did these elegant pastimes detain him from more elevated pursuits. His exertions for the honour of his nation were untiring. The Welsh Eisteddfod, or literary gatherings, received his thoroughgoing support. No less than fifteen Welsh periodicals were enriched by his contributions. Several essays on the Welsh literature proceeded from his pen. A Welsh history, Hanes Cymru, was published by him between 1836 and 1842. He continued, in fact, to be the great champion of his countrymen till his death in 1848. The most important of this author's works are contained in the Literary Remains of the Rev. Thomas Price, with a Memoir of his Life, by Jane Williams, Ysgafell, in 2 vols. 8vo, Llandovery, 1854-55.