The author recounts his personal and professional life, tracing early education, experiments, and intellectual development while describing scientific investigations, theological views, and political controversies that shaped his work. The narrative blends chronological memoir with reflective commentary on principles and trials, followed by a son's continuation of later years and analytical appendices summarizing chemical, metaphysical, theological, and miscellaneous writings. Throughout, the text emphasizes sustained inquiry, religious conviction, responses to opposition, and the practical consequences of those ideas for public and private life.