He was alarmed by what Boyle had done. Newton gave us his laws of mechanical motion, but he kept his deeper alchemical beliefs secret. A hundred and fifty years later we would use Newton's mechanics to describe atoms and molecules. Scientists have always fought over their claims. But much of that combat reminds us of Price facing the Royal Society with a vial of poison in his coat pocket.
Most scientific combat is waged over convictions that're no less tenuous.
I believe it was trying to live in a world in which, like ours, doubt is made a greater sin than error. Price died in a world where it was nobler to embrace conviction than it was to seek out, define, and ultimately reduce ignorance.