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i284 THE LE A P E R. [No. 453, November ...
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LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &c. 41 ¦ ¦ "'¦ -
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SIR HUMPHRY DAYY'S REMAINS. Fragmentary ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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I284 The Le A P E R. [No. 453, November ...
i 284 THE LE A P E R . [ No . 453 , November 27 , 1858 .
Literature, Science, Art, &C. 41 ¦ ¦ "'¦ -
LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , & c . 41 ¦ ¦ "'¦ -
Sir Humphry Dayy's Remains. Fragmentary ...
SIR HUMPHRY DAYY'S REMAINS . Fragmentary Remains , Literary and Scientific , of Sir Humphry Davy , with a Sketch qf his Life , and Selections from his Correspondence . Edited by his Brother , John Davy , M . D ., F . K . S . John Churchill , Two Lives of Sir Humphry Davy have already come before the public , one by * Dr . Paris , published in 1831 , the other by his brother , in 1 S 39 . The present volume is supplemental to these , and contains materials which have gradually c ome into the author ' s hands , on the decease of such of Sir Humphrv ' s early friends as Southey , Coleridge , and who had
his friend Got tie , the Bristol bookseller , been his cherished correspondents through his life . We gladly hail the opportunity once more to refresh our own and our readers' memories by travelling over again the life ofso great and good a man . We ought to add that no inconsiderable part of the interest of the volume attaches to those parts of it for the opportunity of the publication of which Dr . Davy expresses his acknowledgments to the relatives and executors of the witty and agreeable Lady Davy , whose reunions were till a few years ago a leading feature in the literary society of the
metropolis . We need riot detain our readers with any recapitulation of the details of Davy ' s early life ; his birth at Penzance , of respectable middle-class parents , in 1778 , his obligations to the friend of £ is youth , Mr . John Tonkin , who received him into his house , provided for his education , and articled him to the profession , in whose studies he laid the groundwork of his chemical proficiency . It is enough to say that the facts adduced in this volume , and in ( he previous biographies which lie before us , fully justify what his brother says in his former life of Sir Humphry at this early stage of his
life : —" Tliere belonged to his mind , it cannot be doubted , the genuine quality of genius , or that power of intellect which exalts its possessor above the crowd , and which , by its own energies and native vigour , grows and expands , and conies to maturity , aided indeed , and modified by circumstances , but in no wise created by them . " The sequel proves that these " circumstances" were not so unfavourable as to entitle Davy to a place in the meritorious band of patient heroes whom Mr . Craik has grouped together in . the noble gallery of those who have , par excellence , pursued knowledge
under difficulties , yet not fortunately and accidentally propitious , but occurring at each stage just at the time when Davy ' s merits made each advancing step , while creditable to the discrimination of those who helped him on , in no degree to be placed to the account of their pure disinterestedness . This applies in some measure to his almost adoption by % \\ Tonkin , and thoroughly to Jiis appointment , at the age of twenty , to the care of the Pneumatic Institution at Bath , and his subse quent removal to the Royal Institution in its then lmmble establishment in Albemarle-street .
The volume throws considerable light on his early " self-education , " that most interesting part of the histories of those who rise to greatness . From a note-book , with the date of the year of his apprenticeship on its fly-leaf , we gain this comprehensive plan chalked out by lam for study : •—c « 1 . Theology or Religion , Ethics or Moral Virtues taught by pTature and by Revelation ; 2 . Geography ; 3 . My Profession : a , Botany ; b , Pharmacy ; e , Nosology ; d , Anatomy ; e , Surgery ; / J Chemistry ; 4 s . Logic ; 5 . Language , & c . " A sufficiently wide laying of timbers for the handicraft of a life to complete ; interesting especially as demonstrating that as yet lie had not appeared
to have developed the bent of hiB future lifp . Southoy , indeed , evidently endorsing the untenable dioluvi of Dr . Johnson , that genius is but the direction of an original strength and activity of mind to an object accidentally determined , explicitly expressess the opinion that in othor fields , such even as poetry ( hero ho judges from early and unfulfilled promise , and his judgment doubtless warped by tho pardonable partiality of friendshi p ^ , Davy would nave gained as enduring laurels as those ho plucked from Fus batteries and crucibles . To drawing and painting ho early devoted hi ? attention , and Ins fcrothor believes that it was the mixture of pigments that first attracted and evokod Ills native predilection
for chemistry and the wondrous and exciting combinations of the laboratory of Nature and of Nature ' s pupil and enlightened follower , experimental natural science . So early as 179 S he was in correspondence with Dr . Beddoes , on the subjects of heat and light , and had indicated those future important discoveries in this department , which paved the way for the final result at which such men as Arago and Davy ' s great pupil Earaday have arrived , that heat , light , magnetism , and electricity are the same force under different aspects and conditions . Our scientific readers need not be informed bv us that the
absolute identity of these four , although received as certain , awaits , for full and final confirmation , if not explanation , the results of those further researches in this field in which Faraday is understood to be patiently engaged . We can hardly choose whither to give most prominence , in our necessarily meagre summary , to the interesting mass of correspondence from men of letters which the volume contains , or to Davy ' s great discoveries as indicated by the new facts concerning their progress and completion now afforded to us . Perhaps our best course will be to
consult varied tests by giving a few sentences to each theme . One or two letters are given to and from Gregory , the son of James Watt , who was early cut down , but not till he had given promise of worthily maintaining his father ' s name in science and its useful applications . Both are eager , as their letters show , to discover new minerals . Imagination might indulge in the conjecture that if Watt had lived , he too might have given to chemistry his contributions of new metals , yet to be discovered , as against Davy ' s Sodium Potassium ; and the like . Southey writes from his various
temporary residences in the west of England , announcing the progress of his poems , and his projects for many never executed by him , and criticising Davy ' s own contributions to Cottle ' annual Anthology His sense of Davy ' s poetic taste is best proved by this fact : When- asked by a mutual friend , after ^ Sir Humphry ' s death , "Might he have been a poet P" he replied , " Davy was a most extraordinary man . He had all the elements of a poet ; he only wanted the art . I have read beautiful verses of his ; when I went to Portugal I left it to Davy to revise and publish my poem of Thalaba . " that the im
To attempt to prove , as we believe , - agination , of all discoverer in science is akin in its grandeur and fertility to the poetic fervour , would lead us away into a tempting but devious by-way . But it will not be denied that If of any man this similarity could be established , Davy was that man . With the high gifts of nature which men denominate genius he combined , like all poets who have made themselves as great as God gave them the power of being great , industry and zeal of research and accuracy of finish . Bold and high-soaring , Davy at once , as if by intuition , rose to the loftiest flight . And , however , higli « e rose , his eye , if not quickly , at all events surely , swept the horizon . His imagination , fertile and inventive generally , was « um . o ! a 11 i .. Jiunnf'Aii . ah / I It m \ f \ r % niAof f \ X Ilia MlfiPAVAPIPQ
—to the perception of conjectural analogies , which became to him the light gleaming , as to Bunyan ' s Pilgrim , from tho bright battlements of the city he was seeking , and to which , irradiated by the light his own soul had evoked , ho worked up his way by slow and irrefragable induction :. of Inductive Logic ho had mastered the spirit , and clothed with warm flesh the bare skeleton of its lotter . Not only , with it as a guide , did lie classify facts of limited importance , in his hands it developed laws applicable to natural phenomena almost universal . His inspiration and incitement over was a sense of the beauty and harmony with which God has clothed the perfect chemistry of Nat lire . Besides tho other substantial grounds on which
being vitiated by the respiration of animals . One letter from Priestley to Davy is given . It is dated Northumberlana ( U . S . ) , October 31 , 1801 . He gracefully recognises the services Sir Humphry had abeady rendered to science , especially ia his discovery of the anaesthetic and other influences of the gaseous vapour of nitrous oxide , now popularly known as laughing-gas . Although Dr . Davy does not profess to rewrite his brother ' s life , the newmatter presented is linked together by a sufficient and most unobtrusive chain of narrative . When lie comes to Davy ' s removal to the lloyal Institution , he summarises the objects to which lie directed the first researches which he- mado with the aid of
its ample laboratory . The usefulness of his researches , and the immediate applicability of his discoveries to arts and avocations , are fairly urged and dwelt on . The trade of tanning owes to him much of its economy and efficiency ; and his lectures on agricultural chemistry have perhaps been only less serviceable to the farmer than the writings and predilections of Jjicbig . By the aid of voltaic electricity he performed the great feat of decomposing the fixed alkalis , adding to the number of the metals , and causing a complete and fruitful rearrangement of the whole nomenclature of chemistrv .
Letters to brother sa ' vatis , and to illustrious literary friends , all of them breathing the warmth of personal regard , as well as enriched by the enthusiasm of common studies and sympathies , are cold in comparison with the specimens we have of his home correspondence to his mother , sisters , ' and his brother and biographer . Over his brother ' s professional studies , and equally over his character and conduct , he watches with the grave solicitude of a father on the equal footing of . a brother . To his little sisters he wrote as children of the same age might have written them ; and his letters home often tell you of the souvenirs contained in them to be bestowed on humble friends and old family
servants . ., - . . We pass over without comment the pleasing piscatorial and venutorial episodes narrated by Dr . Davy and chronicled . in Sir Humphry ' s letters ; and also—what we must confess we had rather the book had-wanted , considering the sanctity of domestic life , not without undeniably sufficient cause to be invaded , and the obligations under which the author is indirectly placed for much of his materials want oi
to the late Lady Davy—some allusions to a the full happiness of domestic life to which bir Humphry ' s childlessness and the highly nervous temperament and delicate health of his wile contributed . His love letters arc stately and methodical , though warm ; and the staple of their contents is literary , psychological , and geographical small talk ! , ,. lA 111 health , produced by a too great devotion to the duties of the laboratory , and on excessive readiness to experimentalise on himself with . chemical 5 ia
simples and compounds , carry him < or «* nwu « to the Continent more than once . U hither Ins biograriher leads us with him ; in this , as in other pa ta Sf the sketch , wisely leaving Sir Hump hry s notebooks and letters to toll their own story . He turns up again , near Ultima Tluile , living at P ™ J Castle , eagerly stalking , shooting wild io \ yl , n » a oxtending his angling practice from par a » " OT " ling to tlio strong salmon of northern 4 f » Wherever wo discover him , whether amid tlio turns of Passtum , by Avon side , or in the deep gorges o Highland brooks , we find him hunting lor lieu " with tho thorough zest of a hearty son ol imtuic . ol
open to cvory enlivening influence granu ^ »»« jscenery , and never for one day ceasing to c . \ pui mentaliso , in practice or in husbanded intent . Tho discovery of tho safety-lamp , lllrc ! -L ' . !? details before tlio public and tlioroloro quick y ais missed by our author , is soon followed by «» baronetcy and his elevation to the olmir ol vno Royal Socioty . His labours directed to clcflUo magnetism and electro-chemistry arc nlluciou * , and also his device for tho . preservation of i » o coppe ^ shcatlring . of vessels . I'l . p camp * v ° failure of tlio latter , however , as not stuiea . Honours , ' addresses , letters , mortals , »»/' , ' " " neither these nor " Consolations in Travo / wilj s . ? tho " Philosopher" from "Last Pays . At m 8 U
England , so ungrateful in his lifetime , ought to revere the memory of Dr . Priestley , it will bo rocollcoted that his scientific discoveries place him in a , niche second in honour to few English chemists . He was tho first to discover o xygen gas , as also the part performed by vegetables in tnoir growth under the influence of tho sun ' s rays , in decomposing carbonic acid , and , whilst assimilating tho oarbon , throwing off the oxygen , thoroby salubriously compensating tho danger of tho atmosphere
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27111858/page/12/
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