LIFE OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY.*

THIS is one of the books that deserve the distinction of a separate review. The brief analysis that we shall be able to give will not be without its value. By conciseness of style much may be communicated in a few pages.

Very judicious remarks occur in these memoirs. After relating the circumstances and incidents of Davy's boyhood, his fraternal biographer observes, that he would not wish to be considered as attaching much importance to them. Thousands of individuals. have been born and brought up amidst similar scenes, and in a manner very little different from him, without being gifted with any unusual abilities; and very many boys have shown indications of precocious talent, superior to his, which has withered in the bud or flower. There belonged, however, to his mind, it cannot be doubted, the genuine quality of genius, or of that power of intellect which exalts its possessor above the crowd, and which, by its own energies and native vigour, grows and expands, and comes to maturity, aided, indeed, and modified by circumstances, but in no wise created by them.

Sir Humphry Davy was the eldest son of Robert and Grace Davy. His native place was Penzance, on the shore of the Mount's Bay in Cornwall. He was born on the 17th of December, 1778, at five o'clock in the morning, as is certified in the cover of a large family Bible, in the handwriting of his father. He was christened on the 22d of January of the following year, and was nursed by his mother. He was a healthy, strong, and active child, and in every respect forward. Such was his precocity, that when scarcely five years old he made rhymes. He was taught reading and writing at a Mr. Bushell's school, from which he was removed to the Rev. Mr. Coryton's Grammar-school, an ill-conducted establishment, yet serviceable to Davy, even from the idleness which it afforded. He nevertheless acquired great facility in the composition of Latin and English verse, in the writing of Valentine and love-letters for his school-fellows, and in telling attractive stories. He took delight in angling, an amusement which remained with him through life. "The earliest indication," writes his brother, " that I am aware of, which he shewed of his fondness for experimenting, for which he was afterwards so distinguished, was in making fire-works. My eldest sister very well remembers, that she was his assistant in this undertaking, and that their workshop was an unfinished room in which, in bad weather, the Rev. Dr. Tonkin (the elder brother of Mr. John Tonkin, his early benefactor), then advanced in age, and a valetudinarian, took exercise on his chamber-horse, a large armchair attached to spring-boards, which boards served for a table for compounding the ingredients of the squibs and crackers."

• Memoirs of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart., LL.D., F.R.S., Foreign Associate of the Institute of France, &c. By his Brother, John Davy, M.D., F.R.S. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., Cornhill, 1839.

On the occasion of his family leaving Penzance to reside at Varfell, which is situated on the shore of the Mount's Bay, separated from the sea by an intervening marsh, and immediately opposite the most striking and beautiful feature in the bay, that from which it derives its name, St. Michael's Mount, young Davy (then only nine years old) took up his abode with Mr. John Tonkin, and was much impressed with a scene relative to which the biographer before us has quoted Milton's lines:

"Where the great Vision of the guarded mount,

Looked toward Namancos and Bayona's hold."

"The country," says our author, "between Varfell and Penzance, a distance of about two miles and a half, is an exquisite specimen of Cornish scenery; the expanse of the ever-varying blue sea on one side, bounded only by the horizon and the distant headlands; on the other side furze-clad hills, and rocky little glens, each pouring down its small clear stream, diversified with green fields, farmhouses, orchards, and other accompaniments of cultivation."

Davy quitted school at the early age of fifteen. The following is Dr. Cardew's testimony of his conduct while under his care. "He gave me much satisfaction, being always regular in the performance of his duties as a schoolboy, and in his general conduct. He was, too, I believe, much liked by his schoolfellows for his good humour; but he did not at that time discover any extraordinary abilities, or, so far as I could observe, any propensity to those scientific pursuits which raised him to such eminence. His best exercises were translations from the classics into English verse."

That the earlier tendencies of Sir Humphry Davy's mind were not to the manifestations of physical science, is the great secret of his after-success. His intellect was sharpened by the previous exercise of his reason on metaphysical topics, or, rather, by the habit of philosophising, even in a transcendental manner, which, with him, from the first, appears to have been rather an instinct than an acquisition. We find, therefore, that his earliest essays in his notebooks were on theology-religion and politics-on the immortality and immateriality of the soul-on body and organised matter-and similar subjects. His first conclusions were in favour of the materialist's theory-but three years sufficed to establish him firmly in the opposite opinion. He seems at one time to have been intent on an essay, bearing the title, "The Christian Religion not repugnant to True Philosophy;" but though the heads were all sketched out, the argument was not filled in. He however completed "A Letter on the pretended Inspiration of the Quakers and other Sectaries." "It is interesting," says our biographer-how truly! "to compare these his early inquiries on the subject of religion with those he engaged in at a later period, as expressed in his Salmonia' and Consolations in Travels.' We may trace in the former the germs of many of the latter; and, indeed, the resemblance is often so marked, that the trains of thought have very much the character of recollections, with this marked difference, however, that in youth he considered reason as all-sufficient, whilst in later life he mis

trusted it, as inadequate, and built his faith on internal or instinctive feeling, rather than on any process of ratiocination. And, I may here further remark, that, in comparing the two periods of his life, in relation to this inquiry, it is instructive to witness how presumptuous and daring is youthful genius; how easily satisfied with the semblance of truth; how modesty, distrust, and humility increase with the acquisition of knowledge; and how, with the conviction of the very limited extent of human knowledge, religious hope and faith also increase."

But Sir Humphry Davy was not only metaphysical, he was also poetical. A poem of his, "The Sons of Genius," was inserted in the "Annual Anthology" of 1799, with the date of 1795, when it was probably conceived. In the beginning of 1796, he entered on the study of the mathematics, and had proceeded as far as the eleventh book of Euclid by the second of January 1797. In this year he commenced the study of natural philosophy, and in November or December began the study of chemistry, when he was just entering on his nineteenth year. The theoretical parts of chemistry first engaged his attention; but he soon entered on a course of experiments.

"The rapidity with which he advanced in his new pursuit is strongly indicated by the circumstance that, in the April following, in the short space of four months, he was in correspondence with Dr. Beddoes, relative to his researches on 'Heat and Light,' and a new hypothesis on their nature, to which Dr. Beddoes became a convert. The results of these researches were the chief subject of his first publication, Essays on Heat and Light,' &c., which appeared in 1799, and were in part written a few months after he had commenced the study of chemistry."

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His progress also was much promoted by his becoming acquainted with Mr. Gregory Watts, then in his twenty-first or twenty-second year, whose information, as well as sympathy, was highly beneficial to a mind then in course of developement; and, also, though in a less degree, by his connection with Mr. Davies Gilbert, afterwards his successor in the chair of the Royal Society. His professional pursuits, also, accorded with his chemical; and, as a student of medicine, he not only gained the favour of the patients of Mr. Borlase, to whom he was apprenticed, but became so proficient, that when he went to Bristol in the fourth year, he was considered competent, by Dr. Beddoes, to take charge of the patients belonging to the Pneumatic Institution.

"If the situation he had accepted, of superintendent of the Pneumatic Institution, had been created purposely for him, it could not have been more suitable to the bent of his genius, or better adapted for calling into activity and developing fully the powers of his mind; and the collateral circumstances generally were not less auspicious. The society he mixed with, Dr. Beddoes' family, of which he became an inmate, and even the scenery by which he was surrounded, all contributed to exercise a favourable influence over him."

Dr. Beddoes' house was then the gathering-point of the society

N. S.-VOL. II.

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of Clifton-and thither Southey, Coleridge, and Tobin resorted; and here also Sir Humphry Davy formed that friendship with the late Mr. Pool, of Nether Stowey in Somersetshire, which was cherished by both ever after. "The extraordinary zeal with which Davy devoted himself to research at this time, and his great powers of application, are forcibly shewn in the rapidity of his labours. His Researches' were published in the summer of 1800." The experiments were all made between April, 1799, the period when he first breathed nitrous oxide, and the time of printing the book. “Ten months," he says, "of incessant labour were employed in making them; three months in detailing them." To repair his strength, exhausted by such labours, he revisited Penzance in October, 1799, for a month, and has left some verses on the incident. Indeed, he still continued to try his hand at essay-writing, and the composition of fictitious narrative, notwithstanding the severity of his scientific pursuits. Few of these were published-of some only the titles and plans are given-but all of them are of a philosophical and metaphysical kind, and intended to illustrate his views on such subjects. Such are the relaxations of great minds! Indeed, it appears that he contemplated the production of a philosophic epic, to be called Moses, and has left a regular plan of its treatment, with some fragments already composed.

But he was destined soon to leave Clifton. By the recommendation of Dr. Hope, he became professor of chemistry at the Royal Philosophical Institution established by Count Rumford. On the 31st of May, 1802, he was formally appointed to the office, having entered it a year before on probation as assistant lecturer. His first course of lectures on the galvanic phenomena was very successful. Circumstances, particularly in regard to the state of chemistry, were favourable to him; and the enthusiasm that he excited was great. He remained in the institution eleven years, i. e. until April 1812, when he retired on account of his marriage. During this time, he entered with all his ardour into investigations concerning tanning, and also turned his attention to agricultural chemistry-in this way illustrating and improving the methods of art, by applying to them the principles of science. In discovering the mode of making the combination of azote and chlorine, he much wounded his eye, inflicting an injury so severe, as for five months to prevent him from prosecuting his labours of

research.

In the autumn of the year 1813, he found it possible, on account of his scientific name, to obtain permission from the French government to visit the continent. He was accompanied by Lady Davy, and Mr. Faraday, "as his assistant in experiments and in writing. In Paris he spent about two months, aiding M. Curtois, together with M. M. Clement and Desormes, in adding another substance to the supporters of combustion, viz. Iodine, an enquiry on which M. Gay Lussac had also entered. He kept no notes of his sojourn in Paris, but during his last illness, he amused himself with writing or dictating notices of the distinguished men of science whom he had known. In this way, we have sketches of

Guyton de Morveau, Vauquelin, Cuvier, De Humboldt, Gay Lussac, Berthollet, La Place, Chaptal. Some memorials of his journey he made in verse-poems entitled Fontainebleau, Mont Blanc, Banks of the Rhone, The Mediterranean Pine, The Canigou, at Morning, Noon and Evening, Vaucluse, Carara, remain to inform us of his finer feelings. We shall ere long give an article on "The poetry of Sir Humphry Davy."

From Paris he went directly into Auvergne, and having examined the extinct volcanoes of that mountainous region, proceeded to Montpelier, where he resumed his inquiries on the combinations of iodine. Afterwards, at Genoa, he made some unsuccessful experiments on the electricity of the torpedo, and extended his inquiries on iodine. Both here and at Montpelier, indeed, he examined many of the marine productions of the shores of the Mediterranean, in most of which he found traces of the substance. At Florence and at Rome, he investigated the nature of the diamond, and the different varieties of carbon. His note-books contain poetical notices of the scenes he passed through-Lines on Canova-The Sybil's Temple-A Distant View of Pæstum. At Milan he had the pleasure of seeing Volta, Piazzi, and Morichini, of whom he has left sketches. From Milan he crossed the Alps by the Simplon, and arrived in Geneva in the last week of June, and, in returning to winter in Italy, visited some of the most remarkable scenery in the different cantons on the way to the Tyrol. In the Campagna and the adjoining country, he took exercise with his gun, and completely recovered his youthful cacciatore taste; and from this time he continued to be almost as keen a fowler as he was before an angler. The results of his chemical searches during this winter he communicated to the Royal Society in three papers, which were published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1815, with the following titles and dates: "Some Experiments and Observations on the Colours used in Painting by the Ancients," Jan. 14; "Some Experiments on a Solid Compound of Iodine and Oxygen, and on its Chemical Agencies," Feb. 10; "On the Action of Acids on the Salts usually called the Hyperoxymuriates, and on the Gases produced from them," Feb. 15.

In the beginning of March he went from Rome to Naples, directing his attention to the study of the surrounding volcanic regions, and the investigation of the phenomena of volcanic eruption. Deterred by the plague (which a short time before had broken out at Malta and in the Levant) from extending his travels further to the Eastward, as he had originally designed, he set out on his return to England, again traversing the Tyrol, and avoiding France by a detour through part of Germany and Flanders. He embarked at Ostend, landed at Dover, and arrived in London on the 23rd of April.

Soon after his return from the Continent, he entered upon a new train of inquiry-the investigation of fire-damp, which ended in his well-known discovery of the safety-lamp, and the composition of a work entitled, "On the Safety-lamp, for preventing Explosions in Mines, Houses lighted by Gas, Spirit Warehouses, and Magazines