432 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



£500, and some regard this fact as explaining in part the peculiarities 

 of his character; for during this period he acquired those habits of 

 economy and those singular oddities of character which he ever after- 

 ward exhibited in so striking a manner. For some years Cavendish was 

 allowed by his. father to attend the Koyal Society Club regularly, but 

 was given the exact five shillings for the dinner, not a penny more. 

 There is reason to believe that his father's parsimony has been misap- 

 prehended, for while Cuvier, Biot and Lord Brougham make dissatis- 

 faction with Henry for not entering on public or political life the 

 ground for his illiberality towards him, yet others assert that Lord 

 Charles Cavendish was not a rich man and allowed his son all he 

 could afford. There is no certainty as to when or from what source 

 Cavendish inherited the riches which ultimately came into his posses- 

 sion, though they were probably a legacy from a rich uncle. All the 

 testimony, however, is at one on two cardinal facts: that Cavendish 

 was for the first forty years of his life a poor man, and for the last 

 thirty-nine an exceedingly wealthy one. 



The possession of several hundred thousand pounds did not alter 

 his life in the least; he simply did not know what to do with it, and 

 hence let it alone, allowing it to accumulate till at his death his estate 

 was worth £1,175,000. Cavendish's indifference to pecuniary affairs 

 was so great that when his banker called on him with regard to the 

 investment of a portion of the vast sum that had grown on his hands, 

 he was rudely ordered to be gone and not to come there to plague him, 

 or he would lose the control of the funds. It may seem strange that 

 none of this large fortune was devoted to scientific or charitable pur- 

 poses, but we must remember that Cavendish never thought of himself, 

 much less of others. Sir Humphry Davy was indebted to him for 'some 

 bits of platinum,' but tacitly appealed in vain for financial aid in his 

 electrical researches. Just before the subscription for the enlarged 

 voltaic battery was taken. Cavendish was in Davy's apartments at the 

 Eoyal Institution, and upon Davy expressing fear that he should fail to 

 secure the necessary amount. Cavendish joined heartily in deploring 

 the lack of liberality in the patrons of science, but did not seem to con- 

 sider himself at all called upon actively to forward the desired object. 

 Yet had he been directly asked to sign a cheque in Sir Humphry's 

 name for £500 he would probably have done so at once. When re- 

 minded of some needy cliaritable object, he gave liberally, but he 

 never himself saw a need. Whether from original or acquired indiffer- 

 ence, he exhibited a passive selfishness in all his dealings. 



To his town residence, close to the British Museum, few visitors 

 were admitted, and these have reported it to contain only books and 

 apparatus. For the former he also set aside a separate mansion on 

 Bradford Square, and here collected a large and carefully chosen library 



