582 Analysis of Books, fyc t 



threatening- life, and he reached home. As soon as the more im- 

 mediate danger of the attack had passed away, he was advised to a 

 residence in the South of Europe, and accordingly quitted England 

 with the intention of wintering in Italy. Feeling that his recovery 

 was tardy, and that mental repose was necessary for its advance- 

 ment, he determined to resign the chair of the Royal Society, and 

 announced his intention in a letter to Mr. Davies Gilbert, who was 

 appointed to fill the chair till the next anniversary, and ultimately 

 was elected to succeed him. 



He returned to London in October, 1827, for the benefit of medi- 

 cal advice ; again visited his friend Lord Gage in Sussex, and passed 

 a short time with his friend, Mr. Poole, at Stowey. His bodily 

 infirmity was then very great, and his sensibility painfully alive on 

 every occasion. In this period of suffering he amused himself with 

 writing his Salmonia, or Days of Fly-fishing (written in emulation 

 of that delightful piscatory pastoral the ' Complete Angler'). This 

 was published in the spring of 1828. It contains many pleasing 

 illustrations of .facts in natural history. Dr. Paris has given some 

 interesting extracts, and thus defends the writer : ' If the advanced 

 age of Walton was pleaded by himself as a sufficient reason for pro- 

 curing " a writ of ease," the friends of Davy may surely claim, at 

 the hands of the critic, an indulgent reception for a congenial work, 

 written in the hour of lassitude and sickness.' 



His paper, * On the Phenomena of Volcanoes,' was read before 

 the Royal Society on the 20th of March, 1828, just before he 

 quitted England on his last journey ; and he communicated a paper 

 on the Electricity of the Torpedo, which is dated from Luciana in 

 Illyria, in October, 1828. He concludes the paper by expressing 

 his fear that the weak state of his health will prevent him from 

 pursuing the subject with the attention it seems to deserve. His 

 last production was ' Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a 

 Philosopher,' which was published by his brother Dr. Davy, after 

 his decease. He informs us in the preface, that it was composed 

 immediately after * Salmonia.' under the same painful circumstances. 

 From this exercise of the mind, he says he derived some pleasure 

 and some consolation, when most other sources of consolation and 

 pleasure were closed to him ; and he ventures to hope that those 

 hours of sickness may be not altogether unprofitable to persons in 

 health. This work is too generally diffused to render it necessary 

 that we should enter into a detail of its contents, had we space to 

 do so. Dr. Paris has given large extracts, and thus expresses his 

 opinion of its claim to attention : 



* This is a most extraordinary and interesting work ; extraordinary, not 

 only from the wild strength of its fancy, and the extravagance of its con- 

 ceptions, but from the bright light of scientific truth which is constantly 

 shining through its metaphorical tissue, and irradiating its most shadowy 

 imaginings. It may be compared to the tree of the lower regions in 

 the ^Eneid, to every leaf of which was attached a dream, and yet, how- 

 ever wildly his fancy may dream, his philosophy never steeps ; and in his 

 exit from the land of phantoms, the author can in no instance be accused 



