10 Sketch of the Life of 



Many other essays, on different subjects, which he never pub- 

 lished, attest the varied nature of his acquirements. 



In June, 1825, Mr. Parlces, whose health had been for some 

 months past slowly declining, was taken ill at Edinburgh, and 

 brought to London by easy stages. All that could be done by 

 the most eminent physicians was done ; but the disease was too 

 deeply rooted to be eradicated, and his family had the pain of 

 watching him fast sinking away from his sphere of usefulness. 

 Throughout the whole of his acute and severe sufferings, he 

 was never heard to repine, but always expressed the most lively 

 pleasure at receiving the visits of his numerous friends ; and 

 the last sentence he uttered was to thank a gentleman for his 

 kindness in coming to see him. His friends, however, only 

 alleviated his pain, and after a severe struggle he closed his 

 active life on the 23rd of December, 1825. 



Mr. Parkes was a man of an inquiring and unwearied mind, 

 persevering and ardent in the pursuit of knowledge, and happy 

 in his mode of imparting it to others. Not a moment of his 

 day was ever suffered to pass unemployed : after writing upon 

 one subject for a long series of hours he retired from his study, 

 not from the slightest feeling of fatigue, but because the time 

 for his meals, or for rest, was arrived. Whatever subject he 

 was perusing, he never abandoned it till he had fully accom- 

 plished his object, and till every source of information was 

 exhausted. By turns he had attended to almost every depart- 

 ment of literature, and of general science, indeed was well 

 versed in them ; but natural philosophy, and more particularly 

 the chemical branch of it, was his favourite pursuit, and en- 

 grossed most of his attention. His well-stored library afforded 

 him every facility of reference, and he bestowed much pains 

 on its selection and arrangement. 



Probably no author ever attracted so many students to the 

 science on which he was treating, as Mr. Parkes did to the 

 study of chemistry by the publication of the catechism : the 

 easy familiarity of its style, the happy knack which he pos- 

 sessed of rendering the driest and otherwise most unattractive 

 parts inviting and pleasing, by interspersing them with useful 

 and interesting matter not immediately connected with his 

 subject, added to the admirable system of arrangement, adapted 



