16 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



his way. This sternness of manner never left him, although 

 his disposition was undoubtedly gentle. It may have arisen 

 from having been compelled so long to continue his pursuits 

 without the companionship of congenial minds, although 

 even that does not sufficiently explain the cause, as we 

 hear of others less befriended than Dalton whose disposition 

 has retained its vivacity. It is greatly to be regretted 

 that a journal containing all the minute particulars of his 

 life at this period should be entirely lost. Portions which 

 have been read to me by his friend Peter Clare intro- 

 duce us into his character in a very pleasing manner. We 

 find him cheerful and easy, fond of a little innocent sport, and 

 much attached to some games, but still so precise that every 

 one was rigidly recorded and the results of the play of each 

 party systematically compared. One evening at a house he 

 visited, the company spent their time making verses ; when 

 the last word of one verse was told, the next person in order 

 was expected to make a line to rhyme to it. It is curious 

 to observe that every couplet, as well as the author of each, 

 is carefully noted down in the diary. In this we have an 

 early illustration of the great order that was a prominent 

 point to be remembered in judging of his intellectual cha- 

 racter. This does not deny the paradoxical addition of great 

 carelessness. It was at this time that he was more especially 

 a student of the Lady's Diary, and one of those who 

 solved its problems, obtaining on several occasions the 

 prize. Even at Eaglesfield, however, he was employed, 

 although not with equal success, in the same manner, as Mr. 

 Dickinson says, " When I was a boy I saw John Dalton at 

 my cousin William Alderson's house, in Eaglesfield; they 

 talked of days when they were lads together, sitting over the 

 fire till midnight poring over the Lady's Diary. John never 

 giving sleep to his eyelids until he had found out the riddle of 

 some prize enigma or some mathematical question." 



We find him at this time making his own barometers and 



