8 Biographical Memoir of Sir Humphry Davy. 



bable that these rash attempts contributed to produce that sud- 

 den change in his constitution which terminated in his prema- 

 ture death. 



At this period Bristol was filled with enthusiastic young men, 

 fond of novelty, and forward to express their sentiments, whose 

 speeches, in the midst of those dissentions which the French re- 

 volution had excited in England, caused this town to be regarded 

 as the principal seat of democracy. 



These youths, in concert with their correspondents in diffe- 

 rent parts of the kingdom, had formed a design to raise their 

 friends to situations which were most likely to make them the 

 objects of public favour, and in prosecution of their plan, they 

 resolved to use their efforts to place the young professor in a 

 sphere of wider influence. Our former associate. Count Rum- 

 ford, had established in London the Royal Institution, designed 

 to spread among the higher classes of society the useful dis- 

 coveries of science. Being naturally of an unaccommodating dis- 

 position, he had already quarrelled with Dr Garnet, his pro- 

 fessor of chemistry ; and it was resolved to propose Davy, who 

 was urged to come forward and be presented to him. 



Every one will remember that, with all his great and noble 

 qualities. Count Rumford was'not distinguished for affability; the 

 almost infantine appearance of the candidate, who always looked 

 younger than he really was, joined to manners somewhat provin- 

 cial, and the remains of a Cornwall accent, rendered the Count 

 even more repulsive than usual, and Davy's timidity, increased 

 by such a reception, was little calculated to remove the effect of 

 his first appearance. The persons by whom he was introduced 

 had to employ much art and solicitation to obtain permission 

 for him to give some lectures, in a particular apartment of the 

 house, on the properties of gases ; but more than this was not 

 needed. From the first, the variety of his ideas and their inge- 

 nious combinations, the warmth, vivacity, perspicuity, and ori- 

 ginality of their exposition, all the interest which the united 

 talents of the poet, the orator, and the philosopher can confer 

 on the teaching of chemistry, had the effect of enchanting the 

 small number who had ventured to come and hear him. They 

 immediately spoke of him with so much enthusiasm, that the 

 place of meeting was unable to accommodate the influx of auditors, 



