Biographical Memoir of Sir Humphry Davy. 3 



of a scholar so celebrated ; but he has always said, that if there 

 was any thing original in his ideas, it was owing to the negli- 

 gence and indifference of the persons entrusted with his educa- 

 tion, who permitted him to indulge, without restraint, in all the 

 caprices of his fancy. Many men of genius, in relating the his- 

 tory of their early lives, could make the same observation. 

 That mode of instruction, indeed, which is calculated for the 

 majority, is not easily adapted to those eccentric intellects whose 

 first ideas are superior to those of their companions, and not 

 unfrequently to those of their masters. The exertions used to 

 make them conform to the common method, have only the effect 

 of obstructing their progress. It is fortunate, therefore, both 

 for themselves and for society, that they should be thus neglect- 

 ed. Left to himself, Davy occupied his time in hunting, fish- 

 ing, and traversing this picturesque country, already attempt- 

 ing to celebrate its beauties in verse, for from his infancy he 

 was both an orator and a poet. He had the power of express- 

 ing his impressions in a very vivid manner ; and when he en- 

 tered the school, his little companions were accustomed to sur- 

 round him, and forget every thing else, in listening to the re- 

 cital of what he had seen. His reading did not make a less 

 forcible impression on his mind than his observations ; no sooner 

 had a translation of Homer fallen in his way, than he began to 

 compose an epic poem, of which the subject was Diomede ; a 

 composition, says one of his former schoolfellows, very incorrect, 

 and abounding in violations of the established rules, and of 

 good taste, but full of life and varied incident, displaying a, 

 richness of invention, and a freedom of execution, which evince 

 a true poet. 



It was necessary, however, that he should engage in more se- 

 rious occupation, and his mother bound him for five years as an 

 apprentice to an apothecary named Borlase, a member probably 

 of the same family as the minister of the parish of Ludgvan, to 

 whom we are indebted for a natural history of the county of 

 Cornwall, and an account of its antiquities, two works which 

 are still of considerable value on account of the documents 

 which they contain. This apothecary, as is always the case in 

 England, likewise practised surgery and medicine. Young 



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