MS.' 



THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



mi 



BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. By 



Baron Cuvier *. 



A CELEBRATED academician, who had risen from the humblest 

 condition to the highest ecclesiastical and literary honours, said, 

 on the day of his admission into the academy, " Should there 

 be found in this assembly a young man born with a love for la- 

 bour, but wholly destitute of assistance or encouragement, and 

 in whom the uncertainty of his destination weakens his suscep- 

 tibility to the excitement of emulation, let the sight of my situa- 

 tion at the present moment inspire him with hope." Nothing 

 indeed can be at once more affecting or encouraging, than to 

 witness merit, by the power of perseverance, surmounting the 

 obstacles which misfortune had opposed to it, and, gradually- 

 emerging from obscurity, become at last an object of general 

 notice, and obtain, with the just approbation of all, the advan- 

 tages which our societies can confer on those by whom they are 

 merited. 



Conspicuous examples of this kind are afforded by the two 

 celebrated chemists, with whom I propose to occupy your at- 

 tention during the present meeting, both of whom were born in 

 a state almost of entire privation, yet each supported with firm- 

 ness the difficuhies of his condition. From the time when they 



• This interesting Eloge of Sir H. Davy, not yet published, was commu- 

 nicated to us in proof-sheet, through the goodness of our friend Mr Pentland 

 of Paris.— Edit. 



VOL. XV. NO. XXIX. JULY 1833- A 



