Mr Johnston's Visit to JBerzelius, 203 



work ; those who need to work always find time." Another day 

 speaking of a young English gentleman who had been intror 

 duced to him, and to whom he had promised letters, but who 

 had gone without receiving them, — " I am sorry he should 

 not have called, for I had so little opportunity of conversing 

 with or paying him any attention when I formerly saw him ; 

 lie is young, rich, has plenty of time, and with his taste for 

 science he might perhaps do something." 



Thus honoured and esteemed, it may easily be supposed 

 that Berzelius has many visitors and correspondents. Besides 

 formal visitors, his friends and colleagues often drop familiarly 

 in upon him ; but it is only in the case of particular individuals 

 that he intermits his occupations, so that he enjoys society and 

 advances his labours at one and the same time. His corre- 

 spondence, which, partly no doubt from his situation as secre- 

 tary to the academy, but chiefly from his celebrity, is very 

 great, takes up much of his time. Thirty or forty letters in a 

 week are no unusual quantity, but every thing goes on quickly 

 with him. He composes and converses at the same time, and 

 is little interrupted in writing his papers, his books, or his 

 letters, bv the presence and conversation of his many visitors. 

 A gentleman who lately arranged his letters, told me he had 

 upwards of 200 correspondents, and these not in his own de- 

 partment merely, but having among them such persons as 

 Madame de Stael, Goethe, Prince Metternich, the ministers of 

 Prussia, &q. &c. His influence in Berlin indeed is little less 

 in his own department than in Stockholm, and almost all the 

 young professors connected with chemistry in the several in- 

 stitutions in that capital, if they have not been directly recom- 

 mended by him, have at least been pupils of Berzelius. 



What Berzelius is in private life he has generally been also 

 in his published writings ; — impartially judging, giving praise 

 where due, and treating with courtesy even those from whom 

 he diiFered. In two unhappy instances only has he broken 

 through those rules of established courtesy recognized in al- 

 most all philosophical discussions. To Dobereiner and to 

 Thomson he has forgotten all his wonted urbanity. His re- 

 marks upon 13r Thomson's last work* might well have been 



* He might have thought at the tirae he wrote them of Dr Ure's cri- 



