Royal Institution, 229 



By increasing the sphere of their intelligence, they will 

 secure not only an addition to their own happiness, but the 

 higher gratification of imparting to their children that useful 

 instruction, which cannot fail to strengthen and to endear 

 the relations of domestic intercourse. 



Mr. Davy concluded a very eloquent and comprehensive 

 introductory lecture, by observing, that discoveries in phy- 

 sical science are not to be estimated solely by their con- 

 duciveness to general utility. They produce on the human 

 mind the happiest and the most sublime impression, in 

 proportion as they develop the harmony and simplicity 

 which reign throughout the works of that Being, whose in- 

 finite power is manifested in every thing that is in the hea- 

 vens and on the earth. 



On Saturday, the 17th of March, Mr. Davy, speaking of 

 the discoveries of 



Mr. Cavendish, 

 paid the following just tribute to the memory of this di- 

 stinguished philosopher : 



" Of all ihe philosophers of the present age, Mr. Caven- 

 dish was the one who combined, in the highest degree, depth 

 and extent of mathematical knowledge, with delicacy and 

 precision in the methods of experimental research* 



*' It may be said of him, what perhaps can hardly be said 

 of any other person, that whatever he has done has been 

 perfect at the moment of its production : his processes 

 were all of a finished nature : executed by^ the hand of a 

 master, they required no correction ; and though many of 

 them were performed in the very infancy of cjiemical phi- 

 losophy, yet their accuracy and their beauty have remained 

 unimpaired amidst the progress of discovery ; and their 

 merits have been illustrated by discussion, and exalted by 

 time. 



'^ In general, the most common motives which induce 

 men to study, are the love of distinction, of glory, or the 

 desire of power, and we have no right to object to motives 

 of this kind ; but it ought to be mentioned, in estimating 

 the character of Mr. Cavendish, that his grand stimulus to 

 exertion was evidently the love of truth and of knowledge : 

 —unambitious, unassuming, ii was often with difficulty 

 that he was persuaded to bring forward his important dis- 

 coveries. He disliked notoriety ; he was, as it were, fearful 

 of the voice of fame. His labours consequently are re- 

 corded with the greatest dignity and simplicity, and in the 

 fewest possible words, without parade or apology^ and it 



P 3 seemeil 



