16 Biographical Memoir of the late Dr Henry. 



with the choicest fruits of our national poetry : — and the same 

 purity of taste and affections, which in music made him pecu- 

 liarly accessible to the simpler melodies, guided him to the 

 fresh and gentle beauties of our earlier poets. He often com- 

 mended as a happy imitation of their manner, " the Castle of 

 Indolence," a poem, which he more than once read to his 

 domestic circle, with that delicacy and truthfulness of intonation 

 which are inspired only by deep and .intuitive perceptions of 

 excellence. 



In determining the literary merits of the works of others, 

 and still more in the expression of his own thoughts, Dr Henry 

 was guided by a correct, or rather a sevei'e taste, which might 

 have rendered him over-fastidious ; had not his critical judg- 

 ments been attempered by the fervour of his sympathies, and by 

 the comprehensiveness of his mental vision. An enemy of re- 

 dundancy in expression or in ornament, he erased in the vigi- 

 lant revisals, through which all his compositions had to pass, 

 every superfluous term, reaching finally as complete condensa- 

 tion of style as was consistent with ease and distinctness. In 

 strictly philosophical writing he was frugal from principle in 

 the employment of imagery ; aiming solely at the simple and 

 logical enunciation of truth. But in his literarj^ essays ; in his 

 biographical notices, when warmed by the contemplation of 

 genius or virtue ; and especially in his letters, when his feelings 

 had been touched by the works of nature, or when surveying 

 the grand lines and genei-al bearings of science, and shaping 

 forth his future course, as a philosophical enquirer or writer, 

 his style received embellishment and warmth from a powerful 

 yet chastised imagination, and from a heart prone to generous 

 and noble emotions. His eloquent delineation of the intellec- 

 tual features of his great contemporai'ies, Davy and WoUaston ; 

 — his enthusiastic homage to the soaring and creative genius 

 of Davy, and his no less truthful picture of the opposite en- 

 dowments, — the caution, the sobriety and precision of WoUas- 

 ton, are probably fresh in the minds of many present ; and may 

 recal Mr Play fair's celebrated contrast of Black and Hutton, 

 both in many qualities common to the minds compared, and in 

 the vigour which characterizes alike both comparisons. An 

 earlier essay by Dr Henry, entitled Cursory Remarks on 



