Biographkal Memoir of the late Dr Henry. \% 



Music, may also be commended as a fine example of the grace- 

 fulness and purity of his style, when handling topics of elegant 

 letters. 



Dr Henry appears indeed to have been eminently fitted both 

 by natural tastes and by after culture, to excel in what may 

 be called the literature of science ; comprehending especially 

 under that term, the history of discovery and the didactic ex- 

 position of general laws and doctrines. In his latter years, he 

 seems himself to have strongly felt, in the perception of grow- 

 ing infirmities, that his season of active research was gone by, 

 and to have looked around for some worthy object, not de- 

 manding personal exertions, to occupy what remained to him 

 of life and of mental strength. His thoughts had dwelt for 

 some time on two scientific projects, for both of which he had 

 made considerable preparations. One of these desijns, which 

 had floated longest before his mind, and which he was most in- 

 clined to realize, was a work that should assemble the benefi- 

 cent provisions in the Chemical Economy of Nature, which 

 estabhsh the existence and attributes of an All-wise Governor 

 of the Material Universe. He thus expressed, in a letter ad- 

 dressed many years ago to the writer, his conceptions of the 

 scope and dignity of such an undertaking. " It has always ap- 

 peared to me a defect in physico-theological works, that too 

 frequent appeals are made to the reason, in proof of divine 

 wisdom, and that their efficacy is weakened instead of being 

 confirmed by needless iteration. It is enough if a writer, on a 

 subject fuU of these proofs, presents them first apart from each 

 other, and then in combination, in clear, plain, and unafifected 

 language, to the understanding of the reader, and contents 

 himself with a general but forcible impulse towards the conclu- 

 sions respecting their causation, which have forced themselves 

 upon his own mind. A work of this kind, executed as it ought 

 to be, would be a foundation for a just reputation to its author, 

 and for a more durable one than can be raised by any abstract 

 of the state of technical chemistry, which, however well executed 

 at the time, must soon be rendered obsolete by the rapid march 

 of discovery, while the great and leading principles of chemical 

 philosophy will stand unimpeached and unchanged landmarks 

 to guide those who are in search of truth. Th«re would too, 



VOL. XXIV. NO. Xr.Vir.— JANUARY 1838. B 



