1819.] the late Mr. Thomas Henry. 171 



investigation of general principles, and habituated to the 

 indulgence of enlightened and comprehensive views, is compel- 

 led, as Lord Bacon expresses it, " to contract the sight of his 

 mind as well as to dilate it." It is, therefore, not unreasonable 

 to expect that this intellectual habit may, in other persons, be 

 reversed ; and that he whose attention is for the most part given 

 to employments demanding no powers beyond those of patient 

 industry, may occasionally, without detriment to his temporal 

 concerns, take a wider range, and elevate his mind to the percep- 

 tion of literary pleasures, or of the general truths of moral, intel- 

 lectual, or natural science. 



It must, however, be acknowledged, that there is considerable 

 danger, lest objects which ought to be held by young men 

 devoted to active life as only of secondary importance should 

 acquire an undue share of their estimation, and inspire a dis- 

 relish for more necessary but less attractive occupations. This 

 alloy to the advantages of knowledge may, it appears to me, be 

 avoided by carefully selecting such studies as may not be incon- 

 sistent with the business of after life, and by pursuing them only 

 to a prudent and temperate extent, estimating them indeed as 

 we do those lighter ornaments of a building, which are of no 

 value, excepting as they add grace and beauty to substantial 

 and durable forms. More especially it seems to be important, 

 as a safeguard against this appi'ehended abuse of learning, that 

 there should early be mingled with its pursuit a due share of 

 those employments which in future are to constitute the main 

 business of life ; and that those habits, both intellectual and 

 moral, should be early and assiduously fostered, which are essen- 

 tial to success in future commerce with the world, and to the 

 acquirement of a moderate portion of its advantages. This 

 rational and prudent alliance between the avocations that support 

 and those that embellish and give zest to life was the utmost 

 that was ever contemplated by the founders of an institution, 

 which certainly deserved better success ; and to which other 

 establishments, since formed with the same views, but under 

 happier auspices, in the metropolis and some commercial towns, 

 bear, in their leading features, a striking resemblance. 



Besides the lectures on the general principles of chemistry, 

 Mr. Henry delivered a course on the arts of bleaching, dyeing, 

 and calico-printing; and to render this course more extensively 

 useful, the terms of access to it were made easy to the superior 

 class of operative artizans. It was at this period that the prac- 

 tical application was made in France of a philosophical discovery 

 to one of the arts which Mr. Henry was engaged in teaching, 

 that shortened, by several weeks, die duration of its processes. 

 In 1774, Scheele, a Swedish chemist, distinguished by the 

 number and great importance of his contributions to chemical 

 science, in the course of some experiments on manganese, dis- 

 covered the substance known successively by the names of 



