238 Scientific Labers and Character of 
tures on Agricultural Chemistry” were published about the same’ 
time; and these works along with the volume of Researches before 
mentioned, each of which has been a rich mine from which com- 
pilers have drawn, have made Sir Humphry extensively known to 
the world as an author.* The “Elements” are characterized by a 
strictness of method, and a purity and elegance of diction, not often 
to be found in the writings of those, who in early life have been pre- 
cluded from the advantages of an academic education. Retirement 
from the active and professional duties of science, is frequently at- 
tended with the same inglorious sloth and barren inactivity, as retire- 
ment from the active scenes of business; but from the variety of 
knowledge displayed in some of the subsequent writings of Sir Hum- 
phry; particularly in his discourses before the Royal Society, we are 
induced to believe, that he devoted much of the time now at his dis- 
posal to the cultivation of general science and literature. 
_ Bat among the: privileges conferred by a learned Jeisure and an 
easy fortune, few could have been so gratifying to Sir Humphry as 
the opportunity for foreign travel. Nature and art, and the society 
of the greatest men of the age, severally offered their allurements. 
If he had become intimately acquainted with the laws and operations 
of nature in his laboratory, it was, like the sight of Belzoni’s mod- 
els of the eternal pyramids, only in those miniature representations, 
which inspire a restless curiosity to see the grand originals. Art also 
Conspires with nature to exemplify the principles which he had so 
faithfully studied ; and the choicest productions of the one, and the 
most stupendous as well as delightful exhibitions of the other, invited 
him to the south of Europe. The continent also abounded with the 
luminaries of science, with which a mind like his-would love to blend 
its light. . A nation is interested in the travels of such a citizen. The 
whole world is to him an El Dorado; from every land and sea he 
gathers gold and pearls; and returns deeply freighted with the intel- 
lectual riches of other climes, to pour them into the lap of his coun 
uy. — Philosophical Transactions bear ample testimony how just- 
ee vy 
foreign excursions of her men of science, in his remarks 
—(Edinburgh Phil. Jour.) 
