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CAVENDISH. 



A GREATER contrast between two men of science, both 

 eminent benefactors to the same branch of know- 

 ledge, can hardly be imagined than Cavendish offers 

 to Priestley. He was thoroughly educated in all 

 branches of the Mathematics and Natural Philosophy ; 

 he studied each systematically ; he lived retired from 

 the world among his books and his instruments, never 

 meddling with the affairs of active life ; he passed his 

 whole time in storing his mind with the knowlege im- 

 parted by former inquirers and in extending its bounds. 

 Cultivating science for its own sake, he was slow to 

 appear before the world as an author ; had reached the 

 middle age of life before he gave any work to the 

 press ; and though he reached the term of fourscore, 

 never published a hundred pages. His methods of 

 investigation were nearly as opposite as this diversity 

 might lead us to expect; and in all the accidental 

 circumstances of rank and wealth the same contrast is 

 to be remarked. He was a duke's grandson ; he pos- 

 sessed a princely fortune ; his whole expenditure was 

 on philosophical pursuits ; his whole existence was in 

 his laboratory or his library. If such a life presents 

 little variety and few incidents to the vulgar observer, 

 it is a matter of most interesting contemplation to all 

 who set its just value upon the cultivation of science, 

 who reckon its successful pursuit as the greatest privi- 

 lege, the brightest glory of our nature. 



Henry Cavendish was born at Nice, whither his 

 mother's health had carried her, the 10th of October, 

 1731. He was the son of Lord Charles Cavendish, the 



