102 CAVENDISH. 



and the oscillation caused by the earth on a pendulum 

 being known, as well as the relative specific gravities 

 of lead and water, it was found, upon the medium of 

 his observations, that the earth's density is to that of 

 water as eleven to two, or five-and-a-half times greater. 

 Dr. Hutton, who repeated his calculations, made the 

 result five three-tenths, or as fifty-three to ten. Maske- 

 lyne's experiments at Schehallion made the proportion 

 as five to one. Zach's experiment on a smaller hill near 

 Marseilles did not give a result materially different. 



A paper on the civil year of the Hindus, connected, 

 like Newton's chronological works, with astronomical 

 researches, an account of a new eudiometer, and some 

 papers on electricity, form the rest of this great philo- 

 sopher's works ; and altogether they shrink into a very 

 inconsiderable bulk compared with the voluminous 

 works of inferior men. In this, as in other respects, 

 we trace his resemblance to Black. Indeed the admi- 

 rable contrivance of their experiments their circum- 

 spect preparation of the ground by previous discussion 

 of principles the cautious following of facts, and yet 

 the resolute adoption of legitimate consequences in 

 their generalizations the elegance of their processes, 

 and the conciseness of their descriptions and remarks, 

 with an unsparing rejection of everything superfluous 

 forms the characteristic of both those illustrious 

 students of nature. While, as regards Cavendish's 

 writings, it has been, and as regards Black's it might 

 have been, justly said by one writer that every sentence 

 will bear the microscope ; another, the most eminent of 

 his successors, has, with equal truth, described his pro- 

 cesses as of so finished a nature, so perfected by the 

 hand of a master, as to require no correction ; and, 

 though contrived in the infancy of the science, yet to 

 remain unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled, for accuracy 

 and beauty at the present day. 



The world, even the scientific world, dazzled by the 

 brilliancy of those discoveries which we have described, 



