THE GREAT LONDON CHEMISTS 43 



they have to master, and leaves no time for salutary 

 idleness. 



Like many boys, Davy entered the study of chemistry 

 through the doorway of fireworks. His favourite amuse- 

 ments were fishing, and the art of rhyming. During his 

 whole life, he never lost the taste for these two pursuits ; 

 and though it must be confessed that he was a more 

 successful fisher than poet, still his verses have a certain 

 amount of merit, and betoken a considerable gift of 

 imagination, necessary to the higher achievements in 

 science, as he indicates in the two stanzas which I venture 

 to quote : 



While superstition rules the vulgar soul, 



Forbids the energies of man to rise, 

 Raised far above her low, her mean control, 



Aspiring genius seeks her native skies. 



She loves the silent, solitary hours ; 



She loves the stillness of the starry night, 

 When o'er the bright'ning view Selene pours 



The soft effulgence of her pensive light. 



In his later efforts he preferred decasyllabics; and 

 though his sentiments thus expressed are praiseworthy, 

 his execution rarely exceeds the level demanded from a 

 poet laureate. 



At the early age of fifteen, his school education was at 

 an end. For the next year he continued in the ' enjoy- 

 ment of much idleness.' But in the beginning of the 

 year 1795 he was apprenticed to Mr. Borlase, surgeon and 

 apothecary, in his native town. Then the demon of work 

 seized on him, and he threw himself into the task of self- 

 improvement with irresistible ardour. His scheme of 

 study is so remarkable, and so extensive, that I cannot 



