Sir tmmpbn? Bav>s a 99 



schoolmasters discern any sign of the real bent of 

 his mind. 



He was sent first to Coryton's Grammar School at 

 Pcnzancc, where he had the reputation of being an idle 

 boy, with a gift for making verses, but with no aptitude 

 for studies of a graver sort. Fortunately his head- 

 master was of an easy disposition not an Orbilius or 

 a Keate and the boy was not cruelly driven and beaten 

 into grinding at tasks for which he had no taste. 



" After all," said Sir Humphry in later life, " the way 

 in which we are taught Latin and Greek does not much 

 influence the important structure of our minds. I con- 

 sider it fortunate that I was left much to myself as a 

 child, and put upon no particular plan of study, and that 

 I enjoyed much idleness at Mr. Coryton's school. I 

 perhaps owe to these circumstances the little talents 

 I have, and their peculiar application : what I am I 

 have made myself. I say this without vanity, and in 

 pure simplicity of heart." 



His progress at Coryton's school, however, did not 

 satisfy his parents, and he was sent to Truro. There 

 he was more successful, though his headmaster, the Rev. 

 Dr. Garden, subsequently stated : " I could not discover 

 the faculties by which he was afterwards so much * 

 tinguished. I discovered, indeed, his taste for poetry, 

 which I did not omit to encourage." 



And without doubt Humphry Davy had considerable 

 poetical gifts. At the age of twelve he wrote an epic 

 entitled " The Tyndidiad," the subject of which was 

 the adventures of Diomed on his return from the 

 Trojan war. "It is much to be regretted," says Dr. 



