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CAVENDISH. 



A GREATER contrast between t\\ o 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 knowledge 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 four- 

 score, 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 possessed 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 con- 

 templation to all who set its just value upon the 

 cultivation of science, who reckon its successful pur- 



