SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. 



COLERIDGE said, "Had not Davy been the 



Vy first chemist, he probably would have been 

 the first poet of his age." 



Said Professor Silliman's "American Journal of 

 Science and Arts : " " His reputation is too inti- 

 mately associated with the eternal laws of nature to 

 suffer decay ; and the name of Davy, like those of 

 Archimedes, Galileo, and Newton, which grow 

 greener by time, will descend to the latest pos- 

 terity." 



Davy was poor and self-taught, but he triumphed 

 over obstacles, and died universally lamented. 



The eldest son in a family of five children, Hum- 

 phrey Davy was born at Penzance, Cornwall, Eng- 

 land, December 17, 1778, the year in which Carl 

 Linnaeus died. He was a bright, active child, 

 making rhymes when he was five years old, and 

 renitjng them at the Christmas gatherings. In 

 consequence of his retentive memory, he could 

 repeat a great part of " Pilgrim's Progress " before 

 he could read it. This book and " JSsop's Fables " 

 were his favorites. 



When Humphrey was six, he was sent to a gram- 

 mar school kept by Rev. Mr. Coryton, a man who 

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