SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. 159 



temperament, intense, quick, earnest, ardent, aspir- 

 ing. He loved science, and paid her homage ; he 

 loved poetry, and made her his rest and solace and 

 soul-companion. 



At Florence he studied the diamond, and found 

 it merely crystallized carbon. At Home he met 

 Canova, who showed him great attention, and to 

 whom he wrote this sonnet : 



"Thou wast a light of brightness in an age 



When Italy was in the night of art : 

 She was thy country ; but the world thy stage, 



On which thou actedst thy creative part. 

 Blameless thy life thy manners, playful, mild, 

 Master in art, but Nature's simplest child. 

 Phidias of Rome! like him thou stand' st sublime: 

 And after artists shall essay to climb 

 To that high temple where thou dwell'st alone, 

 Amidst the trophies thou from time hast won. 

 Generous to all, but most to rising merit; 

 By nobler praise awakening the spirit; 

 Yet all unconscious of the eternal fame, 

 The light of glory circling round thy name! " 



At Milan he met Volta, nearly seventy years old. 

 "His conversation was not brilliant," he said ; "his 

 views rather limited, but marking great ingenuity. 

 His manners were perfectly simple." 



Around Naples he investigated the phenomena 

 of volcanic eruptions. On his return to London 

 they bought a house in Grosvenor Square. He now 

 published several papers : " Experiments and Ob- 

 servations on the Colors used in Painting by the 

 Ancients " ; " Experiments on a Solid Compound of 



