CHEMISTS AITD CHEMISTSY. 



phry Davy gave there as professor. 

 Faraday attended, and seating him- 

 self in the gallery, took notes of the 

 lectures, and at a future time sent 

 his manuscript to Davy, with a short 

 and modest account of himself, and 

 a request, if it were possible, for 

 scientific employment in the labours 

 of the laboratory. Davy, struck 

 with the clearness and accuracy of 

 the memoranda, and confiding in 

 the talents and perseverance of the 

 writer, offered him, upon the oc- 

 currence of a vacancy in the labo- 

 ratory, in the beginning of 1813, the 

 post of assistant, which he accepted. 

 At the end of the year he accom- 

 panied Davy and his lady over the 

 Continent, as secretary and assist- 

 ant, and in 1815 returned to his 

 duties in the laboratory, and ulti- 

 mately became Fullerian Professor. 

 Mr. Faraday's researches and dis- 

 coveries have raised him to the 

 highest rank among European phi- 

 losophers, while his high faculty of 

 expounding, to a general audience, 

 the result of recondite investiga- 

 tions, makes him one of the most 

 attractive lecturers of the age. He 

 has selected the most difficult and 

 perplexing departments of physical 

 science, the investigation of the 

 reciprocal relations of heat, light, 

 magnetism, and electricity; and by 

 many years of patient and profound 

 study, has tended greatly to simplify 

 our ideas on these subjects. It is 

 the hope of this philosopher that, 

 should life and health be spared, he 

 will be able to show that the im- 

 ponderable agencies just mentioned 

 are so many manifestations of one 

 and the same force. Mr. Faraday's 

 great achievements are recognized 

 by the learned societies of every 

 country in Europe ; and the Univer- 

 sity of Oxford, in 1832, did itself the 

 honour of enrolling him among the 

 Doctors of Law. In private life he is 

 beloved for the piety, simplicity, and 

 truthfulness of his character, and the 

 kindliness of his disposition. 



J. J. BECCHER HIS ENTHUSIASM. 



John Joachim Beccher, a Ger- 

 man professor, may be quoted as an 

 example of the buoyant and enthu- 

 siastic spirit which was evoked at 

 the call of chemistry, in the infancy 

 of that science, and as contrasting 

 favourably with the grovelling ex- 

 perimenters of the previous age, 

 that of the alchemists. In a work 

 entitled "Physica Subterranea," he- 

 describes chemists as a strange class- 

 of mortals, impelled by an almost 

 insane impulse to seek their plea- 

 sure amongst smoke and vapour, 

 soot and flame, poisons and poverty- 

 "Yet amongst all these evils," say* 

 he, "I seem to myself to live so- 

 sweetly, that may I die if I would 

 change places with the Persian 

 king. I trust that I have got hold 

 of my pitcher by the right handle 

 the true method of treating this 

 study. For the pseudo-chemists 

 seek gold ; but the true philosophers 

 science, which is more precious than 

 gold!" 



DR. PRIESTLEY. 



Although Dr. Priestley made 

 known a great number of new ga- 

 seous bodies, he was never (says 

 Dr. Thomson), strictly speaking, en- 

 titled to the name of chemist, as he 

 was never able to make a chemical 

 analysis. 



THE CHEMIST'S DREAM. 



Methought I was exploring the 

 hidden recesses of an extensive 

 cave, whose winding passages had 

 never before echoed to the tread of 

 human foot. "With ever-fresh ad- 

 miration and delight, I was gazing 

 at the thousand wonders which the 

 flashing torch-light revealed on 

 every side at each step of my pro- 

 gress, when a strange sound, as of 

 the hum of many voices, fell upon 

 my ear. What such a sound could 

 mean in such a place was more 

 than I could divine. 



Curiosity led me on in the direc- 



