SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. 145 



At this time, a young man came to board at the 

 house of Mrs. Davy, Gregory Watt, the only child 

 of James Watt, the inventor of the steam-engine. 

 He was the idol of his parents; possessed of a 

 mind so unusual in its passionate love for knowl- 

 edge, and a nature so companionable, that every- 

 body loved him. He was twenty-one, and Hum- 

 phrey nineteen. 



Between these two young men there grew a most 

 ardent and lasting friendship ; lasting because it 

 had the only sure foundation, moral and mental 

 worth. They were always together. They visited 

 the neighboring mines and mountains, and came 

 home with their pockets filled with minerals. 



The brilliant Gregory died at twenty-eight, but 

 Davy lived to show the fruits of one of the most 

 beautiful things in life, the affinity of two noble 

 and intellectual souls, with similar tastes and aspi- 

 rations. This death was a great loss to Humphrey. 

 He wrote to a friend : " Poor Watt ! He ought not 

 to have died. I could not persuade myself that he 

 would die : and until the very moment when I was 

 assured of his fate, I would not believe he was in 

 any danger. 



" His letters to me only three or four months ago 

 were full of spirit, and spoke not of any infirmity 

 of body, but of an increased strength of mind. 

 Why is this in the order of nature, that there 

 is such a difference in the duration and destruc- 

 tion of her works ? If the mere stone decays, it is 

 to produce a soil which is capable of nourishing 



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