146 Slit HUMPHREY DAVY. 



the moss and the lichen ; when the moss and the 

 lichen die, and decompose, they produce a mould, 

 which becomes- the bed of life to grasses, and to 

 more exalted species of vegetables. Vegetables 

 are the food of animals ; the less perfect animals 

 of the more perfect ; but in man the faculties and 

 intellect are perfected. He rises, exists for a little 

 while in disease and misery ; and then would seem 

 to disappear, without an end, and without produc- 

 ing any effect. 



"We are deceived, my dear Clayfield, if we 

 suppose that the human being, who has formed 

 himself for action, but who has been unable to act, 

 is lost in the mass of being ; there is some arrange- 

 ment of things which we can never comprehend, 

 but in which his faculties will be applied. . . . 

 Gregory was a noble fellow, and would have been 

 a great man. Oh ! there was no reason for his 

 dying he ought not to have died." 



This death broke the spirit of James Watt, the 

 father, who ever after kept beside him, in the attic 

 at Heathtield, the little, old-fashioned hair trunk 

 of his beloved Gregory, full of his school-books, 

 letters, and childish toys. It stands to-day, where 

 it did eighty years ago, beside the mouldering 

 beams of the sculpture machine. That life is 

 not short, however few the years, which leaves 

 such an undying influence and such beautiful 

 memories. 



Humphrey was now twenty-six, and much had 

 come into his young life. He had applied himself 



