BAVY. 453 



that the discoverer of the alkaline metals should 

 be willing to have the conversation roll upon che- 

 mistry and galvanism ; but the time to which I 

 have been referring was when his fame rested chiefly 

 upon the success of his lectures to mixed companies in 

 Albemarle Street, and to lovers of agriculture in 

 Sackville Street, where the Board had chosen him 

 their Chemical Professor. 



If his situation at the Royal Institution had exposed 

 him to the risk which we have seen he escaped, it had 

 put him in possession of invaluable helps to his pur- 

 suits. He had now an ample command of books ; he 

 had assistants under him ; above all, he had an un- 

 limited power of collecting and of making apparatus ; 

 his income was secure ; and his time was at his own 

 disposal. He failed not to avail himself diligently of 

 these great advantages ; and although he lived a good 

 deal in society, where he was always a welcome guest, 

 his principal relaxations during the rest of his life con- 

 sisted in shooting, and especially in fishing, of which 

 he was from his earliest years passionately fond. The 

 intercourse he had held with Southey and with Cole- 

 ridge had given him not only his taste for poetry, but 

 an extraordinary love of rural walks, in the peaceful 

 solitude of which I have heard him say, answering the 

 ordinary and obvious objections of those who are not 

 smitten with the love of the " Angle," the gratifica- 

 tions of that propensity very mainly consist. 



In 1801 he made his first important discovery, that 

 by which he ascertained the true nature of galvanic 

 action. That this was connected with electric or che- 

 mical affinity had been generally suspected, though de- 



