332 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI. 



to see a man, like the sun in the close of the Lapland sum- 

 mer, meridional in his horizon, or like wheat in a rainy 

 season, that shoots up well in the stalk, but does not kern. 

 As I have hoped and do hope more proudly of Davy than 

 of any other man, and as he has been endeared to me more 

 than any other man by the being a thing of hope to me 

 (more, far more, than myself to my own self in my most 

 genial moments), so of course my disappointment would 

 be proportionably severe. It were a falsehood if I said that 

 I think his present situation most calculated of all others to 

 foster either his genius or the clearness and uncorruptness 

 of his opinions and moral feelings. I see two serpents at 

 the cradle of his genius dissipation with a perpetual in- 

 crease of acquaintances and the constant presence of 

 inferiors and devotees, with that too great facility of attain- 

 ing admiration which degrades ambition into vanity ; but 

 the Hercules will strangle both the reptile monsters. I 

 have thought it possible to exert talents with perseverance, 

 and to attain true greatness wholly pure even from the 

 impulses of ambition, but on this subject Davy and I always 

 differed. . . My book is not, strictly speaking, metaphysical, 

 but historical. It, perhaps, will merit the title of a history 

 of metaphysics in England, from Lord Bacon to Mr. Hume 

 inclusive. I confine myself to facts in every part of the 

 work, excepting that which treats of Mr. Hume ; him I 

 have assuredly besprinkled copiously from the fountains of 

 bitterness and contempt. As to this and the other works 

 which you have mentioned, ' have patience, lord, and I will 

 pay thee all.' 



Mr. T. Wedgwood goes to Italy in the first days of May. 

 Whether I accompany him is uncertain ; he is apprehensive 

 that my health may incapacitate me. If I do not go with 

 him, I shall go off myself in the first week of April if 

 possible. 



Davy bimself wrote, on May 5, to bis friend Mr. 

 Thomas Poole : 



