334 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI. 



Later he wrote again to Mr. Poole : 



Often, very often, in the midst of the tumults of the 

 multitude in this great city has my spirit turned in quiet- 

 ness and solitude towards you. 



I hope soon to see you in Somersetshire, where we may 

 worship nature and the Spirit that dwells in nature in your 

 green fields and under your tranquil sky. My communica- 

 tions with you, and Coleridge, and Southey, and other 

 ornaments of the great existing Being have excited feelings 

 which cheer me in the apathy of London, and which make 

 me love human nature. 



In December 1803 Dr. Dalton gave a course of 

 lectures at the Royal Institution. Early in January 

 he wrote to a friend from the Eoyal Institution : 



I was introduced to Mr. Davy, who has rooms adjoining 

 mine ; he is a very agreeable and intelligent young man, 

 and we have interesting conversations in the evening ; the 

 principal failing in his character as a philosopher is that he 

 does not smoke. Mr. Davy advised me to labour at my first 

 lecture ; he told me the people here would be inclined to 

 form their opinion from it. Accordingly I resolved to write 

 my first lecture wholly ; to do nothing, but to tell them what 

 I would do and enlarge upon the importance and utility of 

 science. I studied and wrote for near two days, then 

 calculated to a minute how long it would take me reading, 

 endeavouring to. make my discourse about fifty minutes. The 

 evening before the lecture Davy and I went into the theatre ; 

 he made me read the whole of it, and he went into the 

 farthest corner. Then he read it, and I was the audience. 

 We criticised each other's method. Next day I read it to an 

 audience of about 150 or 200 people, which was more than 

 were expected. They gave a very general plaudit at the 

 conclusion, and several came up to compliment me upon 

 the excellence of the introduction. Since that I have 



