386 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI. 



of good language and good taste, and it has been 

 remarked that Davy was born a poet, and has only 

 become a chemist by accident. Certainly the situation 

 in which he was placed induced him to cultivate an 

 ornamented and popular style of expression and em- 

 bellishment, and what was encouraged by temporary 

 motives has become natural to him from habit. Hence 

 have arisen a multitude of sentimental reflections and 

 appeals to the feelings, which many will think beauties 

 and some only prettinesses ; nor is it necessary for us 

 to decide in which of the two classes of readers we 

 wish ourselves to be arranged, conceiving that in 

 matters so indifferent to the immediate object of the 

 work a great latitude may be allowed to the diversity 

 of taste and opinion.' 



On June 18 Davy sent a paper to the Eoyal Society 

 on ' Some Combinations of Phosphorus and Sulphur,' 

 and in July two other papers ' Further Observations on 

 Chloride of Nitrogen ; and on Fluorine and Hydro- 

 fluoric Acid.' 



Late in August he wrote to a friend, 4 1 have just 

 published a volume of the ' Elements of Chemistry,' and 

 I hope to publish another in the course of the spring. 

 Having given up lecturing, I shall be able to devote 

 my whole time to the pursuit of discovery.' 



On October 14, from Edinburgh, he wrote to Mr. 

 Children : 



4 1 have received a very interesting letter from 

 Ampere. He says that a combination of chlorine and 

 azote has been discovered at Paris, which is a fluid 

 and explodes by the heat of the hand, the discovery 



