396 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI. 



and I indulge in the idea that you are well and happy and 

 enjoying a life which I can say I only support, supposing 

 that it pleases Omniscience to preserve me for some ends 

 which I cannot understand, but which I trust belong to 

 the great plan of goodness and mercy belonging to the 

 Divine mind. 



It suits me better to write away my days in this solitary 

 state of existence in the contemplation of nature than to 

 attempt to enter into London society, where recollections 

 call up the idea of what I was, and the want of bodily 

 power teaches me what a shadow I am. I make notes in 

 natural history, fish, and prepare for another edition of my 

 ' Salmonia; ' ride amongst the lakes and mountains ; and 

 attach the loose fringe of hope as much as possible to my 

 tattered garments. I am now going to Ischel, where there 

 are warm salt baths, to try if they will renovate the muscu- 

 lar power of my leg and arm. 



I wish to go to Trieste in October, to make the experi- 

 ments I have long projected on the torpedo. God bless 

 you, my dear John ! 



Your affectionate Friend and Brother, 



H. DAVT. 



On June 24 he says : 



I have used the baths. I have nearly recovered the 

 flexibility of the affected limbs, but not their former strength, 

 and this I can hardly hope to do as long as I am obliged 

 to live so low and to use so much medicine ; but I shall go 

 on. Speranza ! 



In November he sent his last paper to the Royal 

 Society. It was on the Torpedo. 



On December 21 he wrote to his brother : 



Rome. 



Perhaps in the spring you could see me in Illyria. I 

 would then show you my kind little nurse, to whom I owe 

 most of the little happiness I have enjoyed since my illness. 



