308 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI. 



intellectual beings spring from the same breath, of Infinite 

 Intelligence, and return to it again, but by different courses, 

 like rivers born amidst the clouds of heaven and lost in 

 the deep and eternal ocean ; some in youth rapid and short- 

 lived torrents, some in manhood powerful and copious 

 rivers, and some in age by a winding and slow course, half 

 lost in their career and making their exit by many sandy and 

 shallow mouths. [And then he asks him if he will come 

 and travel with him.] But I write as if I were a strong man, 

 when I am like a pendulum, as it were, swinging between 

 death and life. God bless you, my dear Poole ! 

 Your grateful and affectionate Friend, 



H. DAVY. 



A fortnight afterwards he had another severe attack 

 of paralysis of the right side. 



On February 23, three days after the attack, he 

 dictated a letter to his brother. 



MY DEAR JOHN, Notwithstanding all my care and dis- 

 cipline and ascetic living I am dying from a severe attack 

 of palsy, which has seized the whole of the body with the 

 exception of the intellectual organ. I am under the usual 

 severe discipline of bleeding and blistering, but the weak- 

 ness increases, and a few hours or days will finish my 

 mortal existence. I shall leave my bones in the Eternal 

 City. I bless God that I have been able to finish all my 

 philosophical labours. . . . 



God bless you, my dear brother ! may you be happy and 

 prosperous ! 



Your affectionate Friend and Brother, 



H. DAVY. 



The 25th he dictated another letter, chiefly on the 

 torpedo ; it ends : 



