Sir Humphry Davy, 225 



of battle or on the stormy deep ; and, we may venture to add, with a 

 spirit as fearless as that of the warrior or the navigator. Even the 

 alchymists groped their way amid tremendous elements, which, (in 

 some mysterious manner they were unable to explain,) not unfre- 

 quently gave them most durable proofs of tlie energies of the powers 

 of nature. A lost eye, a dismembered limb, or a scorched and crisp- 

 ed visage, bore frequent testimony of the conflicts they had carried on 

 with the powers of darkness. If men of science have now learned 

 to control these ordinary dangers, they have encountered others still 

 of a no less formidable character. Some have ascended the air in 

 balloons ; others have climbed to heights to which the eagle never 

 soars ; others have braved the terrors of a polar winter ; some have 

 descended into the fiery craters of volcanoes ; and some have waged 

 war with the lightning of heaven. 



We have dwelt the longer on this period of the life of Sir Hum- 

 phry, because during this period, short as it was, many of his great 

 qualities, both moral and intellectual, were fully developed. We are 

 next to view him in a new sphere of life. The Royal Institution of 

 Great Britain, founded by the exertions and influence of our country- 

 man Count Rumford, for the purpose of promoting the general dif- 

 fusion of useful knowledge, and the improvement of the mechanic 

 arts, had just come into operation ; and so strong was the impression 

 made in favor of young Davy by the volume of Researches, that he 

 was immediately after its publication, designated by Count Rumford 

 to fill the chemical chair in that Institution. The nature of this es- 

 tablishment concurred with his own practical turn of mind, to lead 

 him into inquiries directly connected with the improvement of the 

 arts. His first experiments were directed towards the ascertaining 

 of a method for accelerating the process of tanning leather. Such 

 a method he found no difficulty in discovering ; but he had the can- 

 dor to acknowledge, that the quality of the leather was impaired, by 

 any process which he had been able to institute for abridging the 

 time of tanning it. This was indeed no more than candor and truth 

 required him to acknowledge ; still there was something in the cir- 

 cumstances of the case, which implied in his doing this so frankly, a 

 fair and upright mind ; for this was his first essay in the application 

 of chemistry to the arts, since he had entered on his office at the 

 Royal Institution, while high and probably extravagant expectations 

 were entertained by the public, respecting the Hght that was to shine 

 upon the arts from the torch of science, to be held out to them from 



Vol. XVII.— No. 2. 2 



