390 Paris^s Life of Sir Humphry Davy. 



engaged in useful trades or occupations. Indeed, except mere book learn- 

 ing, no education is available for the promotion of science but what every 

 man gives to himself; and it has been recently stated, with much truth, that 

 Sir Isaac Newton was made the greatest of natural philosophers, not by 

 Cambridge, but by himself; and it is even doubted whether he derived any 

 substantial benefit from his university education, though Dr. Barrow was 

 then one of the professors. 



With the domestic concerns or private foibles of men who have conferred 

 an honour on their country, the public have nothing to do ; but, if allusions 

 be made to them, we have a right to expect that the words should convey 

 a correct representation of facts. The high praise bestowed on Lady Davy 

 we fully believe to be justly merited : the very circumstance of her going to 

 join her husband on his travels, during his last illness, would alone aiFord 

 sufficient proof of this ; but while the biographer speaks of the " inestimable 

 treasure of an affectionate and exemplary wife, and a congenial friend and 

 companion," does he not, by the mention of these qualities, excite recollec- 

 tions which the best friends to the memory of this eminent philosopher 

 would desire to be buried in oblivion ? The biographer, as well as the his- 

 torian, who writes immediately after passing events, has sometimes a diffi- 

 cult task to perform, if he departs from an unvaried and unmeaning strain 

 of eulogy in describing his characters ; but he who undertakes to write the 

 life of such a man as Sir Humphry Davy, should recollect that, if the task 

 be well executed, he is not writing for the present age alone, but for poste- 

 rity : and, if he descend to details of the philosopher's family, and of his 

 manners, habits, and opinions *, the only value such details can possess will 

 be from their verisimilitude. Indeed, without this verisimilitude, private 

 biography, as is too frequently the case, is nothing but a " cunningly devised 

 fable," intended to mislead, and not to instruct. We have been more 

 copious in our remarks, because it is announced that the same gentleman 

 who wrote the article of Sir Humphry Davy is preparing for publication a 

 full life of this eminent philosopher. From the able and perspicuous sketch 

 of his discoveries given in the Obituary y the writer has proved himself well 

 qualified for the undertaking : we have no doubt that the work will be 

 worthy, in this respect, of the subject ; and we should be sorry to see it dis- 

 figured by any instances of bad taste or affectation. 



* Dr. Paris says something about the " spawn of infidelity," and seems to 

 wish, by implication, to puff off Sir Humphry Davy's piety : his real senti- 

 ments on religious subjects were well known to his intimate friends. The 

 inference which Dr. Paris would wish his readers to draw respecting the 

 domestic life of the philosopher is, that Sir Humphry Davy and his lady 

 lived in a state of the highest connubial felicity. On this subject he had 

 done much better to have maintained silence. — L. H, 



Davy " hearing, while at Gottenberg, that Berzelius was in the south of 

 Sweden, he wrote him, desiring he would not leave Helsingborg till a cer- 

 tain day, where he would meet him. Accordingly, Berzelius, with Orsted, 

 and, I believe, Brongniart, were there at the time, and waited two days 

 beyond it ; till the two latter lost patience, and set off; and Berzelius had 

 his horses in his carriage when news was brought that the Englishman had 

 arrived : and, when they met, Davy's excuse was, * that he had found such 

 capital fishing by the way^ that he could not thinlc of leaving it^ The waiting 

 and the excuse, conjoined with the hauteur which, in later life, made Davy 

 forget most of his old friends, and his old friends dislike him, were sufficient 

 to create an unfriendly feeling : so, after spending four hours together, they 

 parted. * Any degree or mark of respect I was disposed to give him, as a 

 great philosopher,' said Berzelius : * but it was a pity to see a mind like his 

 stoop to the demand of deference as a man of the world.' " (Johnston, in 

 Brewster's Journal, April, \S30,p 205.) 



