William Henry. 123 



occasionally into considerable violence, even after war had 

 ceased. All this time there were men sitting in this 

 Society's rooms or at the Academy, and as occasion required 

 at the Board of Health, thinking of matters interesting to the 

 world, as well as to themselves. We shall not say which 

 were the greater men ; those who fought for freedom had 

 the most painful struggle and required most courage ; those 

 who sought science required the most careful thought, and 

 in a public struggle they would have lost their peculiar 

 value. The scientific man finds truth for all time, and thus 

 he is put perhaps unfairly on a higher station ; the political 

 struggle must be repeated for every nation, and sometimes 

 it must be carried on in every town or country, and the 

 village Hampden is often the most unselfish whilst ex- 

 pending those qualities which might have governed a 

 kingdom. He may be sufficiently appreciated to serve as 

 an example to another ; but the work of the man of science 

 is not merely an example, but a magic lamp that needs no 

 fuel — that famous lamp which burns for ever if not broken 

 by violence. Still it is true that the scientific man may 

 gain, by much less labour, that prominence which belongs 

 rather to the truth he finds than the eminence of the 

 qualities which find it. (See further p. i/i.) 



Dr. William Henry^ F.R.S. 



Mr. Henry's son. Dr. William Henry, born 1774, is 

 generally considered the most eminent of the family.^ He 

 had more opportunity of learning than his father, and we 

 may say the best opportunity afforded by the district, as 



* See vol . vi. Second series of Mefuoirs of the Society : Life, by Dr. William 

 Charles Henry. 



