2S6 Literary and Philosophical Society, 



we may venture to ask, who is there then, who knows the 

 advantages, beauties, nay, the pleasures of scientific know- 

 ledge, who would think his time misspent or his labours 

 useless, in the accomplishment of so noble an acquisition ? ' 

 Dr. Joule says, ' Mr. Sturgeon was of a tall and well 

 built frame of body, his forehead was high and his features 

 were strongly marked. His address was animated, and his 

 conversation, as it generally is when the mind is stored 

 with knowledge, pleasing and instructive. His style of 

 writing was at once vigorous, lucid, and graceful. In friend- 

 ship he was warm and steady, in domestic life affectionate 

 and exemplary. He had a noble mind and a generous 

 heart. . . , He was a close and sagacious reasoner, and 

 an unsparing exposer of error. He detected quackery 

 and false pretension, sought diligently for truth and 

 loved it for its own sake. A diligent accumulator and 

 observer of facts, eager in the pursuit of information of 

 whatever kind, and in communicating his stores to others, 

 under more fortunate circumstances he would probably 

 have left a name unsurpassed in the scientific history 

 of his time ; as it is, he will always be remembered as a 

 distinguished cultivator of natural knowledge.' 



To all this we agree heartily, and feel at the same time 

 the extreme difficulty there is in this and perhaps in any 

 country in Europe in any man obtaining a good position 

 in any scientific establishment unless he enters in by the 

 colleges or universities, or has made early friendships of 

 those who have ; by their means he is put on the track 

 of promotion, and otherwise he is often an outcast. We 

 must feel how remarkable the influence of Sturgeon has 

 been in developing the electrical apparatus of the present 

 day. The results which are exciting the world are 



