24 
Sir  Huviphri/  Davy,  Bart.,  P.R.S. 
companion  was  naturally  induced  to  deliver  liis  opinions  with 
the  utmost  freedom  and  confidence  on  all  subjects.  We 
commenced  on  poetry  and  painting — the  sublime  and  beautiful; 
then  proceeded  to  mineralogy,  astronomy,  &c.,  and  occasionally 
on  topics  of  mirth  and  humour,  so  that  the  evening  was  passed 
with  general  satisfaction.  When  Davy  retired  to  rest  and 
I was  left  alone  with  our  companion,  I inquired  how  lie  liked 
my  friend,  and  whether  he  considered  him  a jiroficient  in 
science,  and  versed  in  chemistry  and  geology  ? He  answered, 
coolly,  that  he  appeared  to  be  rather  a clever  young  man,  with 
some  general  scientific  knowledge.  He  then  asked  his  name, 
and  when  I announced,  ‘ Davy,  of  the  Royal  Institution,'  the 
stranger  seemed  thunderstruck,  and  exclaimed,  ‘ Good  God  ! 
was  that  really  Davy  ? How  have  I exposed  my  ignorance 
and  jiresumption  | ‘ 
Dr.  Paris,  while  praising  Davy  highly,  rather  severely 
censures  the  coolness  of  his  manners  towards  his  French  friends 
on  his  visit  to  France.  A jioor  return  for  their  warm  reception 
of  him,  and  he  attributes  tliis  to  mauvaise  honte.  This  is  likely 
to  create  a very  erroneous  idea  of  Davy’s  manners.  De  Quincey, 
who  met  him  at  Goleridge’s,  gives  a very  different  description, 
and  probably  a truer  one  than  that  of  Dr.  Paris.  He  writes  ; 
“Of  all  the,  eminent  persons  whom  1 have  ever  seen,  even  by 
a casual  glinqise,  [he]  was  the  most  agreeable  to  know  on  the 
terms  of  a slight  accjuaintance.”  And  again  : “ But  what 
chiefly  distinguished  him  from  other  men  was  the  captivating 
— one  might  call  it  the  radiant — courtesy  of  his  manner.  It 
was  at  once  animated  and  chastised  by  good  breeding  : graceful, 
and  at  the  same  time  gracious.” 
The  most  remarkable  testimony  of  all  is  to  be  found  in 
Lockhart’s  TAfe  of  Scott,  (chap.  49)  where  Davy  is  seen  outside 
his  own  domain  of  science  in  friendly  comj)etition  with  Scott 
for  convei  sational  honours  : “ 1 have  seen  Sir  Humj)hry  in  many 
places,  and  in  company  of  many  different  descriptions,  but 
never  to  such  advantage  as  at  Abbotsford.  His  host  and  he 
delighted  in  each  other,  and  the  modesty  of  their  mutual 
admiration  was  a memorable  spectacle.  Davy  was  by  nature 
a poet  ; and  Scott,  though  anything  but  a philosopher  in  the 
modern  sense  of  that  term,  might,  I think  it  very  likely,  have 
pursued  the  study  of  physical  science  witli  /eal  and  success, 
had  he  happened  to  fall  in  with  such  an  instructor  as  Sir 
Humphry  would  have  been  to  him,  in  his  early  life.  Each 
' Paris’s  Life,  Vol.  1,  pj).  155,  15(i. 
