1830 .] 
Sir H. Davy and Dr. IV. IV oollaston. 
24 ; 
V . — On the Scientific Characters of the late Sir H. Davy and Dr. W. 
H. Woollaston. 
[From Mr. Babbage’s work on the Decline of Science in England.] 
In a work on the Decline of Science, at a period when England has so recently 
lost two of its brightest ornaments, I should hardly be excused if I omitted to 
devote a few words to the names of Woollaston and of Davy. Until the warm 
feelings of surviving kindred and admiring friends shall be cold as the grave from 
which remembrance vainly recalls their cherished forms, invested with all the 
life and energy of recent existence, the volumes of their biography must be sealed. 
Their cotemporaries can expect only to read their eloge. 
In habits of intercourse with both those distinguished individuals, sufficiently 
frequent to mark the curiously different structure of their minds, I was yet not 
on such terms even with him I most esteemed, as to view his great qualities 
through that medium which is rarely penetrated by the eye of long and very in- 
timate friendship. 
Caution and precision were the predominant features of the character of Wool- 
laston, and those who are disposed to reduce the number of principles, would 
perhaps justly trace the precision which adorned his philosophical to the extreme 
caution which pervaded his moral character. It may indeed be questioned 
whether the latter quality will not in all persons of great abilities produce the 
former. 
Ambition constituted a far larger ingredient in the character of Davy, and with 
the daring hand of genius he grasped even the remotest conclusions to which a 
theory led him. He seemed to think invention a more common attribute than it 
really is, and hastened as soon as he was in possession of a new fact or a new 
principle, to communicate it to the world, doubtful perhaps lest he might not be 
anticipated ; but conlident in his own powers, he was content to give to others 
a chance of reaping some part of that harvest, the largest portion of which he 
knew must still fall to his share. 
Dr. Woollaston, on the other hand, appreciated more truly the rarity of the in- 
ventive faculty ; and undeterred by the fear of being anticipated when he had 
contrived a new instrument, or detected a new principle, he brought all the in- 
formation that he could collect from others, or which arose from his own reflection 
to bear upon it for years, before he delivered it to the world. 
The most singular characteristic of Woollaston’s mind was the plain and distinct 
line which separated what he knew from what he did not know ; and this a^ain 
arising from his precision, might be traced to caution. 
It would, however, have been visible to such an extent in few except himself for 
there were very few so perfectly free from vanity and affectation. To this circum- 
stance may be attributed a peculiarity of manner in the mode in which he com- 
municated information to those who sought it from him, which was to many ex- 
tremely disagreeable. He usually, by a few questions, ascertained precisely how 
much the enquirer knew upon the subject, or the exact point at which his ignorance 
commenced ; a process not very agreeable to the variety of mankind : taking up 
the subject at this point, he would then very clearly and shortly explain it. ° 
His acquaintance with mathematics was very limited. Mauy years since when 
I was an unsuccessful candidate for a professorship of mathematics, I applied to 
Dr. W. for a recommendation ; he declined it on the ground of its not being his 
pursuit. I told him I asked it, because I thought it would have weight ; to which 
he replied, it ought to have none whatever- There is no doubt his view was the 
just one. Yet such is the state of ignorance which exists on these subjects, that 
I have several times heard him mentioned as one of the greatest mathematicians 
of the age 1 . But in this as in all other points, the precision with which he com- 
prehended and retained all he had ever learned, especially of the elementary appli- 
cations of mathematics to physics, was such, that he possessed greater command 
over those subjects than many of far more extensive knowledge. 
In associating with Woollaston you perceived that the predominating principle 
was to avoid error ; in the society of Davy you saw that it was the desire to see 
and make known truth. Woollaston never could have been a poet; Davy might 
have been a great one. ’ s 
1 This of course could only have happened in England, 
