29 
j88o.] //is Life and Character. 
present, we must refer to its pages those of our readers who 
wish to assay these long-concealed nuggets. The collection 
was partly used by Dr. Grange Wilson in his “ Life of 
Cavendish, written in 1851 for the Cavendish Society, and 
referred to by Sir W. Snow Harris in his work on “ Fric- 
tional Electricity” published in 1867, but Sir William did 
not live to edit them. Under these circumstances the Duke 
of Devonshire, to whom they belong, placed them in Prof. 
Maxwell’s hands in 1874, with the interesting results that 
we see. These details are necessary as showing the care 
with which Cavendish hoarded the written accounts of his 
labours, which, had they been published in due time, would 
have added still brighter rays to the already brilliant crown 
of light that hovers over his name. Investigation was his 
joy ^publication his cross, for it wounded his shyness in its 
tenderest spot. He undertook the most laborious researches 
to clear up difficulties and doubts of whose existence and 
scope he alone was cognisant. The pleasure—his unique 
one _ 0 f solving these problems he must have enjoyed alone, 
insensible to the desire of communicating their solutions to 
his fellow men, which appears to have more or less ruled 
the adtions of philosophers of all ages. Of his miraculous 
precision and accuracy in working we are not called upon 
to speak, but in his investigation of eledtrical capacity of a 
] 0 n» cylinder his experimental results agree with those 
worked out mathematically by Prof. Maxwell within a mere 
fradtion, which in one case amounts to only o'oo6-. 
So much for Henry Cavendish as regards his own 
individuality. In his intercourse with the very small world 
in which he moved he was still more eccentric. Friends 
and intimates he had none ; his acquaintances were few and 
far between, and even they seem to have consisted only of 
a small sprinkling of the Fellows of the Royal Society 
whom he could hardly help assorting with. He was 
eledted a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1760, and knowing 
what we do of his habits, it seems surprising that he should 
have ever been able to summon up sufficient courage to go 
through the ordeal of proposal and eledtion. He was now, 
of necessity, thrown much into contadt with Sir Joseph 
Banks, who was then President of that learned Society, and 
he appears to have been more inclined to associate with him 
than with any of his other illustrious companions. He even 
seems to have forced himself into attending the presidential 
gatherings at Sir Joseph’s house in the then fashionable quar- 
ter of Soho Square. Such a concession to gregariousness in 
this most ungregarious of human beings, as he is justly 
