John Ayrton Paris

“ Independent in an honourable competence, the product of his genius and industry; resident in the centre of all scientific information and intelligence; every avenue of knowledge, and every mode of observation open to his unwearied intellect, he must have experienced a satisfaction which few philosophers have ever before felt,—the power of pursuing experimental research to any extent, and of commanding the immediate possession of all the means it might require, without the least regard either to cost or labour. ”

“ That circumstances in early life should have directed such energies to a science, which requires for its advancement all the aids of novel and bold, and yet patient and accurate research, is one of those fortunate events which every unprejudiced mind will view with triumph.
It is surely not difficult to understand how it happened that a mind endowed with the genius and sensibilities of Davy, should have been directed to the study of Chemistry and Mineralogy, when we consider the nature and scenery of the country in which accident had placed him. ”

“ After all, the great end of biography is not to be found, as some would seem to imagine, in a series of dates, or in a collection of gossiping anecdotes and table-talk, which, instead of lighting up and vivifying the features, hang as a cloud of dust upon the portrait; but it is to be found in an analysis of human genius, and in the developement of those elements of the mind, to whose varied combinations, and nicely adjusted proportions, the mental habits, and intellectual peculiarities of distinguished men may be readily referred. ”

“ We can, therefore, only hope to succeed in such an investigation by a patient and laborious examination of a primitive country, after which we may be enabled to extend our enquiries with greater advantage through those regions which are more completely covered with soil, and obscured by luxuriant vegetation; as the eye, acquainted with the human figure, on gazing upon a beautiful statue, traces the outline of the limbs, and the swelling contour of its form, through the flowing draperies which invest it. ”

“ Could that great man revisit the earth, and view the experiments of the present race of electricians, he would be no less amazed than Roger Bacon, or Sir Francis, would have been at his." In our turn we may ask, what would be the astonishment—what the delight of Dr. Priestley, could he now witness the successful results of Voltaic research?—and what would he say of that mighty genius who has demonstrated the relations of electrical energy to the general laws of chemical action? ”

“ The sun shone with great brilliancy, and illumined their various forms with silver, grey and blue tints of exquisite beauty. As there was scarcely a breath 154 of air stirring below the mountain, this aggregation of clouds, probably occasioned by some electrical agency, remained fixed and stationary, as if identified with the valley. The higher parts of most of the surrounding hills were enveloped in mist, above which the tops of Snowdon and Cader Idris towered distinctly visible, and appeared like small islands rising out of the sea. ”

“ I have often thought a very curious book might be written to show how greatly, both in physics and in morals, the progress of truth has been retarded, and the judgment of men warped, by the abuse of metaphors; the most correct of which can be nothing more than the image of Truth reflected, as it were, from a mirror, and consequently liable to all the delusions of our mental optics. The figure by which Nature was represented as "abhorring a vacuum," kept us in ignorance of the true theory of the pump for two thousand years after the discovery of the weight, or gravity, of the atmosphere ”

“ The most humble means may certainly accomplish the highest ends: the filament of a spider's web has been used to measure the motions of the stars; and a kite, made with two cross sticks and a silk handkerchief, enabled the chemical Prometheus to rob the thunder-cloud of its lightnings; but that a worn-out instrument, such as has been just described, should have furnished him who was born to revolutionize the science of the age, with the only means of enquiry at that time within his reach, affords, it must be admitted, a very whimsical illustration of our maxim. ”

“ I see two Serpents at the cradle of his genius, Dissipation with a perpetual increase of acquaintances, and the constant presence of Inferiors and Devotees, with that too great facility of attaining admiration, which degrades Ambition into Vanity—but the Hercules will strangle both the reptile monsters. I have thought it possible to exert talents with perseverance, and to attain true greatness wholly pure, even from the impulses of ambition; but on this subject Davy and I always differed. ”

“ Beddoes says, "I am glad that Mr. Davy has impressed you as he has me. I have long wished to write to you about him, for I think I can open a more fruitful field of investigation than any body else. Is it not also his most direct road to fortune? Should he not bring out a favourable result, he may still exhibit talents for investigation, and entitle himself to public confidence more effectually than by any other mode. He must be maintained, but the fund will not furnish a salary from which a man can lay up any thing. He must also devote his time for two or three years to the investigation. ”

“ It is a melancholy thing to see a man, like the Sun in the close of the Lapland summer, meridional in his horizon; or like wheat in a rainy season, that shoots up well in the stalk, but does not kern. As I have hoped, and do hope, more proudly of Davy than of any other man ”

“ Look at Davy in the laboratory at Bristol, pursuing with eager industry various abstract points of research; mixing only with a few philosophers, sanguine like himself in the investigation of chemical phenomena, but whose sphere of observation must have been confined to themselves, and whose worldly knowledge could scarcely have extended beyond the precincts of the Institution in which they were engaged. ”

“ By the decomposition of the alkalies and earths, what an immense stride has been made in the investigation of nature!—In sciences kindred to chemistry, the knowledge of the composition of these bodies, and the analogies arising from it, have opened new views, and led to the solution of many problems. In Geology, for instance, has it not shown that agents may have operated in the formation of rocks and earths, which had not previously been known to exist? It is evident that the metals of the earths cannot remain at the surface of our globe ”

“ In boyish life, his imagination, acting upon his zeal for the welfare of his species, delighted, as we have seen, in the ideas of encountering dragons, and quelling the might of giants; but as fancy paled with the light of advancing years, and the judgment, presented distincter appearances, the philanthropic antipathy which had been directed to those chimeras of the nursery, was transferred to the two great oppressions of society, and in Superstition he saw the dragons—in Despotism, the giants that spread mischief and misery through the world. ”

“ Such an unexpected extension of an apparently useless fact should dispose us to entertain a kinder regard for the labours of one another, and teach us to judge with diffidence of the abstract results of science. A discovery which may appear incapable of useful application to-day, may be our glory to-morrow,—it may even change the face of empires, and wield the destiny of nations. ”

“ I know, however, that your candour will induce you not to expect any thing like a finished work upon a science as yet in its infancy; and I am sure you will receive with indulgence the first attempt made to illustrate it, in a distinct course of lectures.
"Agricultural Chemistry has for its objects all those changes in the arrangements of matter connected with the growth and nourishment of plants; the comparative values of their produce as food; the constitution of soils; and the manner in which lands are enriched by manure, or rendered fertile by the different processes of cultivation." ”

“ In general, when the different energies are strong and in perfect equilibrium, the combination ought to be quick, the heat and light intense, and the new compound in a neutral state. This would seem to be the case in the combination of oxygen and hydrogen, which form water, a body apparently neutral in electrical energy to most others; and also in the circumstances of the union of the strong alkalies and acids. But where one energy is feeble, and the other strong, all the effects must be less vivid; and the compound, instead of being neutral, ought to exhibit the excess of the stronger energy. ”

“ I am convinced that the natural state of domestic society is the best fitted for man, whether he be devoted to philosophy, or to active life.
I shall have much pleasure in presenting my wife to you and to Mrs. Purkis, on my return.
We have had a delightful tour through the Highlands. We are at the extreme point of our journey. The pleasures of a refined society—that of Lord and Lady Stafford's family—have induced us to make a long pause here. ”

“ It now boasts a fertile soil, an ingenious and robust peasantry, and a rich aristocracy; but the bane of the nation is the equality of poverty amongst the lower orders. All are slaves without the probability of becoming free; they are in the state of equality which the Sansculottes wished for in France; and until emulation and riches, and the love of clothes and neat houses, are introduced amongst them, there will be no permanent improvement. ”

“ If we acknowledge the truth of such a standard, and submit the posthumous fame of Davy to its measure, where is the philosopher, in our times, whose name is destined to attain a higher eminence in the history of Science? ”

“ Agriculture, to which we owe our means of subsistence, is an art intimately connected with chemical science; for although the common soil of the earth will produce vegetable food, yet it can only be made to produce it in the greatest quantity, and of the best quality, by methods of cultivation dependent upon scientific principles. ”

“ We cannot but admire the eagerness with which he enlists known facts into his service, and the boldness with which he ranges the wilds of creation in search of analogies for the support and illustration of his views. He imagines that the Phos-oxygen, when thus luminated, must necessarily have its specific gravity considerably diminished by the combination, and that it will therefore occupy the higher regions of the atmosphere; hence, he says, it is that combustion takes place at the tops of mountains at a lower temperature than in the plains, and with a greater liberation of light. ”

“ So that the foundation and original arrangements of the Royal Institution were not only calculated to extend the boundaries of science, but to increase its applications, and to promote and improve those arts of life on which the subsistence of all, and the comfort and enjoyment of the great majority of mankind absolutely depend. ”

“ As one great object in our excursions is to view Nature and man in their most simple forms, and to gain a temporary life of new impressions, I submit to you whether it will not be best to steer clear of towns, cities, and civilized society, in which, for the most part, we can see what we have only seen before. ”

“ In experiments on Light and Heat, we have to deal with agents whose changes we are unable directly to estimate. The most we can hope for is such an arrangement of facts as will account for most of the phenomena.
The supposition of active powers common to all matter, from the different modifications of which all the phenomena of its changes result, appears to me more reasonable than the assumption of certain imaginary fluids alone endowed with active powers, and bearing the same relation to common matter, as the vulgar philosophy supposes spirit to bear to matter. ”

“ He represents the Chemist as the Ruler of all the elements that surround us, and which he employs either for the satisfaction of his wants, or the gratification of his wishes. Not contented with what is to be found on the surface of the earth, he describes him as penetrating into her bosom, and even of searching the depths of the ocean, for the purpose of allaying the restlessness of his desires, or of extending and increasing the boundaries of his power. ”

“ It was his habit in the laboratory, to carry on several unconnected experiments at the same time, and he would pass from one to the other without any obvious design or order: upon these occasions he was perfectly reckless of his apparatus; breaking and destroying a part, in order to meet some want of the moment. So rapid were all his movements, that, while a spectator imagined he was merely 145 making preparations for an experiment, he was actually obtaining the results, which were just as accurate as if a much longer time had been expended. With Davy, rapidity was power. ”

“ I have heard of no important discoveries. In politics, nothing seems capable of exciting permanent interest. The stroke of poverty, though severely felt, has been a torpedo, benumbing all energy, and not irritating and awakening it, as might have been expected.
Here, at the Pneumatic Institution, the nitrous oxide has evidently been of use. Dr. Beddoes is proceeding in the execution of his great popular physiological work, which, if it equals the plan he holds out, ought to supersede every work of the kind.
I have been pursuing Galvanism with labour, and some success. ”

“ Poole, in a late communication, informs me that he was in London soon after the letter communicating this gratifying intelligence had been received from France; and that Davy, upon showing it to him, observed, "Some people say I ought not to accept this prize; and there have been foolish paragraphs in the papers to that effect; but if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would, indeed, be a civil war of the worst description: we should rather, through the instrumentality of men of science, soften the asperities of national hostility." ”

“ What, then, might not have been expected from his genius, when applied to a department upon which the light of science had scarcely dawned?
It is only in a primitive country like Cornwall, that the natural relations between the varieties of soil and the subjacent rocks can be studied with success: as we advance to alluvial districts, such relations become gradually less distinct and apparent, and are ultimately lost in the confused complication of the soil itself, and in that general obscurity which envelopes every object in the ulterior stages of decomposition. ”