John Ayrton Paris

“ In speaking of the swallow, Poietes exclaims—"I delight in this living landscape! The swallow is one of my favourite birds, and a rival of the nightingale; for he cheers my sense of seeing as much as the other does my sense of hearing. He is the glad prophet of the year, the harbinger of the best season: 324 he lives a life of enjoyment amongst the loveliest forms of nature: winter is unknown to him; and he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn, for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of Africa: he has always objects of pursuit, and his success is secure. ”

“ The philosopher who, predicating the identity of lightning and electricity, conceived the bold and grand idea of drawing it down from the thunder-cloud, an experiment which in another age would have consigned him to the dungeon for impiety, or to the stake for witchcraft, himself applied this wonderful discovery to the preservation of buildings, by the invention of pointed rods of iron. Of this invention it may be truly said, that he beat Nature with her own weapons, and triumphed over her power by an obedience to her own laws. ”

“ Old workings, likewise, upon being broken into, have not unfrequently been found filled with this gas, and which, by mingling itself with the common air, has converted the whole atmosphere of the mine into a magazine of fire-damp.
On the approach of a candle, it is in an instant kindled: the expanding fluid drives before it a roaring whirlwind of flaming air, which tears up every thing in its progress, scorching some of the miners to a cinder, and burying others under enormous ruins shaken from the roof ”

“ Davies Gilbert, his early friend and patron, has likewise paid to his memory a just and appropriate testimony of respect and admiration, in an address from the chair of the Royal Society.
The inhabitants of Penzance and its neighbourhood, animated by feelings of honourable pride and strong local attachment, will shortly, it is understood, raise a pyramid of massive granite to his memory, on one of those elevated spots of silence and solitude, where he delighted in his boyish days to commune with the elements, and where the Spirit of Nature moulded his genius in one of her wildest moods. ”

“ And the same infinite power and wisdom which has fitted the camel and the ostrich for the deserts of Africa, the swallow that secretes its own nest for the caves of Java, the whale for the Polar seas, and the morse and white bear for the Arctic ice, has given the Proteus to the deep and dark subterraneous lakes of Illyria,—an animal to whom the presence of light is not essential, and who can live indifferently in air and in water, on the surface of the rock, or in the depths of the mud. ”

“ All that I have gained in an active and not unprofitable life. How well I remember that delightful season, when, full of power, I sought for power in others; and power was sympathy, and sympathy power;—when the dead and the unknown, the great of other ages and of distant places were made, by the force of the imagination, my companions and friends;—when every voice seemed one of praise and love;—when every flower had the bloom and 319 odour of the rose ”

“ Will philosophers never feel, with Walpole, that "a genius transmits more honour by blood than he can receive?" Had the blood of forty generations of 182 nobility flowed in the veins of Davy, would his name have commanded higher homage, or his discoveries have excited greater admiration? But great minds have ever had their points of weakness: an inordinate admiration of hereditary rank was the cardinal deformity of Davy's character ”

“ We behold a power which, in its effects, seemed to emulate the violence of the volcano and the earthquake, at once restrained by an almost invisible and impalpable barrier of network—we behold, as it were, the dæmon of fire taken captive by Science, and ministering to the convenience of the miner, while harmlessly fluttering in an iron cage. ”

“ The world of science—the civilized world, are alike indebted to him who enlarges the boundaries of human knowledge, who increases the scope of intellectual enjoyment, and exhibits the human mind in possession of new and unknown powers, by which it gains, as it were, new dominions in space; acquisitions which are imperishable—not like the boundaries of terrestrial states and kingdoms, or even the great monuments of art, which, however extensive and splendid, must decay—but secured by the grandest forms and objects of nature, and registered amongst her laws. ”

“ Whatever may be the vices attributed to Chemistry on such occasions, they have belonged to the philosophers engaged in its pursuit, and are no evidence of the frailty of the science itself; and here it must be admitted, that there exists in one portion of mankind a self-love which cannot patiently submit to a change of opinions of which they are either the authors or defenders, while in another there predominates a timidity which naturally leads them, amidst the storm of controversy, to cling to the wreck of a shattered theory, rather than to trust themselves to a new and untried bark. ”

“ The operations of Nature, when slow, are no less sure; however man may, for a time, usurp dominion over her, she is certain of recovering her empire. He converts her rocks, her stones, her trees, into forms of palaces, houses, and ships; he employs the metals found in the bosom of the earth, as instruments of power, and the sands and clays which constitute its surface, as ornaments and resources of luxury; he imprisons air by water, and tortures water by fire to change, or modify, or destroy the natural forms of things. ”

“ I have, however, considerably recovered the use of all the limbs that were affected; and as my amendment has been slow and gradual, I hope in time it may be complete: but I am leading the life of an anchorite, obliged to abstain from flesh, wine, business, study, experiments, and all things that I love; but this discipline is salutary, and for the sake of being able to do something more for science, and, I hope, for humanity, I submit to it; believing that the Great Source of intellectual being so wills it for good. ”

“ I have this conviction full on my mind, that intellectual beings spring from the same breath of Infinite Intelligence, and return to it again, but by different courses. Like rivers, born amidst the clouds of heaven, and lost in the deep and eternal ocean—some in youth, rapid and short-lived torrents; some in manhood, powerful and copious rivers; and some in age, by a winding and slow course, half lost in their career, and making their exit through many sandy and shallow mouths. ”

“ At the same time, it must be allowed that, although it may not have directly advanced the progress of science, it has materially assisted its cause, by perpetuating the spirit of philosophical enquiry, and the love of scientific glory—by keeping alive upon the altar the sacred flame that genius may have kindled.
In the present state of science, the Royal Society imparts an inspiring principle to its various branches, by affording a rallying point, a centre of communication, to the philosophers of all nations, to whom kindred pursuits may render personal intercourse beneficial ”

“ It is by an elaborate examination only, that the full evidence of their truth can be displayed; there are points which the keen eye of genius will discern, that are invisible to a grosser sense: the coldness of criticism then will only make them glow the brighter; like his own potassium, the contact even of ice, so far from extinguishing, will light them up in splendour. ”

“ When it is remembered that the security thus conferred upon the labouring community, is not merely the privilege of the age in which the discovery was effected, but must be extended to future times, and continue to preserve human life as long as coal is dug from our mines, can there be found in the whole compass of art or science, an invention more useful and glorious? ”

“ In deciding upon the qualifications necessary for a President, this altered state of the Society must not be overlooked; nor can it be concealed, that the great discoveries of modern science have been achieved without any direct assistance from the Royal Society. Davy would have discovered the laws of electro-chemistry, and applied them for the decomposition of the alkalies—and the genius of Dalton would, by his atomic doctrine, have "snatched the science from the chaos of indefinite combination, and have bound it in the chains of number," had the Society never existed. ”

“ Does it follow, because an undisciplined ardour may have occasionally exaggerated the merits of our contemporaries, that we are henceforth to withhold from them a just tribute of applause at their discoveries—to forego the advantages which science must derive from a plan so well calculated to awaken the flagging attention, to infuse into stagnant research a renewed spirit of animation, and to encourage the industry of the labourer in the abstract regions of science, with prospects gleaming with sunshine, and luxuriant in the fruitfulness which is to reward him? ”

“ Plundered of their lead and iron by the barbarians, Goths and Vandals, and robbed even of their stones by Roman princes—the Barberini, they owe what remains of their relics to the sanctifying influence of that faith which has preserved for the world all that was worth preserving, not merely arts and literature, but likewise that which constitutes the progressive nature of intellect, and the institutions which afford to us happiness in this world, and hopes of a blessed immortality in the next. ”

“ In Parliament, how is a question of science treated? In our courts of law, and criminal investigation, it is lamentable to observe the frequent defeat of justice, arising from erroneous conception, or from the utter absence of the requisite knowledge. In the ordinary affairs of life, we see conspicuous, amongst the dupes of quackery and imposture, those whose stations should imply the best instruction, and whose conduct, unfortunately, has the effect of example. ”

“ In announcing even the greatest and most important discoveries, the true philosopher will communicate his details with modesty and reserve; he will rather be a useful servant of the public, bringing forth a light from under his cloak when it is needed in darkness, than a charlatan exhibiting fire-works, and having a trumpeter to announce their magnificence. ”

“ The world, like the individual, flourishes in youth, rises to strength in manhood, falls into decay in age; and the ruins of an empire are like the decrepid frame of an individual, except that they have some tints of beauty, which nature bestows upon them. ”

“ By the invention of Faust, the productions of genius are, as it were, made imperishable, capable of indefinite multiplication, and rendered an unalienable heritage of the human mind. By this art, apparently so humble, the progress of society is secured, and man is spared the humiliation of witnessing again scenes like those which followed the destruction of the Roman Empire. ”

“ A spectator of the scene might have well imagined that some mighty spell was in operation, by which the order of nature had been reversed:—while the marble glowed with more than human passion, the living man was colder than stone! ”

“ How marvellous then are those laws by which even the humblest types of organic existence are preserved, though born amidst the sources of their destruction, and by which a species of immortality is given to generations, floating, as it were, like evanescent bubbles on a stream raised from the deepest caverns of the earth, and instantly losing what may be called its spirit in the atmosphere! ”

“ It was the fruit of elaborate experiment and close induction; chance, or accident, which comes in for so large a share of the credit of human invention, has no claims to prefer upon this occasion; step by step, may he be followed throughout the whole progress of his research, and so obviously does the discovery of each new fact spring from those that preceded it, that we never for a moment lose sight of our philosopher, but keep pace with him during the whole of his curious enquiry. ”

“ M. Dumas, who is certainly by no means distinguished for the readiness with which he is disposed to pay homage to British talent, has declared that Davy was the greatest chemical genius that ever appeared.
In fact, the more the researches of this great experimentalist are studied, the more they must be admired: every attempt to depreciate their intrinsic importance will only serve to display their exalted merits; every attempt to falsify their results will only tend to demonstrate their accuracy. ”

“ Man appeared as a naked savage, feeding upon wild fruits, or devouring shell-fish, or fighting with clubs for the remains of a whale which had been thrown upon the shore. His habitation was a cave in the earth—"See the birth of Time!" exclaimed the Genius; "look at man in his newly-created state, full of youth and vigour. ”

“ A very erroneous 414 impression would seem to exist with regard to the object and importance of such monuments. They are not to honour the dead, but to improve the living; not to give lustre to the philosopher, but to afford a salutary incentive to the disciple; not to perpetuate discoveries, for they can never be lost; but to animate scientific genius, and to engage it upon objects that may be useful to the commonwealth. Let it be remembered, that the ardour of the Roman youth was kindled into active emulation, whenever they beheld the images of their ancestors. ”

“ It has been also stated, that the invention which you are this day so highly honouring, has been subservient to the preservation of the lives and persons of a most useful and laborious class of men: this, coming from your own knowledge, founded upon such ample experience, affords me a pleasure still more exalted—for the highest ambition of my life has been to deserve the name of a friend to humanity. ”