Humphry Davy

“ I should not redeem the pledge given to my readers, nor fulfill the duties of an impartial biographer, were I to omit acknowledging that the manners and habits of Davy very shortly underwent a considerable change. Let those who have vainly sought to disparage his excellence, enjoy the triumph of knowing that he was not perfect; but it may be asked in candour, where is the man of twenty-two years of age, unless the temperature of his blood were below zero, and his temperament as dull and passionless as the fabled god of the Brahmins, who could remain uninfluenced by such an elevation? ”

“ The course of Sir Humphry Davy to the highest rank as a chemical philosopher, was, after his appointment at the Royal Institution, rapid and brilliant; and if he was previously aided by as few of the advantages of fortune as any man living, he had then at his disposal whatever his industry and talents chose to command. We have given but a hasty outline of his labours; but it is possible that he may have left behind him much, not yet made public, for which, science will be still further indebted to him. ”

“ In the autumn of 1815, Sir Humphry Davy accompanied me into some of our fiery mines, to prove the efficacy of his lamp. Nothing could be more gratifying than the result of those experiments, as they inspired every body with perfect confidence in the security which his invention had afforded. ”

“ Activity and originality of mind, with a persistent habit of inquiry and experiment, brought Davy friends who could appreciate and help him. When Dr. Beddoes, of Bristol, was examining the Cornish coast, in 1798, he came upon young Humphry Davy, was told of researches made by him, and urged to engage him as laboratory assistant in a Pneumatic Institution that he was then establishing in Bristol. ”

“ Davies Gilbert, the founder of his future fortunes.—Mr. Gregory Watt arrives at Penzance, and lodges in the house of Mrs. Davy.—The visit of Dr. Beddoes and Professor Hailstone to Cornwall.—The correspondence between Dr. Beddoes and Mr. Davies Gilbert, relative to the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol, and the proposed appointment of Davy.—His final departure from his native town.
Humphry Davy was born at Penzance, in Cornwall, on the 17th of December 1778. ”

“ Humphry Davy,
POET AND PHILOSOPHER. CHAPTER I.
PENZANCE: 1778–1798. Humphry Davy, the eldest son of “Carver” Robert Davy and his wife Grace Millett, was born on the 17th December, 1778.A His biographers are not wholly agreed as to the exact place of his birth. In the “Lives of Philosophers of the Time of George III.” Lord Brougham states that the great chemist was born at Varfell, a homestead or “town-place” in the parish of Ludgvan, in the Mount’s Bay, where, as the registers and tombstones of Ludgvan Church attest, the family had been settled for more than two hundred years. ”

“ The distinguished chemical philosopher and physician of Penzance, Sir Humphry Davy, Bart., was the son of a poor wood-carver, at which trade Humphry worked in his earlier days, and was named by his familiar associates, the “Little Carver Davy.” On the death of his father, the widow established herself as a milliner at Penzance, where she apprenticed her son to an apothecary. His mother was a woman of talent and great moral sense. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Sir Humphry Davy, in speaking of the merits of Lavoisier, observes that "he must be regarded as one of the most sagacious of the chemical philosophers of the last century; indeed, except Cavendish, there is no other enquirer who can be compared to him for precision of logic, extent of view, and sagacity of induction. His discoveries are few, but he reasoned with extraordinary correctness upon the labours of others. He introduced weight and measure, and strict accuracy of manipulation into all chemical processes. ”

“ He gave Wordsworth 'an impression of sublimity.' Thomas Campbell speaks of him as a 'strange and wonderful being ... full of goodness, benevolence ... a man of wonderful talents, a tact of taste acute beyond description.' His opinions were to Sir Humphry Davy as 'a secret treasure,' and often, he said, enabled him to think rightly when perhaps otherwise he would have thought wrongly. ”

“ The introduction of Sir Humphry and Lady Davy to the Empress Josephine, took place at Malmaison on the 30th of November. The only English present were, the Earl of Beverley, a détenue; General Sir Edward Paget, a prisoner of war, taken in Spain, and Mr. Underwood; and it was the first levee at which any of our countrymen had been introduced, with the exception of Mr. Underwood, who had been frequently in the habit of paying his court to the Empress, and to whom, indeed, he was indebted for those indulgences which have been already mentioned. ”

“ I have 255 now concluded a review of those admirable researches which led Sir Humphry Davy to suggest and mature a plan for arresting the corrosion of the copper sheathing of vessels by Voltaic action. Mr. 256 Babbage has said that he was authorised in stating, that "this was regarded by Laplace as the greatest of Davy's discoveries." I do not think, however, that it should be considered in the light of a separate performance: we do injustice to the philosopher by regarding it as an independent and isolated discovery ”

“ With the most exalted genius, enlarged views, sensitive heart, and enlightened mind, he will be the victim of want of order, precision, and regularity. I cannot think of him without experiencing the mingled feelings of admiration, regard, and pity.
Why do you not come to London? Many would be happy to see you; but no one more so than your very sincere friend, my dear Poole,
H. Davy.
It is difficult to convey an adequate idea of the universal interest which was excited by the lectures on Electro-chemical Science, to which an allusion has been just made. The Theatre of the Institution overflowed ”

“ He said nothing in answer to this last remark, and Ancrum could not decipher him in the darkness visible of the ill-trimmed lamp.
'She's been on your mind, Davy, hasn't she?' he said, gently, laying his blanched hand on the young man's knee.
'Well, perhaps she has,' David admitted, with an odd note in his voice. 'She's not an easy one to manage.'
'No. But you've got to manage her, Davy. There's only you and she together. It's your task. It's set you. ”

“ Wurzen is a wretched little village, a collection of a few dozen of wooden huts, situated about two thousand feet above the level of the sea, at the foot of a pass which leads from Carniola into Carinthia, similar to that of the Löbel, but by no means so elevated. The post-house is tolerable, and the view from the windows magnificent, so much so, that Sir Humphry requested me to take a sketch of it for Lady Davy. ”

“ Meanwhile, the Report by the Parliamentary Committee "cannot admit that the experiments (made with the lamp) have any tendency to detract from the character of Sir Humphry Davy, or to disparage the fair value placed by himself upon his invention. The improvements are probably those which longer life and additional facts would have induced him to contemplate as desirable, and of which, had he not been the inventor, he might have become the patron." ”

“ If we believe with Johnson, that men have sometimes gained reputation from their foibles, we may certainly admit the converse of the proposition, that they have occasionally lost it from their virtues. Davy, as we have seen, possessed from his earliest years a frankness of disposition which endeared him to all his friends, but in after life it unquestionably exposed him to various annoyances, 31 which by a little reserve he would have certainly escaped. ”

“ Underwood states that Davy was greatly indebted for his early popularity. Fame gathers her laurels with a slow hand, and the most brilliant talents require a certain time for producing a due impression upon the public; the Tepidarians exerted all their personal influence to obtain an audience before the reputation of the lecturer could have been sufficiently known to attract one.
Although the acquaintance between Davy and Count Rumford commenced so inauspiciously, they very soon became friends, and mutually entertained for each other the highest regard. ”

“ If blame is to fall on any one, let it fall on Dr. Beddoes, who never should have sanctioned the publication: had he curbed the ardent and untamed imagination of the young philosopher, he would have acted the part of a wise man and of a kind friend. But the truth is, that much as Davy needed the bridle, Beddoes [23] required it still more; for, notwithstanding his talents, he was as little fitted for a Mentor as a weathercock for a compass ”

“ But, in sober truth, is it possible that any reasonable being can regret the course in which he has been impelled? A great poetic Genius has said, "If Davy had not been the first Chemist, he would have been the first Poet of his age." ”

“ Sir Humphry returned to England in 1820, and in the same year his respected friend, Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, died. Several discussions took place respecting a proper successor, when individuals of high and even very exalted rank were named as candidates. But science, very properly in this case, superseded rank. Amongst the philosophers whose labours had enriched the Transactions of the Royal Society, two were most generally adverted to, Sir Humphry Davy and Dr. ”

“ It would have been fortunate for the cause of Science, and fortunate for the historian, could he have terminated the subject with these remarks; but the biographer has an act of justice to perform, which he must not suffer his friendship to evade, nor his partialities to compromise. [7]
It would be an act of literary dishonesty to assert that Sir H. Davy returned the kindness of the savans of France, in a manner which the friends of Science could have expected and desired. ”

“ Davy afterwards, in company with the Duke of Bedford, Lord William Russell, Lord Thanet, Sir Joseph Banks, and other agriculturists, inspected several farms.—In 1812, his health was drunk at the Woburn Sheep-shearing by the Duke of Bedford; and in the following festival it was proposed by Lord Hardwicke.
In the print of the "Woburn Sheep-shearing," published by Garrard, in 1811, No. 75 represents Davy; he is standing, in a listening attitude, behind Mr. Coke, who is conversing with Sir Joseph Banks, Sir John Sinclair, and Mr. Arthur Young. ”

“ She found a fitter husband in every respect in Sir Humphry Davy, to whom she gave a handsome fortune, and whose splendid talents and situation as President of the Royal Society gave her naturally a distinguished place in the literary society of the Metropolis. Now this is a very curious instance of an active-minded woman forcing her way to the point from which she seemed furthest excluded. ”

“ Nor must we leave out of sight that inattention to certain forms which, amongst those who are incapable of penetrating beyond the surface of character, passes for the offensive carelessness of superiority. Davy, after the example of Sir Joseph Banks, opened his house on one evening of the week for the reception of the Fellows of the Royal Society, and of other persons who were actively engaged in any scientific pursuit ”

“ The boyhood of Davy has been sketched in some of the most fascinating pieces of biography ever written: the annals of science do not furnish us with any record that equals the school-days and self-education of the boy, Humphry, in popular interest; and, unlike many bright mornings, this commencement in a few years led to a brilliant meridian, and, by a succession of discoveries, accomplished more in relation to change of theory and extension of science, than in the most ardent and ambitious moments of youth he could either hope to effect or imagine possible. ”

“ As if I was going to let him dictate where I went on Sundays!'
'Of course not,' said Ancrum, with a twist of his oddly shaped mouth. 'Even the very youngest of us might sometimes be the better for advice; but, hang it, let's be free—free to "make fools of ourselves," as a wise man hath it. Well, Davy, no offence,' for his guest had flushed suddenly. 'So you go to the Hall of Science? Did you hear Holyoake and Bradlaugh there the other night? You like that kind of thing?'
'I like to hear it,' said the lad, stoutly, meeting his old teacher's look, half nervously, half defiantly. ”

“ I shall send your last production either to The London Magazine, or to Miss Baillie’s Bouquet by Living Authors, if she intends to tie up a second; which it is said she will do, having cleared for the benefit of a distant friend fifteen hundred guineas by the first. Sir Humphry Davy’s contribution, called Human Life, is a very fine bird’s-eye view of existence, chiefly as connected with the Deity—commencing [495] from, and returning to, the Divine Essence—in the enjoyment of whose favour, and the possession of knowledge, he makes our heaven to consist ”