CHAPTER XIV. The failure of the Ship protectors a source of great vexation to Davy. - His Letters to Mr. Poole.He becomes unwell. He publishes his Discourses before the Royal Society.-Critical Remarks and Quotations.--He goes abroad in search of health.-His Letter to Mr. Poole from Ravenna. -He resigns the Presidency of the Royal Society.-Mr. Gilbert elected pro tempore.-Davy returns to England, and visits his friend Mr. Poole.-Salmonia, or Days of Fly-fishing.-An Analysis of the Work, with various extracts to illustrate its character. THE friends of Sir Humphry Davy saw with extreme regret that the failure of his plan for protecting copper sheathing had produced in his mind a degree of disappointment and chagrin wholly inconsistent with the merits of the question; that while he became insensible to the voice of praise, every nerve was jarred by the slightest note of disapprobation. I apprehend, however, that the change of character which many ascribed to the mortification of wounded pride, ought in some measure to be referred to a declining state of bodily power, which had brought with it its usual infirmities of petulance and despondency. The letters I shall here introduce may perhaps be considered as indicating that instinctive desire for quiet and retirement which frequently marks a declining state of health, and they will be followed by others of a less equivocal character. MY DEAR POOLE, TO THOMAS POOLE, ESQ. Grosvenor Street, November 24, 1824. whom you It is very long since I have heard from you. Mr. A introduced to me, has sometimes given me news of you, and I have always heard of your health and well-being with pleasure. My immediate motive for writing to you now is somewhat, though not entirely, selfish. You know I have always admired your neighbourhood, and I have lately seen a place advertised there, called, I think, -, not far from Quantock, and combining, as far as advertisement can be trusted, scenery, fishing, shooting, interest for money, &c. If it is not sold, pray give me a little idea of it; I have long been looking out for a purchase,-perhaps this may suit me. After all, it may be sold; if so, no harm is done. I go on labouring for utility, perhaps more than for glory; caring something for the judgment of my contemporaries, but more for that of posterity; and confiding with boldness in the solid judgment of Time. I have lately seen some magnificent country in the Scandinavian peninsula, where Nature, if not a kind, is at least a beautiful mother.-I wonder there have not been more poets in the North. I am, my dear Poole, Very affectionately your old friend, TO THE SAME. H. DAVY. MY DEAR POOLE, January 5, 1825. My proposition to come into Somersetshire about the 10th was founded upon two visits which I had to pay in this county, Hants; I am now only about sixty miles from you; and had you been at home, I should have come on to Nether Stowey. The 13th is the first meeting of the Royal Society after the holidays; and though I might do my duty by deputy, yet I feel that this would not be right, and I will not have the honour of the chair without conscientiously taking the labours which its possession entails. I regret therefore that I cannot be with you next week. God bless you. Believe me always, my dear Poole, Your affectionate friend, H. DAVY. TO THE SAME. MY DEAR POOLE, Park Street, Feb. 11, 1825. I had a letter a few days ago from C, who writes in good spirits, and who, being within a few miles of London, might, as far as his friends are concerned, be at John a Grot's house. He writes with all his ancient power. I had hoped that, as his mind became subdued, and his imagination less vivid, he might have been able to apply himself to persevere, and to give to the world some of those trains of thought, so original, so impressive, and at which we have so often wondered. I am writing this letter at a meeting of the Trustees of the British Museum, which will account for its want of correction. Lest I should be more desultory, I will conclude by subscribing myself, my dear Poole, Your old and affectionate friend, MY DEAR POOLE, TO THE SAME. H. DAVY. Feb. 28, 1825. I AM very much obliged to you for your two letters, which I received in proper time. I have deferred writing, in the hopes that I might be able to pay you a visit and see the property, but I now find this will be impossible. I have a cold, which has taken a stronger and more inflammable character than usual, which obliges me to lay myself up; and in this weather it would be worse than imprudent to travel. I have seen Mr. Z. and can perfectly re-echo your favourable sentiments respecting him. I saw the plan of the estate, and heard every thing he had to say respecting the value, real and imaginary, of the lands. He certainly hopes at this moment for a fancy price, and he is right if he can get it. I have less fancy for the place, from finding the trout stream a brook in summer, where salmon-trout, or salmon, could not be propagated; for one of my favourite ideas in a country residence is varied and multiplied experiments on the increase and propagation of fish. What I should really like would be a place with a couple of hundred acres of productive land, and plenty of moor, a river running through it, and the sea before it; and not farther from London than Hampshire-a day's journey. There are such places along the coast, though perhaps in my lifetime they will not be disposed of. I should also like to be within a few miles of you; for it is one of the regrets in the life which I lead, that devotion to the cause of science separates me very much from friends that I shall ever venerate and esteem. God bless you, my dear Poole. Very affectionately yours, H. DAVY. TO THE SAME. MY DEAR POOLE, Pixton near Dulverton, Nov. 1, 1826. I CANNOT be in your neighbourhood, without doing my best to see you; and it is my intention to come to Stowey on Sunday. I hope I shall find you at home, and quite well. T Mr. T——, who is here, gives me a very good account of you, which I trust I shall be personally able to verify. If you are at leisure, I will try to shoot a few woodcocks on Monday on the Quantock hills; on Tuesday I must go east. I have not been well lately. I cannot take the exercise which twenty years ago I went lightly and agreeably through. Will you have the kindness to hire a pony for me, that I may ride to your hills? I am sorry I did not know of your journey to Ireland and Scotland. I was in both those countries at the time you visited them, and should have been delighted to have met you. Do not write to me, for, even if you should not be at home, Stowey is not more than ten or twelve miles out of my way; but I hope I shall find you. I am, my dear Poole, Your old and sincere friend, H. DAVY. The complaints, as to the loss of his strength, which are expressed in the preceding letter, were but too well founded. Mr. Poole informs me that, during this visit in 1826, it was affecting to observe the efforts he made to continue his field sports. From being unable to walk without fatigue, he was compelled to have a pony to take him to the field, from which he dismounted only on the certainty of immediate sport. On his return to London, his indisposition increased: he complained to me of palpitation of the heart, and of an affection in the trachea, which led him to fear that he might be suffering under the disease of which his father died. The fatigue attendant upon the duties of the anniversary of the Royal Society (November 30th) completely exhausted him; and after his re-election as President, he was reluctantly obliged to retire, and to decline attending the usual dinner upon that occasion. In January 1827, Sir Humphry Davy published the Discourses which he had delivered before the Royal Society, at six successive anniversary meetings, on the award of the Royal and Copley medals. They were published in compliance with a resolution of a meeting of the Council, held on the 21st of December 1826. The practice of delivering an annual oration before the Royal Society, on the occasion of presenting the medal upon Sir Godfrey Copley's donation, prevailed during the presidency of Sir John Pringle; it was, however, during a long interval discontinued, and only revived during the latter years of Sir Joseph Banks. The discourse usually commenced with a short tribute of respect to the memory of those distinguished Fellows who had died since the preceding anniversary. It then proceeded to announce the choice of the Council in its award of the medals, enumerating the objects and merits of the several communications which had been honoured with so distinguished a mark of approbation, and stating the circumstances which had directed the judges in their decision. Much has been said and written upon the inutility, and even upon the mischievous tendency of this practice; and great stress has been laid upon the vices inseparably connected, as it is asserted, with the style of composition to which it gives origin. It appears to me, however, that it is only against the meretricious execution, not against the temperate use of such discourses, that this charge can be fairly and consistently sustained; and in the chaste and yet powerful addresses of Davy, such an opinion will find its best sanction, and obtain its strongest support. Does it follow, because praise, when unduly lavished upon the labours of the scientific dead, may create comparisons and preferences injurious to the living, that we are to stifle the noblest aspirations of our nature, and become as cold and silent as the grave that encloses their remains? 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 |