shadowed forth on this occasion. At all events, I feel confident that they will receive no small gratification at having their recollections thus carried back to the joyous scenes of boyhood, connected as they always are, and must ever be, with the most delightful associations of our lives.

From Penzance school he went to Truro, in the year 1793, and finished his education under the Rev. Dr. Cardew, a gentleman who is distinguished by the number of eminent scholars with which he has graced his country.

That Davy was quick and industrious in his school exercises, may be inferred from an anecdote related by his sister, that "on being removed to Truro, Dr. Cardew found him very deficient in the qualifications for the Class of his age, but on observing the quickness of his talents, and his aptitude for learning, he did not place him in a lower form, telling him that by industry and attention he trusted he might be entitled to keep the place assigned to him; which," his sister says," he did, to the entire satisfaction of his master."

It is very natural that an anecdote so gratifying to the family should have been deeply imprinted on their memory; but we must not be surprised on finding that it did not make a similar impression upon Dr. Cardew. From a letter lately addressed by that gentleman to Mr. Davies Gilbert, the following is an extract:--" With respect to our illustrious countryman, Sir H. Davy, I fear I can claim but little merit from the share I had in his education. He was not long with me; and while he remained I could not discern the faculties by which he was afterwards so much distinguished; I discovered, indeed, his taste for poetry, which I did not omit to encourage.” Dr. Cardew adds, "While engaged in teaching the classics, I was anxious to discharge faithfully the duties of my profession to the best of my ability; but I was certainly fortunate in having so many good materials to work upon, and thus having only fungi vice cotis,' though exsors ipse secandi." To the truth of this latter part of the Doctor's quotation, will his scholars willingly subscribe? I doubt how far Dr. Cardew was able to descend into the shadowy regions of Maro, without the "donum fatalis virga."

Mrs. Millett thinks that the deficiency just alluded to may be attributed to Mr. Coryton, rather than to the inattention of her brother; the former having, from his neglect as a master, given very general dissatisfaction. From what I can learn, at this distant period, of the character of Mr. Coryton, it appears at all events, that the "exsors ipse secandi" could not have been justly

applied to him; and that, owing to an unfortunate aptness in the name to a doggrel verse, poor Davy had frequently to smart under his tyranny.

when the master, suiting the action to the rythm, inflicted upon the hand of the unlucky scholar the verberations of that type and instrument of pedagoguish authority -the flat ruler. Here we have another example of the seduction of sound, argued by our great jurist Mr. Bentham,* to have determined the maxims of that law, which has been pronounced by its sages the perfection of reason.

From a letter however, written by Davy a few years afterwards, respecting the education of a member of his family, he would appear to have entertained an opinion not very unlike that of John Locke; for, although he testifies the highest respect for Dr. Cardew, he seems to consider the comparative idleness of his earlier school career, by allowing him to follow the bent of his own mind, to have favoured the developement of his peculiar genius. "After all," he says, "the way in which we are taught Latin and Greek, does not much influence the important structure of our minds. I consider it fortunate that I was left much to myself as a child, and put upon no particular plan of study, and that I enjoyed much idleness at Mr. Coryton's school. I perhaps owe to these circumstances the little talents I have, and their peculiar application; - what I am I have made myself - I say this without vanity, and in pure simplicity of heart."

His temper during youth is represented as mild and amiable. He never suppressed his feelings, but every action was marked by ingenuousness and candour, qualities which endeared him to his youthful associates, and gained him the love of all who knew him. "Nor can I find," says his sister, "beloved as he must have been by my mother, that she showed him

"Were the enquiry diligently made," he says, "it would be found that the Goddess of Harmony has exercised more influence, however latent, over the dispensations of Themis, than her most diligent historiographers, or even her most passionate panegyrists, seem to be aware of. Every one knows how, by the ministry of Orpheus, it was she who first collected the sons of men beneath the shadow of the sceptre: yet in the midst of continual experience, men seem yet to learn with what successful diligence she laboured to guide it in its course."

any particular preference; - all her children appeared to be alike her care, and all alike shared her affection."

In 1794, Mr. Davy died. We cannot but regret that he did not live long enough to witness his son's eminence; for life, as Johnson says, has few better things to give than a talented son; but from his widow, who has but lately descended to the tomb, full of years and respectability, this boon was not withheld, she witnessed his whole career of usefulness and honour, and happily closed her eyes before her maternal fears could have been awakened by those signs of premature decay, which for some time had excited in his friends, and in the friends of science, an alarm which the recent deplorable event has too fatally justified.

In the year following the decease of her husband, Mrs. Davy, who had again taken up her residence in Penzance, and entered upon the occupation of a milliner, apprenticed her son,* by the advice of her long-valued friend, Mr. Tonkin, to Mr. John Bingham Borlase, at that time a surgeon and apothecary, but who afterwards obtained a diploma, and became an eminent physician at Penzance. Davy however, for the most part, continued to pursue his own plans of study; for although his friend Mr. Tonkin, without doubt, intended him for a general practitioner in his native town, yet he himself always looked forward to graduation at Edinburgh, as a preliminary measure to his practising in the higher walk of his profession.

His mind had, for some time, been engrossed with philosophical pursuits; but until after he had been placed with Mr. Borlase, it does not appear that he indicated any decided turn for chemistry, the study of which he then commenced with all the ardour of his temperament; and his eldest sister, who acted as his assistant, well remembers the ravages committed on her dress by corrosive substances.

It has been said that his mind was first directed to chemistry, by a desire to discover various mixtures as pigments; a suggestion to which, I confess, I am not disposed to pay much attention; for although he might have sought by new combinations to impart a novel and vivid richness of colouring to his drawings, it was the character of his mind to pursue with ardour every subject of novelty, and to get at results by his own native powers, rather than by the recorded experience of others.

* The original indenture, now in the possession of Mr. R. Edwards, solicitor, of Penzance, is dated February 10th, 1795.

с

MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY,

BART. &c. &c.

CHAPTER I.

Birth and family of Sir H. Davy.-Davy placed at a preparatory school. His peculiarities when a boy.-Anecdotes.-He is admitted into the grammar-school at Penzance.-Finishes his education under Dr. Cardew at Truro.-Death of his father.-He is apprenticed by his mother to Mr. John Bingham Borlase, a surgeon and apothecary. He enters upon the study of Chemistry, and devotes more time to Philosophy than to Physic.-The influence of early impressions illustrated. His poetical talent.-Specimens of his versification.-An Epic Poem composed by him at the age of twelve years.-His first original experiment in chemistry.--He conceives a new theory of heat and light.-His ingenious experiment to demonstrate its truth. He becomes known to Mr. 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.* His ancestors had long possessed a small estate at Varfell, in the parish of Ludgvan, in the Mount's Bay, on which they resided: this appears from tablets in the church, one of which bears a date as far back as 1635. We are, however, unable to ascend higher in the pedigree than to his paternal grandfather, who seems to have been a builder of considerable

• I have been favoured by the Rev. C. Val. Le Grice, of Trereiffe, with the following extract from the Parish Register, kept at Madron:-" Humphry Davy, son of Robert Davy, baptized at Penzance, January 22, 1779."

B