Chapter XV · (continued 2)

The discoveries of Davy present themselves in striking contrast with such instances. The same powerful genius that developed the laws of electro-chemical decomposition, was the first to apply them for the purpose of obviating metallic corrosion; and the nature of fire-damp, and the fact of its combustion being arrested in its passage through capillary tubes, were alike the discoveries of him who first applied them for the construction of a safety-lamp.[123]

In contrasting the genius of Wollaston with that of Davy, let me not be supposed to invite a comparison to the disparagement of either, but rather to the glory of both, for by mutual reflection each will glow the brighter. If the animating principle of Davy's mind was a powerful imagination, generalizing phenomena, and casting them into new combinations, so may the striking characteristic of Wollaston's genius be said to have been an almost superhuman perception of minute detail. Davy was ever imagining something greater than he knew; Wollaston always knew something more than he acknowledged:—in Wollaston, the predominant principle was to avoid error; in Davy, it was the desire to discover truth. The tendency of Davy, on all occasions, was to raise probabilities into facts; while Wollaston as continually made them subservient to the expression of doubt.

Wollaston was deficient in imagination, and under no circumstances could he have become a Poet; nor was it to be expected that his investigations should have led him to any of those comprehensive generalizations which create new systems of philosophy. He well knew the compass of his powers, and he pursued the only method by which they could be rendered available in advancing knowledge. He was a giant in strength, but it was the strength of Antæus, mighty only on the earth. The extreme caution and reserve of his manner were inseparably connected with the habits of his mind; they pervaded every part of his character; in his amusements and in his scientific experiments, he displayed the same nice and punctilious observation,—whether he was angling for trout,[124] or testing for elements,

he alike relied for success upon his subtile discrimination of minute circumstances.

By comparing the writings as well as the discoveries of these two great philosophers, we shall readily perceive the intellectual distinctions I have endeavoured to establish. "From their fruits shall ye know them." The discoveries of Davy were the results of extensive views and new analogies; those of Wollaston were derived from a more exact examination of minute and, to ordinary observers, scarcely appreciable differences. This is happily illustrated by a comparison of the means by which each discovered new metals. The alkaline bases were the products of a comprehensive investigation, which had developed a new order of principles; the detection of palladium and rhodium among the ores of platinum, was the reward of delicate manipulation, and microscopic scrutiny. As chemical operators, I have already pointed out their striking peculiarities, and they will be found to be in strict keeping with the other features of their respective characters. I might extend the parallel farther; but Dr. Henry, in the eleventh edition of his "System of Chemistry," has delineated the intellectual portraits of these two philosophers with so masterly a hand, that by quoting the passage, all farther observation will be rendered unnecessary.

"To those high gifts of nature, which are the characteristics of genius, and which constitute its very essence, both those eminent men united an unwearied industry and zeal in research, and habits of accurate reasoning, without which even the energies of genius are inadequate to the achievement of great scientific designs. With these excellencies, common to both, they were nevertheless distinguishable by marked intellectual peculiarities. Bold, ardent, and enthusiastic, Davy soared to greater heights; he commanded a wider horizon; and his keen vision penetrated to its utmost boundaries. His imagination, in the highest degree fertile and inventive, took a rapid and extensive range in pursuit of conjectural analogies, which he submitted to close and patient comparison with known facts, and tried by an appeal to ingenious and conclusive experiments. He was imbued with the spirit, and was a master in the practice, of the inductive logic; and he has left us some of the noblest examples of the efficacy of that great instrument of human reason in the discovery of truth. He applied it, not only to connect classes of facts of more limited extent and importance, but to develope great and comprehensive laws, which embrace phenomena that are almost universal to the natural world. In explaining those laws, he cast upon them the illumination of his own clear and vivid conceptions;—he felt an intense admiration of the beauty, order, and harmony, which are conspicuous in the perfect Chemistry of Nature;—and he expressed those feelings with a force of eloquence which could issue only from a mind of the highest powers and of the finest sensibilities. With much less enthusiasm from temperament, Dr. Wollaston was endowed with bodily senses[125] of extraordinary acuteness and accuracy, and with great general vigour of understanding. Trained in the discipline of the exact sciences, he had acquired a powerful command over his attention, and had habituated himself to the most rigid correctness, both of thought and of language. He was sufficiently provided with the resources of the mathematics, to be enabled to pursue with success profound enquiries in mechanical and optical philosophy, the results of which enabled him to unfold the causes of phenomena not before understood, and to enrich the arts connected with those sciences, by the invention of ingenious and valuable instruments. In Chemistry, he was distinguished by the extreme nicety and delicacy of his observations; by the quickness and precision with which he marked resemblances and discriminated differences; the sagacity with which he devised experiments and anticipated their results; and the skill with which he executed the analysis of fragments of new substances, often so minute as to be scarcely perceptible by ordinary eyes. He was remarkable, too, for the caution with which he advanced from facts to general conclusions: a caution which, if it sometimes prevented him from reaching at once to the most sublime truths, yet rendered every step of his ascent a secure station, from which it was easy to rise to higher and more enlarged inductions. Thus these illustrious men, though differing essentially in their natural powers and acquired habits, and moving, independently of each other, in different paths, contributed to accomplish the same great ends—the evolving new elements; the combining matter into new forms; the increase of human happiness by the improvement of the arts of civilized life; and the establishment of general laws, that will serve to guide other philosophers onwards, through vast and unexplored regions of scientific discovery."

My history draws towards a conclusion.—Sir Humphry Davy, during the latter days of his life, was cheered by the society and affectionate attentions of his godson, the son of his old friend Mr. James Tobin.[126] He had been the companion of his travels, and he was the solace of his declining hours.

He had been resident for some months at Rome, where he occupied the second floor of a house in Via di Pietra, a street that leads out of the Corso. During this period, he declined receiving any visitors, and had constantly some one by his side reading light works of interest to him, an amusement which was even continued during his meals.

As soon as the account of Sir Humphry having sustained another paralytic seizure was communicated to Lady Davy, who was in London at the time, she immediately set off, and so rapidly was her journey performed, that she reached Rome in little more than twelve days. Dr. John Davy, also, hastened from Malta, on receiving intelligence of his brother's imminent danger.

During his slow and partial recovery from this seizure, he learnt the circumstance of his name having been introduced into parliamentary proceedings, in the following manner. On the 26th of March 1829, on presenting a petition in favour of the Catholic claims from a very great and most respectable meeting at Edinburgh, Sir James Mackintosh, after having mentioned the name of Sir Walter Scott as being at the head of the petitioners, continued thus:—"Although not pertinent to this petition, yet connected with the cause, I indulge in the melancholy pleasure of adding to the first name in British literature the first name in British science—that of Sir Humphry Davy. Though on a sick-bed at Rome, he was not so absorbed by his sufferings as not to feel and express the glow of joy that shot across his heart at the glad tidings of the introduction of a bill which he hailed as alike honourable to his religion and his country."

I am assured that the last mark of satisfaction which he evinced from any intelligence communicated to him was on reading the above passage. He showed a pleasure unusual in his state of languor at the justice thus done, in the face of his country, to his consistency, to his zeal for religion and liberty, and to the generous sentiments which cheered his debility. The marks of his pleasure were observed by those who were brought most near to him by the performance of every kind office.

Although there appeared some faint indications of reviving power, his most sanguine friends scarcely ventured to indulge a hope that his life would be much longer protracted. Nor did he himself expect it. The expressions in his Will (printed in an Appendix) sufficiently testify the opinion he had for some time entertained of the hopelessness of his case.

In addition to this Will, he left a paper of directions, which have been religiously observed by his widow. He desires, for instance, that the interest arising from a hundred pounds stock may be annually paid to the Master of the Penzance Grammar School, on condition that the boys may have a holiday on his birthday.[127] There is something singularly interesting in this favourable recollection of his native town, and of the associations of his early youth. It adds one more example to show that, whatever may have been our destinies, and however fortune may have changed our conditions, where the heart remains uncorrupted, we shall, as the world closes upon us, fix our imaginations upon the simplicities of our youth, and be cheered and warmed by the remembrance of early pleasures, hallowed by feelings of regard for the memory of those who have long since slept in the grave.

With that restlessness which characterises the disease under which Sir Humphry Davy suffered, he became extremely desirous of quitting Rome, and of establishing himself at Geneva. His friends were naturally anxious to gratify every wish; and Lady Davy kindly preceded him on the journey, in order that she might at each stage make arrangements for his comfortable reception. Apartments were prepared for him at L'Hotel de la Couronne, in the Rue du Rhone; and at three o'clock on the 28th of May, having slept the preceding evening at Chambery, he arrived at Geneva, accompanied by his brother, Mr. Tobin, and his servant.

At four o'clock he dined, ate heartily, was unusually cheerful, and joked with the waiter about the cookery of the fish, which he appeared particularly to admire; and he desired that, as long as he remained at the hotel, he might be daily supplied with every possible variety that the lake afforded. He drank tea at eleven, and having directed that the feather-bed should be removed, retired to rest at twelve.

His servant, who slept in a bed parallel to his own, in the same alcove, was however very shortly called to attend him, and he desired that his brother might be summoned. I am informed that, on Dr. Davy's entering the room, he said, "I am dying," or words to that effect; "and when it is all over, I desire that no disturbance of any kind may be made in the house; lock the door, and let every one retire quietly to his apartment." He expired at a quarter before three o'clock, without a struggle.

On the following morning, his friends Sismondi[128] and De Candolle were sent for; and the Syndics, as soon as the circumstance of his death was communicated to them, gave directions for a public funeral on the Monday; at which the magistrates, the professors, the English residents at Geneva, and such inhabitants as desired it, were invited to attend. The ceremony was ordered to be conducted after the custom of Geneva, which is always on foot—no hearse; nor did a single carriage attend. The cemetery is at Plain-Palais, some little distance out of the walls of the town. The Couronne being at the opposite extremity, the procession was long.

The following was the order of the procession:—[129]

The Two Syndics, (in their robes) { M. Mastow M. Gallatin.

Magistrates of the Republic, { M. Fazio, M. Salladin.

Professors of the College, in their robes, MM. Simond de Sismondi—A. de Candolle.

THE ENGLISH.

Lord Eglington, Lord Twedell, Right Hon. Wm. Wyckham, Capt. Archibald Hamilton, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Franks, Wm. Hamilton, Esq., Ex-Ambassador at Naples. Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart. Colonel Alcock, Captain Swinters, Mr. Alcock, Mr. Drew, Mr. Heywood, Mr. Sitwell, &c.

The Students of the College. The Citizens of Geneva.

The English service was performed by the Rev. John Magers, of Queen's College, and the Rev. Mr. Burgess.

The grave was stated in the public prints to be next to that of his friend the late Professor M. A. Pictet: this is not the fact. It is far away from it, on the second line of No. 29, the fourth grave from the end of the west side of the Cemetery.

Sir Humphry Davy having died without issue, his baronetcy has become extinct.

At present, the only memorial raised to commemorate the name of this distinguished philosopher is a Tablet placed in Westminster Abbey by his widow. It is thus inscribed:—

TO THE MEMORY OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, BARONET; DISTINGUISHED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD BY HIS DISCOVERIES IN CHEMICAL SCIENCE. PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY; MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. BORN 17 DECEMBER 1778, AT PENZANCE. DIED 28 MAY 1829, AT GENEVA, WHERE HIS REMAINS ARE INTERRED.

The numerous scientific societies of which he was a member, will, no doubt, consecrate his memory. An eloquent Eloge has been read by Baron Cuvier before the Institute of France; but it has not yet been published: I have obtained, however, a copy of a speech delivered upon the same occasion, by H. C. Van der Boon Mesch, before the Institute of the Netherlands.

Mr. 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.

As yet, no intention on the part of the Government to commemorate this great philosopher, by the erection of a national monument, has been manifested: for the credit, however, of an age which is so continually distinguished as the most enlightened period in our history, I do hope the disgrace of such an omission may pass from us; although, I confess, it is rather to be wished than expected, when it is remembered that not a niche has been graced by the statue of Watt, while the giant iron children of his inventive genius are serving mankind in every quarter of the civilized world. A very erroneous 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.

"Nam sæpe audivi, Q. Maximum, P. Scipionem, præterea civitatis nostræ præclaros viros, solitos ita dicere, cùm majorum imagines intuerentur, vehementissimè sibi animum ad virtutem accendi. Scilicet non ceram illam, neque figuram tantam vim in sese habere; sed memoriâ rerum gestarum eam flammam egregiis viris in pectore crescere, neque prius sedari, quàm virtus eorum famam atque gloriam adæquaverit."[130]

The fame of such a philosopher as Davy can never be exalted by any frail memorial which man can raise. His monument is in the great Temple of Nature.[131] His chroniclers are Time and the Elements. The destructive agents which reduce to dust the storied urn, the marble statue, and the towering pyramid, were the ministers of his power, and their work of decomposition is a perpetual memorial of his intelligence.