Chapter XVIII · CONCLUSION.

During the prosecution of his later experiments Humphry had formed the acquaintance of Mr. Davies Giddy, a gentleman of high scientific attainments, better known under the name of Davies Gilbert, and who was then resident at Tredrea, near Penzance.

This gentleman, who ultimately became President of the Royal Society, proved of great service to young Davy, for not only did he lend the boy such apparatus as he required for the carrying out of his experiments, but he delighted to converse with Humphry; and though he could not help smiling occasionally at the strangeness of his theories, he grew to have a lively sense of the ardour of the youth’s imagination, and the originality of his mind.

Now it so happened that Davies Giddy was acquainted with Dr. Beddoes, who had formerly been one of the Oxford Professors, but who had recently opened a Pneumatic Institution at Bristol for the cure of diseases by the inhalation of gases; and it was during one of Dr. Beddoes’ visits to Davies Giddy that Humphry made the acquaintance of the Doctor, and so favourable an impression did he make upon the gentleman, that not long afterwards a letter was sent, offering Humphry the post of Assistant to the Bristol Institution.

The lad was delighted at the prospect of removing from so remote a place as his native town, and lost no time in talking the matter over with his friends. Mr. Giddy told him of the Doctor’s influence, and how his Institution was already the resort of some of the most eminent persons in the country, and warmly advised him to avail himself of the offer.

Mr. Borlase, to whom Humphry repeated all that Mr. Giddy had said, counselled the boy to take the same step, and added, that he had been so pleased with his conduct while under his roof that he would in no way impede his advancement, but would rather cancel his indentures, even though he was just beginning to be of service to him.

Mrs. Davy, too, was anxious that her boy—whom she felt more and more convinced was destined to take a high rank in the world—should be transferred to a wider sphere, where his abilities would have greater chance of being called into play, and she gladly accompanied Humphry to their old friend, Mr. Tonkin, to break the matter to him, and hear what he thought of the proposal.

The old gentleman, however, could not be made to listen to the project, and did not hesitate to denounce Humphry’s desire for worldly honour as the “wild-goose chase” which led many an ambitious simpleton astray, saying, that if the boy would make up his mind to settle in his native place, he might be assured of a comfortable independence, for he would find but few able to compete with him there. Nevertheless, in a large town—however striking his talents might appear in a small one—the circle of his competitors would be so much increased, that he would sink into a mere nobody, and end his days as one of the many fools who had struggled after the world’s prizes, and found, when too late, that there was no chance of obtaining them.

Mrs. Davy, however, mother-like, felt satisfied that Mr. Tonkin took an erroneous view of her son’s powers, and she strove to assure her old friend that he did not know what Humphry was capable of doing so well as she did, and that if he did, he would have as little fear as herself of his failure.

Mr. Tonkin, however, was not to be argued out of the notion he had taken up, and ultimately grew so annoyed with what he fancied to be merely a mother’s silly prejudice on Mrs. Davy’s part, that he ended the interview by vowing that the boy should never quit Penzance with his consent.

This, for a time, put a stop to the correspondence on the subject. At length, however, Dr. Beddoes became so urgent that Humphry should join him, that, despite the objections of Mr. Tonkin, who still would not listen to the plan, his friends advised him to accept the offer; and it was accordingly arranged that young Davy should leave Penzance as soon as he conveniently could.

Accordingly, on the 2d of October, in the year 1798, Humphry, not then twenty years of age, quitted his native town for the first time in his life, and that to commence fighting his way in the world.

His mother parted from him as full of high hope as the boy himself; and as the boy hugged the widow to his heart alone in her chamber, before he left her, he said, with the sobs in his throat, “Mr. Tonkin does not know me, mother, yet: but be you of good cheer, I will live to be an honour and a glory to you still; and it shall be my proud lot to say some day that I was the means of raising you and all that belong to me to a position of comfort and eminence. Years ago now, mother, I told you I would do it, and the resolve is still deep in my heart.”

Mrs. Davy assured him she had every confidence in his attaining the noble object he had in view, and she parted from him, though with tears in her eyes, with a smile of high hope upon her lip.

Mr. Tonkin, however, was resolute to the last, and at his leave-taking denounced Humphry’s plans as visionary schemes; and when the boy had left, and the old gentleman found his favourite plan of settling Humphry in his native town as a surgeon had been thwarted, he altered his will, and revoked the legacy of the house that he had previously bequeathed to his foster-son.

On young Humphry’s journey to Bath he met his friend Mr. Davies Giddy at Oakhampton, and while breakfasting there, the mail-coach from London drew up at the door of the inn, covered with laurels and ribbons, and bringing the first news of Nelson’s victory of the Nile.

“I have a greater fight than that to fight,” said Humphry to himself; “and, please God, I will gain the victory, too.”

It was Mrs. Davy’s happy lot to witness the realisation of all the hopes she had formed of her boy in his youth; for, during her life, he rose to be elected President of the Royal Society, and to be created a Baronet, for the many additions he had made to the stock of knowledge; to be rewarded with the first prize instituted by the Emperor Napoleon for the greatest scientific discovery of the time; and to be allowed a free passage through France at a time when all other Englishmen, no matter how high their rank or character, were denied admission into that country.