HUMPHRY DAVY, 1778-1829. SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, who ranks as a man of science second to none in in the nineteenth century, was born at Penzance, in Cornwall, on the 17th of December, 1778. From his childhood he showed a remarkable quickness in acquiring knowledge, and a decided love of literature. He was early bound as an apprentice to a surgeon and apothecary of his native town, who had a great taste for chemical experiments. Here young Davy found what was entirely congenial to his tastes, and with such extraordinary enthusiasm did he devote himself to these pursuits, that he abandoned all the usual enjoyments and relaxations of youth, and showed an aversion to all festive society. He had to contend against many disadvantages, but what is impossible to an enthusiastic and determined mind? His success in scientific inquiries in a few years became known and appreciated, and he was engaged as an assistant to Dr. Beddoes in the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol. In 1803, Davy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, of which he subsequently became secretary, and finally president. During a period of twenty-five years he constantly supplied its "Transactions" with papers; and "it is not too much to say, that no individual philosopher, in any age or country, ever contributed so largely in extending truth, or ever achieved so much in eradicating error." Besides Six Discourses delivered before the Royal Society, at their Anniversary meetings, there are recorded fifty-one different Treatises and Lectures on various scientific subjects. But that for which he is most widely known is the discovery of the "Safety Lamp." In the year 1816, after a long series of experiments, he discovered that if the flame of a lamp was protected by a wire gauze, the gases brought in contact with the lamp would not explode, while the light would still be preserved. This great discovery, which enabled miners to work in perfect safety, where before dreadful accidents were constantly occurring, was so appreciated by the coal owners of the north of England, that they invited him to a public dinner at Newcastle, and presented him with a service of plate valued at £2000. The Emperor of Russia sent him a splendid silver vase, as a testimony of regard, and he was created a baronet. But his best reward was the consciousness that the simple implement he had invented, annually saved hundreds of lives: indeed, it is said that an explosion has not been known where the "Safety Lamp" has been used. Sir Humphry's constant labours so impaired his health, that in 1828 he resigned the Presidency of the Royal Society, and went to Italy for the benefit of his health, where he amused himself in writing his "Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher." These last days were fast approaching: he quitted Italy in a very weak state, but had only reached Geneva on his way home, when he died there on the morning of the 30th of May, 1829. Sir Humphry Davy combined qualities we but rarely find united. Great quickness of perception, a peculiarly retentive memory, and a vivid imagination, together with habits of the most laborious investigation, enabled him to achieve discoveries which made his life equally honorable and useful. His disposition was amiable and kind, he remembered with peculiar pleasure the scenes of his boyhood, and no alteration of fortune or situation could wean him from the friendships of his early years. Science was with him no grovelling pursuit for mere distinction, or the acquisition of wealth; but, to use his own language, it was "the love of knowledge or of intellectual power, which is, in fact, in its ultimate and most perfect development, the love of infinite Wisdom, or the love of God." Though Sir Humphry Davy gave but little time to literature, strictly so called, I have here introduced his name, and written this short notice of his life, for the sake of giving some extracts from a work that he published in the spring of 1828, entitled "Salmonia, or Days of Fly Fishing." It is a most interesting book, something after the manner of old Izaak Walton's "Complete Angler," and contains many precious gems of description and reflection. From it I select the following: THE PLEASURES AND ADVANTAGES OF FISHING. The search after food is an instinct belonging to our nature; and from the savage in his rudest and most primitive state, who destroys a piece of game or a fish, with a club or spear, to man in the most cultivated state of society, who employs artifice, machinery, and the resources of various other animals, to secure his object, the origin of the pleasure is similar, and its object the same: but that kind of it requiring most art may be said to characterize man in his highest or intellectual state; and the fisher for salmon and trout with the fly employs not only machinery to assist his physical powers, but applies sagacity to conquer difficulties; and the pleasure derived from ingenious resources and devices, as well as from active pursuit, belongs to this amusement. Then as to its philosophical tendency, it is a pursuit of moral discipline, requiring patience, forbearance, and command of temper. As connected with natural science, it may be vaunted as demanding a knowledge of the habits of a considerable tribe of created beings-fishes, and the animals that they prey upon, and an acquaintance with the signs and tokens of the weather and its changes, the nature of waters, and of the atmosphere. As to its poetical relations, it carries us into the most wild and beautiful scenery of nature; among the mountain lakes, and the clear and lovely streams that gush from the higher ranges of elevated hills, or that make their way through the cavities of calcareous strata. How delightful in the early spring, after the dull and tedious time of winter, when the frosts disappear and the sunshine warms the earth and waters, to wander forth by scme clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud, to scent the odors of the bank perfumed by the violet, and enamelled, as it were, with the primrose and the daisy; to wander upon the fresh turf below the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are filled with the music of the bee; and on the surface of the waters to view the gaudy flies sparkling like animated gems in the sunbeams, while the bright and beautiful trout is watching them from below; to hear the twittering of the water-birds, who, alarmed at your approach, rapidly hide themselves beneath the flowers and leaves of the waterlily; and as the season advances, to find all these objects changed for others of the same kind, but better and brighter, till the swallow and the trout contend as it were for the gaudy May-fly, and till in pursuing your amusement in the calm and balmy evening, you are serenaded by the songs of the cheerful thrush and melodious nightingale, performing the offices of paternal love, in thickets ornamented with the rose and woodbine. LIFE COMPARED TO A RIVER. A full and clear river is, in my opinion, the most poetical object in nature. Pliny has, as well as I recollect, compared a river to human life. I have never read the passage in his works, but I have been a hundred times struck with the analogy, particularly amidst mountain scenery. The river, small and clear in its origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into deep glens, and wantons and meanders through a wild and picturesque country, nourishing only the uncultivated tree or flower by its dew or spray. In this, its state of infancy and youth, it may be compared to the human mind in which fancy and strength of imagination are predominant--it is more beautiful than useful. When the different rills or torrents join, and descend into the plain, it becomes slow and stately in its motions; it is applied to move machinery, to irrigate meadows, and to bear upon its bosom the stately barge;-in this mature state, it is deep, strong, and useful. As it flows on toward the sea, it loses its force and its motion, and at last, as it were, becomes lost and mingled with the mighty abyss of waters. THE BLESSINGS OF RELIGIOUS FAITH. I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit, or fancy: but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness-creates new hopes, when all earthly hopes vanish; and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity: makes an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to paradise; and far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the skeptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair! As to his rank as a poet, the praise of Coleridge is decisive :-" Had not Dávy been the first chemist, he probably would have been the first poet of his age." THE TEMPEST. The tempest has darken'd the face of the skies, The winds whistle wildly across the waste plain, And mingle the clouds with the white foaming main. Save when the red lightnings the ether divide; But though now all is murky and shaded with gloom, And enamor'd embrace the fair, sweet-smiling peace. If her once faded beauties so soon glow again; When the troublesome fever of life shall be o'er: MONT BLANC. With joy I view thee, bathed in purple light, While all around is dark; with joy I see Thee rising from thy sea of pitchy clouds Into the middle heaven, As if a temple to the Eternal raised By all the earth, framed of the pillar'd rock, And canopied with everlasting snow! That lovely river, rolling at my feet Its bright green waves, and winding midst the rocks, Though it has laved the fertile plains, and wash'd Among the generations of mankind To whom the stream of thought descends from heaven, Of sacred genius. Through the world they pass Still uncorrupted, and on what they take From social life bestow a character Of dignity. Greater they become, WILLIAM HAZLITT, 1778-1830. WILLIAM HAZLITT, a distinguished critic and miscellaneous writer, was the son of a Unitarian clergyman of Shropshire, and was born on the 10th of April, 1778. After having received his academical education at the college in Hackney, in Middlesex, he commenced life as a painter, and by this means he gained an accurate knowledge of the principles of the arts. He, however, soon left the pencil for the pen, and, instead of painting pictures, it became his delight to criticise them. After having made various contributions to the periodical journals, he published an essay on the "Principles of Human Action," a work in which he displayed considerable ingenuity and acuteness. This was followed, in 1808, by two volumes in octavo, under the title of "The Eloquence of the British Senate," a selection of the best parliamentary speeches since the time of Charles I., with notes. In 1810, appeared his "New and Improved English Grammar, for the use of Schools," in which the discoveries of Mr. Horne Tooke, and other modern writers on the formation of language, are incorporated. In 1817, was published "The Round Table," a collection of Essays on Men, Literature, and Manners, which had previously appeared in the periodical called "The Examiner." These were subsequently succeeded by his "Characters of Shakspeare's Plays," a "View of the English Stage," and "Lectures on English Poetry," which he delivered at the Surrey Institution. After this appeared, from time to time, his contributions to various periodicals, under the titles of "Table Talk," the "Spirit of the Age," the "Plain Speaker," and the "Literature of the Elizabethan Age." His largest. and most elaborate work is his "Life of Napoleon," in four volumes, which appeared in 1828: a production which has raised him to a very high rank among the philosophers and historians of the present age. Mr. Hazlitt also contributed many articles to the "Edinburgh Review," some of which possess extraordinary merit. He continued to write and publish till the year of his death, which took place on the 18th of September, 1830. The writings of Mr. Hazlitt display much originality and genius, united with great critical acuteness and brilliancy of fancy. In the fine arts, the drama, and |