Consolations in Travel; or, the Last Days of a PhilosopherDavy, Humphry, Sir
Philosophy
Consolations in Travel; or, the Last Days of a Philosopher
Davy, Humphry, Sir
Chemists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829
newspaper writers or journalists. He should resemble the modern
geometricians in the greatness of his views and the profoundness of his
researches, and the ancient alchemists in industry and piety. I do not
mean that he should affix written prayers and inscriptions of
recommendations of his processes to Providence, as was the custom of
Peter Wolfe, and who was alive in my early days, but his mind should
always be awake to devotional feeling, and in contemplating the variety
and the beauty of the external world, and developing its scientific
wonders, he will always refer to that infinite wisdom through whose
beneficence he is permitted to enjoy knowledge; and, in becoming wiser,
he will become better, he will rise at once in the scale of intellectual
and moral existence, his increased sagacity will be subservient to a more
exalted faith, and in proportion as the veil becomes thinner through
which he sees the causes of things he will admire more the brightness of
the divine light by which they are rendered visible.
DIALOGUE THE SIXTH. POLA, OR TIME.
During our stay in Illyria, I made an excursion by water with the
Unknown, my preserver, now become my friend, and Eubathes, to Pola, in
Istria. We entered the harbour of Pola in a felucca when the sun was
setting; and I know no scene more splendid than the amphitheatre seen
from the sea in this light. It appears not as a building in ruins, but
like a newly erected work, and the reflection of the colours of its
brilliant marble and beautiful forms seen upon the calm surface of the
waters gave to it a double effect--that of a glorious production of art
and of a magnificent picture. We examined with pleasure the remains of
the arch of Augustus and the temple, very perfect monuments of imperial
grandeur. But the splendid exterior of the amphitheatre was not in
harmony with the bare and naked walls of the interior; there were none of
those durable and grand seats of marble, such as adorn the amphitheatre
of Verona, from which it is probable that the whole of the arena and
conveniences for the spectators had been constructed of wood. Their
total disappearance led us to reflect upon the causes of the destruction
of so many of the works of the older nations. I said, in our
metaphysical abstractions, we refer the changes, the destruction of
material forms, to time, but there must be physical laws in Nature by
which they are produced; and I begged our new friend to give us some
ideas on this subject in his character of chemical philosopher. If human
science, I said, has discovered the principle of the decay of things, it
is possible that human art may supply means of conservation, and bestow
immortality on some of the works which appear destined by their
perfection for future ages.
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