“Davy,” he says, “was imbued with the spirit, and was a master of 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 these laws, he cast upon them the illuminations 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 these feelings with a force of eloquence which could issue only from a mind of the highest powers and of the finest sensibilities.” Not less forcible or eloquent, although hardly so well known, is the estimate in Silliman’s _American Journal of Science and Arts_ for January, 1830. After an analysis, of Davy’s mental attributes the writer concludes:-- “We look upon Sir Humphry Davy as having afforded a striking example of what the Romans called _a man of good fortune_;--whose success, even in their view, was not however the result of accident, but of ingenuity and wisdom to devise plans, and of skill and industry to bring them to a successful issue. He was fortunate in his theories, fortunate in his discoveries, and fortunate in living in an age sufficiently enlightened to appreciate his merits;--unlike, in this last particular, to Newton, who (says Voltaire), although he lived forty years after the publication of the _Principia_, had not, at the time of his death, twenty readers out of Britain. Some might even entertain the apprehension that so extensive a popularity among his contemporaries is the presage of a short-lived fame; but his reputation is too intimately associated with the eternal laws of Nature to suffer decay; and the name of Davy, like those of Archimedes, Galileo and Newton, which grow greener by time, will descend to the latest posterity.” Such, then, is the story of a life of fruitful endeavour and splendid achievement;--the record of one who, if not wholly good or truly noble, has left a track of greatness in his passage through the world. INDEX. Address from Whitehaven colliers to Davy, 203 Agriculture, Davy’s lectures on, 94 _et seq._; 165 Alkali metals, Isolation of, 114, 116; their properties, 118 Alkaline earths, Decomposition of, 126 Ammonia: Davy’s conjectures as to its nature, 121 Ammonium amalgam: Davy’s views as to its nature, 127 Ammonium nitrate, Modes of decomposition of, 43 “Annual Anthology, The,” 18, 57 Apreece, Mrs., 159, 162 Babington, Dr., his character, 224 Bakerian lecture, Origin of, 100