The tempting career which Dr. Black opened, and which he was unable to prosecute for want of health, soon attracted the attention of one of the ablest men that Great Britain has produced--I mean Mr. Cavendish. The Honourable Henry Cavendish was born in London on the 10th of October, 1731: his father was Lord Charles Cavendish, a cadet of the house of Devonshire, one of the oldest families in England. During his father’s lifetime he was kept in rather narrow circumstances, being allowed an annuity of £500 only; while his apartments were a set of stables, fitted up for his accommodation. It was during this period that he acquired those habits of economy, and those singular oddities of character, which he exhibited ever after in so striking a manner. At his father’s death he was left a very considerable fortune; and an aunt who died at a later period bequeathed him a very handsome addition to it; but, in consequence of the habits of economy which he had acquired, it was not in his power to spend the greater part of his annual income. This occasioned a yearly increase to his capital, till at last it accumulated so much, without any care on his part, that at the period of his death he left behind him nearly £1,300,000; and he was at that time the greatest proprietor of stock in the Bank of England. On one occasion, the money in the hands of his bankers had accumulated to the amount of £70,000. These gentlemen thinking it improper to keep so large a sum in their hands, sent one of the partners to wait upon him, in order to learn how he desired it disposed of. This gentleman was admitted; and, after employing the necessary precautions to a man of Mr. Cavendish’s peculiar disposition, stated the circumstance, and begged to know whether it would not be proper to lay out the money at interest. Mr. Cavendish dryly answered, “You may lay it out if you please,” and left the room. He hardly ever went into any other society than that of his scientific friends: he never was absent from the weekly dinner of the Royal Society club at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand. At these dinners, when he happened to be seated near those that he liked, he often conversed a great deal; though at other times he was very silent. He was likewise a constant attendant at Sir Joseph Banks’s Sunday evening meetings. He had a house in London, which he only visited once or twice a-week at stated times, and without ever speaking to the servants: it contained an excellent library, to which he gave all literary men the freest and most unrestrained access. But he lived in a house on Clapham Common, where he scarcely ever received any visitors. His relation, Lord George Cavendish, to whom he left by will the greatest part of his fortune, visited him only once a-year, and the visit hardly ever exceeded ten or twelve minutes.