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Humphry Davy
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Humphry Davy : Researches, Chemical and Philosophical
'I have been most shockingly idle, actually reading two novels at once. a good scolding would do me a vast deal of good, & I hope you will send one of your most severe one's.? What an entertaining book Granby is; do you remember Lady Harriet talking about inhaling [Ni]tric Oxide? Johnson has actually done it, & describes the effects as the most intense pleasure he ever felt. We both mean to get tipsey in the Vacation.?. The old Mr. Wedgwood, I see in Ure's Chem. Dic., did nothing else but hold his nose & kick.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Darwin Print: Book
Humphry Davy : Consolations in Travel, or the Last days of a Philosopher
'Mr Layard has lent me Sir Humphry Davy's "Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher". It is a posthumous publication, & the editor says that "Had his life been prolonged, it is probable that some additions and some changes would have been made". - There are many fanciful and unwarranted ideas on the subject of the creation of this world, & the state of existence in the next: but, on the whole, it is a most interesting work, and shews a mind anxious to discern the right, and well prepared to love and glorify its Creator.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Harriet Burney Print: Book
Humphry Davy : unknown
'Sir H. Davy is going to publish a volume of poetry. I saw one of the poems; it is very abstruse, and metaphysical, on the nature and essence of man, beginning with him as a suckling at the living rill, and going on until death infuses the natural parts into the dew and the firmament. Yet it does not cover a sheet of paper all this process!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Manuscript: Unknown
Humphry Davy : 'To the Glow-Worm'
[Charlotte Bury went to see Humphry Davy, hoping to enlist his support in a subscription for James Hogg] 'and the visit was productive to me of a great treasure; for seeing some verses lying on a table, I asked permission to read them, upon which I obtained a copy of the following lines, which are, apart from their own merit, invaluable as coming from so great a man. Lines by Sir Humphrey Davy To the Glow-worm THOU little gem of purest hue, That, from thy throne o'erspread with dew, Shedd'st lustre o'er the brightest green That ever clothed a woodland scene, I hail thy pure and tranquil light Thou lovely living lamp of night Thy haunt is in the deepest shade By purple heath and bracken made : By thee the sweetest minstrel sings, That courts the shady grove; O'er thee the woodlark spreads his wings, And sounds his notes of love Companion of the lights of heaven Thine is the softest breeze of even; For thee the balmy woodbine lives, The meadow-grass its fragrance gives. And thou canst make thy tranquil bower In Summer's sweetest, fairest flower. The hour of peace is all thy own ; Thy lamp is lit for one alone ; Shedding no transitory gleams. No rays to kindle or destroy ; Constant, innocuous, still it beams The light of life, of love, of joy.'