Faraday then says, ‘Having thus given the general character of the metals, Sir H. Davy proceeded to make a few observations on the connection of science with the other parts of polished and social life. Here it would be improper for me to follow him. I should merely injure and destroy the beautiful, the sublime observations that fell from his lips. He spoke in the most energetic and luminous manner of the advancement of the arts and sciences, of the connection that had always existed between them and other parts of a nation’s economy. He noticed the peculiar congeries of great men in all departments of life that generally appeared together, noticed Anaximander, Anaximenes, Socrates, Newton, Bacon, Elizabeth, &c., but, by an unaccountable omission, forgot himself, though I will venture to say no one else present did.
‘During the whole of these observations his delivery was easy, his diction elegant, his tone good, and his sentiments sublime.’
Faraday ends his volume with the notes of eighteen experiments that were made in this lecture.
The same day Davy wrote to his brother. It was the eve of his wedding.
Friday, April 10, 1812.
My dear Brother,—You will have excused me for not writing to you on subjects of science. I have been absorbed by arrangements on which the happiness of my future life depends. Before you receive this these arrangements will, I trust, be settled, and in a few weeks I shall be able to return to my habits of study and scientific research. I am going to be married to-morrow, and I have a fair prospect of happiness with the most amiable and intellectual woman I have ever known.
The Prince Regent, unsolicited by me or by any of my intimate friends, was pleased to confer the honour of knighthood on me at the last levée. This distinction has not often been bestowed on scientific men, but I am proud of it, as the greatest of human geniuses bore it; and it is at least a proof that the world has not overlooked my humble efforts in the cause of science.
I am, my dear Brother, most affectionately yours,
H. Davy.
On June 12 he published his ‘Elements of Chemical Philosophy.’ It is dedicated to Lady Davy, ‘as a pledge that he shall continue to pursue science with unabated ardour.’
Dr. Thomas Young, in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for September 1812, enables us to see what was thought of Sir H. Davy and of his book at this time.
‘In attempting a review of this work we cannot avoid professing that we are far from entertaining the impression of sitting down as competent judges to decide upon the merits or demerits of the author; on this point the public voice, not only within our own islands, but wherever science is cultivated, has already pronounced too definite a sentence to be weakened or confirmed by anything that we can suggest of exception or approbation. Our humble labours on such an occasion must be much more analytical and historical than critical; at the same time we are too well acquainted with the author’s candour to suppress any remark which may occur to us as tending to correction or improvement. It has most assuredly fallen to the lot of no one individual to contribute to the progress of chemical knowledge by discoveries so numerous and important as those which have been made by Sir Humphry Davy; and, with regard to mere experimental investigation, we do not hesitate to rank his researches as more splendidly successful than any which have ever before illustrated the physical sciences in any of their departments. We are aware that the “Optics” of Newton will immediately occur to our readers as an exception; but, without attempting to convince those who may differ from us on this point, we are disposed to abide by the opinion that for a series of well-devised experiments and brilliant discoveries the contents of Davy’s “Bakerian Lectures” are as much superior to those of Newton’s “Optics” as the “Principia” are to those or to any other human work for the accurate and refined application of a sublime and simple theory to the most intricate and apparently anomalous results derived from previous observation.