MY DEAR POOLE,
Often, very often, in the midst of the tumults of the multitude in this great city, has my spirit turned in quietness and solitude towards you.
I hope soon to see you in Somersetshire, where we may worship Nature, and the spirit that dwells in Nature, in your green fields and under your tranquil sky. My communications with you and Coleridge and Southey, and other ornaments of the great existing Being, have excited feelings which cheer me in the apathy of London, and which make me love human nature.
Your account of the young man who murdered his wife, I read with deep interest. It is from such narratives of the conduct of common persons, that the laws of simple human nature must be deduced. Beings acted on by few objects, awakening in them few but deep passions, are the beings which Metaphysicians and Moralists ought to study; not those who exist in general life, having their energies and feelings so attached to multiplied and indefinite things—so mixed up and connected with myriads of circumstances, as to be imperceptible, unless by a microscopic moral eye.
I am, &c. &c.
H. Davy.
From the former letter, we learn that Davy, at this period, proposed delivering some lectures on the Chemistry of Agriculture. From the memorandums of my late friend Mr. Arthur Young, the celebrated Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, I have succeeded, through the kindness of his daughter, in procuring the following extracts; the only source from which I have been able to obtain any correct information upon this point in his scientific life.—"May 15th, 1803. Mem. Two lectures by Mr. Davy have taken place, and been very well attended; they intend retaining him by a salary of a hundred pounds a year,—a very good plan."
Amongst the pamphlets at Bradfield Hall is a small quarto of fourteen pages, entitled, "Outlines of a Course of Lectures on the Chemistry of Agriculture, to be delivered before the Board of Agriculture, 1803." It was evidently only printed for private circulation amongst the members. At the same time, he printed a small pamphlet, containing an explanation of the terms used in chemistry, for the instruction of those amongst his audience who had not particularly directed their attention to the science.
The first lecture was delivered on Tuesday, May the 10th, at twelve at noon, and five others on the succeeding Tuesdays and Fridays.
In an address to the Board of Agriculture by Sir John Sinclair, delivered in April 1806, in reviewing the various objects to which the attention of the Board had been directed, he thus alludes to the subject:—"In the year 1802, when my Lord Carrington was in the chair, the Board resolved to direct the attention of a celebrated lecturer, Mr. Davy, to agricultural subjects; and in the following year, during the Presidency of Lord Sheffield, he first delivered to the members of this Institution, a course of lectures on the Chemistry of Agriculture. The plan has succeeded to the extent which might have been expected from the abilities of the gentleman engaged to carry it into effect. The lectures have hitherto been exclusively addressed to the Members of the Board; but to such a degree of perfection have they arrived, that it is well worthy of consideration, whether they ought not to be given to a larger audience. If such an idea met with the approbation of the Board, a hall might be procured for that purpose, or a special course of lectures read in this room exclusively for strangers."