Davy would appear to have frequently amused himself with writing sonnets, and inclosing them in letters to his several friends: the following letter will also show that he was ambitious of being considered a poet.
TO SAMUEL PURKIS, ESQ.
MY DEAR PURKIS,
I inclose the little poem,[47] on which your praise has stamped a higher value, I fear, than it deserves.
If I thought that people in general would think as favourably of my poetical productions, I would write more verses, and would write them with more care; but I fear you are partial: I am very glad, however, that you like the little song; at some future period I will send you another.
With kind remembrances, unalterably your sincere friend,
H. Davy.
On examining the laboratory notes made at this period, many of which, however, are nearly illegible from blots of ink and stains of acid, it would appear that his researches into the composition of mineral bodies were most extensive, and that he obtained many new results, of which he does not seem to have availed himself in any of his subsequent papers. To borrow a metaphor from his favourite amusement, he treated such results as small fry, which he returned to their native element to grow bigger, or to be again caught by some less aspiring brother of the angle.
Had Davy, at this period of his life, been anxious to obtain wealth,[48] such was his chemical reputation, and such the value attached to his judgment, that, by lending his assistance to manufacturers and projectors, he might easily have realized it; but his aspirations were of a nobler kind—Scientific Glory was the grand object for which his heart panted: by stopping to collect the golden apples, he might have lost the race.