"Natural electricity," observes our philosopher, "has hitherto been little investigated, except in the case of its evident and powerful concentration in the atmosphere. Its slow and silent operations in every part of the surface will probably be found more immediately and importantly connected with the order and economy of nature; and investigations on this subject can hardly fail to enlighten our philosophical systems of the earth, and may possibly place new powers within our reach."
Thus concludes one of the most masterly and powerful productions of scientific genius. I may perhaps have been considered prolix in recording the progressive researches by which he arrived at his results; but let it be remembered, that the great fame of Davy, as an experimental philosopher, rests upon this single memoir; and though the secondary results to be hereafter considered, may be more dazzling to ordinary minds, yet in the judgment of every scientific observer, they must appear far less glorious than the discovery of the primitive laws. Let me ask whether Sir Isaac Newton does not deserve greater fame for his invention of fluxions, than for the calculations performed by the application of them? I do not hesitate in comparing these great philosophers, since each has enlightened us by discoveries alike effected by means invented by himself. Not only did both unlock the caskets of Nature, but they had the superior merit of planning and constructing the key.
I challenge those, who have carefully followed me through the details of the preceding memoir, to show a single instance in which accident, so mainly contributory to former discoveries in electricity, had any share in conducting its author to truth. Step by step did he, with philosophic caution and unwearied perseverance, unfold all the particular phenomena and details of his subject; his genius then took flight, and with an eagle's eye caught the plan of the whole.—A new science has been thus created; and so important and extensive are its applications, so boundless and sublime its views, that we may fairly anticipate the fulfilment of those prophetic words of Dr. Priestley, who, in the preface to his History of Electricity,[67] exclaims—"Electricity seems to be giving us an inlet into the internal structure of bodies, on which all their sensible properties depend. By pursuing this new light, therefore, the bounds of natural science may possibly be extended beyond what we can now form any idea of. New worlds may open to our view, and the glory of the great Sir Isaac Newton himself, and all his contemporaries, be eclipsed by a new set of philosophers, in quite a new field of speculation. Could that great man revisit the earth, and view the experiments of the present race of electricians, he would be no less amazed than Roger Bacon, or Sir Francis, would have been at his." In our turn we may ask, what would be the astonishment—what the delight of Dr. Priestley, could he now witness the successful results of Voltaic research?—and what would he say of that mighty genius who has demonstrated the relations of electrical energy to the general laws of chemical action?[68] It was his good fortune to have witnessed the discovery which identified electricity with the lightning of the thunder cloud: what would he have said of that which identified it with the magnetism of the earth! Of this at least we may be certain, that he would have expunged from his history the passage in which he observes—"Electrical discoveries have been made so much by accident, that it is more the powers of nature, than of human genius, that excite our wonders with respect to them."
CHAPTER VII.
The unfair rivalry of Philosophers.—Bonaparte the Patron of Science.—He liberates Dolomieu.—He founds a Prize for the encouragement of Electric researches.—His letter to the Minister of the Interior.—Proceedings of the Institute.—The Prize is conferred on Davy.—The Bakerian Lecture of 1807.—The Decomposition of the Fixed Alkalies—Potassium—Sodium.—The Questions to which the discovery gave rise.—Interesting Extracts from the Manuscript Notes of the Laboratory.—Potash decomposed by a chemical process.—Letters to Children, and Pepys.—The true nature of Potash discovered.—Whether Ammonia contains Oxygen.—Davy's severe Illness.—He recovers and resumes his labours.—His Fishing Costume.—He decomposes the Earths.—Important views to which the discovery has led.
It must be confessed that there has too frequently existed amongst philosophers a strange and ungenerous disposition to undervalue the labours of their contemporaries. If a discovery be made, its truth and importance are first questioned; and should these be established, then its originality becomes a subject of dispute.
Truth, although she may have been rarely held fast, has been frequently touched[69] in the dark: it is not extraordinary, therefore, that evidence may be often strained from the writings of philosophers in support of prior claims to late discoveries; but upon a candid review, these loose statements, or obscure hints, will generally be found wholly destitute of the pretensions which an unfair spirit of rivalry has too often laboured to support. Many of such hints, indeed, so far from advancing the progress of truth, had never even attracted notice, until after the discoveries to which they have been supposed to relate.
Although the importance of Davy's Electro-chemical discoveries could not for a moment be doubted; their claims to originality, it would seem, were not admitted without some question. The works of Ritter and Winterl, amongst many others, were quoted to show that these philosophers had imagined or anticipated the relation between electrical powers and chemical affinities; but Davy very fairly observes, in a paper read before the Royal Society in 1826, that in the obscurity of the language and metaphysics of both those gentlemen, it is difficult
to say what may not be found. In the ingenious though wild views of Ritter, there are hints which may more readily be considered as applying to Electro-magnetism than to Electro-chemistry; while Winterl's Miraculous Andronia might, with as much propriety, be considered as a type of all the chemical substances that have been since discovered, as his view of the antagonist powers (the acid and base) be regarded as an anticipation of the Electro-chemical theory.