FOOTNOTES:
[1] I have been favoured by the Rev. C. Val. Le Grice, of Trereiffe, with the following extract from the Parish Register, kept at Madron:—"Humphry Davy, son of Robert Davy, baptized at Penzance, January 22, 1779." The house in which he was born has been pulled down and lately rebuilt.
[2] Soon after the days of Gibbons, the art of ornamental carving in wood began to decay, and it may now be considered as nearly lost. Its decline may be attributed to two causes. In the first place, to the change of taste in fitting up the interior of our mansions; and in the next, to the introduction of composition for the enrichment of picture-frames and other objects of ornament. "Robert Davy," says a correspondent, "has been considered in this neighbourhood as the Last of the Carvers, and from his small size, was generally called The little Carver.
[3] For these materials I acknowledge myself indebted to Dr. Penneck of Penzance, and to Mrs. Millett, Sir H. Davy's sister. The facts were communicated in letters to Lady Davy, by whom they were kindly placed at my disposal.
[4] Life of Sir William Jones, by Lord Teignmouth.
[5] Here, as Mrs. Ratcliffe would say, the Legend is so effaced by damp and time, as to be wholly illegible.
[6] "Were the enquiry diligently made," he says, "it would be found that the Goddess of Harmony has exercised more influence, however latent, over the dispensations of Themis, than her most diligent historiographers, or even her most passionate panegyrists, seem to be aware of. Every one knows how, by the ministry of Orpheus, it was she who first collected the sons of men beneath the shadow of the sceptre: yet in the midst of continual experience, men seem yet to learn with what successful diligence she laboured to guide it in its course."
[7] The original indenture, now in the possession of Mr. R. Edmonds, solicitor, of Penzance, is dated February 10th, 1795.
[8] Davy appears to have been more fortunate than his prototype Scheele; for on one occasion, as the latter was employed in making pyrophorus, a fellow apprentice, without his knowledge, put some fulminating powder into the mixture; the consequence was a violent explosion; the whole family was thrown into confusion, and the young chemist was severely chastised.
[9] M. de Bourrienne, in his "Private Memoirs of Napoleon Buonaparte," appears to have justly appreciated the influence of circumstances upon the destinies of great men. In speaking of Buonaparte at the Military College of Brienne, he says, "If the monks, to whom the superintendence of the establishment was confided, had engaged more able mathematical professors, or if we had had any excitement to the study of Chemistry, or Natural Philosophy, I am convinced that Buonaparte would have pursued those sciences with all the genius and spirit of investigation, which he displayed in a career more brilliant, it is true, but far less useful to mankind."