[10] The Land's End in Cornwall.
[11] The granite of Cornwall is generally found incumbent on primitive schistus. This is the case in many of the cliffs at the Land's End. The upper stratum is composed of granite, the lower with the surrounding rocks of schistus. D.
[12] The Islands of Scilly.
[13] A rock near the Land's End, called the 'Irish Lady.']
[14] The Irish Lady was shipwrecked at the Land's End, about the time of the massacre of the Irish Protestants by the Catholics, in the reign of Charles the First.
[15] I cannot allude to this name, without paying a tribute of respect to the memory of one who, for more than half a century, practised the profession of a surgeon in Penzance with as much credit to himself, as advantage to his neighbourhood.
[16] Bergman, Professor of Upsal, was informed of a young man who resided in the house of an apothecary, and who was reproached for neglecting the duties of his profession, while he devoted the whole of his time to Chemistry. Bergman's curiosity was excited; he paid him a visit, and was astonished at the knowledge he displayed, and at the profound researches in which he was engaged, notwithstanding the poverty under which he laboured, and the restraint under which his situation placed him. He encouraged his ardour, and made him his friend. This young man was the celebrated Scheele.
[17] No man ever entered upon an undertaking with less apparent means of success, than did Priestley upon that of Chemistry. He neither possessed apparatus, nor the money to procure it. These circumstances, which at first sight seem so adverse, were in reality those which contributed to his ultimate success. The branch of Chemistry he selected was new; an apparatus had to be invented before any important step could be taken; and as simplicity is essential in every research, he was likely to contrive the best whose circumstances obliged him to attend to economy.
[18] Dialogus de Oratoribus,—Tacit.
[19] Plutarch, in expressing the opinion of Asclepiades upon this subject, represents him as saying, that the external air, by its weight, opened its way with force into the breast. Seneca also was acquainted with the weight and elastic force of the air; for he describes the constant effort by which it expands itself when it is compressed, and affirms that it has the property of condensing itself, and of forcing its way through all obstacles that oppose its passage.—Quæst. Nat. lib. v. c. v. and vi.