Had I been in England, I should gladly have promoted the election of your friend at the Athenæum: your certificate of character would always be enough for me; for, like our angling evangelical Isaac Walton, I know you choose for your friends only good men.
I am, thank God, better, but still very weak, and wholly unfit for any kind of business and study. I have, however, considerably recovered the use of all the limbs that were affected; and as my amendment has been slow and gradual, I hope in time it may be complete: but I am leading the life of an anchorite, obliged to abstain from flesh, wine, business, study, experiments, and all things that I love; but this discipline is salutary, and for the sake of being able to do something more for science, and, I hope, for humanity, I submit to it; believing that the Great Source of intellectual being so wills it for good.
I am here lodged in the Apostolical Palace, by the kindness of the Vice-Legate of Ravenna, a most admirable and enlightened prelate, and who has done every thing for me that he could have done for a brother.
I have chosen this spot of the declining empire of Rome, as one of solitude and repose, as out of the way of travellers, and in a good climate; and its monuments and recollections are not without interest. Here Dante composed his divine works. Here Byron wrote some of his best and most moral (if such a name can be applied) poems; and here the Roman power that began among the mountains with Romulus, and migrated to the sea, bounding Asia and Europe under Constantine, made its last stand, in the marshes formed by the Eridanus, under Theodorick, whose tomb is amongst the wonders of the place.
After a month's travel in the most severe weather I ever experienced, I arrived here on the 20th of February. The weather has since been fine. My brother and friend, who is likewise my physician, accompanied me; but he is so satisfied with my improvement, as to be able to leave me for Corfu; but he is within a week's call.
I have no society here, except that of the amiable Vice-Legate, who is the Governor of the Province; but this is enough for me, for as yet I can bear but little conversation. I ride in the pine forest, which is the most magnificent in Europe, and which I wish you could see. You know the trees by Claude Lorraine's landscapes: imagine a circle of twenty miles of these great fan-shaped pines, green sunny lawns, and little knolls of underwood, with large junipers of the Adriatic in front, and the Apennines still covered with snow behind. The pine wood partly covers the spot where the Roman fleet once rode,—such is the change of time!
It is my intention to stay here till the beginning of April, and then to go to the Alps, for I must avoid the extremes of heat and cold.
God bless you, my dear Poole. I am always your old and sincere friend,
H. Davy.
Feeling that his recovery was tardy, and that perfect mental repose was more than ever necessary for its advancement, he determined to resign the chair of the Royal Society; and he accordingly announced that intention, by a letter to his friend Mr. Davies Gilbert, Vice-President of the Society.