Composition.
4 Sermons.
It will be seen by this extract from his diary, that his studies were very varied, which, as he was always persuaded, enabled him to do so much. This he constantly attended to through life; his chemical and philosophical pursuits serving as a kind of relaxation from his theological studies. His miscellaneous reading, which was at all times very extensive, comprizing even novels and plays, still served to increase the variety. For many years of his life, he never spent less than two or three hours a day in games of amusement, as cards and backgammon; but particularly chess—at which he and my mother played regularly three games after dinner, and as many after supper. As his children grew up, chess was laid aside for whist or some round game at cards, which he enjoyed as much as any of the company. It is hardly necessary to state that he never played for money, even for the most trifling sum.
To all these modes of relieving the mind, he added bodily exercise. Independent of his laboratory furnishing him with a good deal, as he never employed an operator, and never allowed any one even to light a fire, he generally lived in situations which required his walking a good deal, as at Calne, Birmingham and Hackney. Of that exercise he was very fond. He walked well, and his regular pace was four miles an hour. In situations where the necessity of walking was not imposed upon him, he worked in his garden as at Calne, when he had not occasion to go to Bowood; at Northumberland in America, he was particularly attached to this exercise.
But what principally enabled him to do so much was regularity, for it does not appear that at any period of his life he spent more than six or eight hours per day in business that required much mental exertion. I find in the same diary, which I have quoted from above, that he laid down the following daily arrangement of time for a minister’s studies: Studying the Scriptures 1 hour. Practical writers 1-2 an hour. Philosophy and History 2 hours. Classics 1-2 an hour. Composition 1 hour—in all 5 hours. He adds below “All which may be conveniently dispatched before dinner, which leaves the afternoon for visiting and company, and the evening for exceeding in any article if there be occasion. Six hours not too much, nor seven.”
It appears by his diary that he followed this plan at that period of his life. He generally walked out in the afternoon or spent it in company. At that time there was a society or club that assembled twice a week, at which the members debated questions, or took it in turn to deliver orations, or read essays of their own composition. When not attending these meetings, he most generally appears to have spent the evening in company with some of the students in their chambers.
It was by the regularity and variety of his studies, more than by intenseness of application, that he performed so much more than even studious men generally do. At the time he was engaged about the most important works, and when he was not busily employed in making experiments, he always had leisure for company, of which he was fond. He never appeared hurried or behind hand. He however never carried his complaisance so far as to neglect the daily task he had imposed upon himself; but as he was uniformly an early riser, and dispatched his more serious pursuits in the morning, it rarely happened but that he could accomplish the labours assigned for the day, without having occasion to withdraw from visitors at home, or society abroad, or giving reason to suppose that the company of others was a restraint upon his pursuits.
This habit of regularity, extended itself to every thing that he read, and every thing he did that was susceptible of it. He never read a book without determining in his own mind when he would finish it. Had he a work to transcribe, he would fix a time for its completion. This habit increased upon him as he grew in years, and his diary was kept upon the plan I have before described, till within a few days of his death.
To the regularity and variety of his studies, must be added a considerable degree of Mechanical contrivance, which greatly facilitated the execution of many of his compositions. It was however most apparent in his laboratory, and displayed in the simplicity and neatness of his apparatus, which was the great cause of the accuracy of his experiments, and of the fair character which he acquired as an experimental chemist. This was the result in the first instance of a necessary attention to œconomy in all his pursuits, and was afterwards continued from choice, when the necessity no longer existed. I return from this digression which I thought necessary to give the reader a general view of my father’s occupations, and his manner of spending his time, to the circumstances attending the remaining years of his life.
At his first settling at Northumberland, there was no house to be procured that would furnish him with the conveniencies of a library and laboratory in addition to the room necessary for a family. Hence in the beginning of the year 1795, being then fixed in his determination to move no more, he resolved upon building a house convenient for his pursuits. During the time the house was building, he had no convenience for making experiments more than a common room afforded, and he was thereby prevented from doing much in this way. Still, he ascertained several facts of importance in the year 1795 on the Analysis of Atmospheric Air, and also some in continuation of those on the generation of air from water.