FROM MISS BERRY TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.
Bellevue, 18th September, 1834.
I have just finished reading your book, which has entertained me extremely, and at the same time, I hope, improved my moral character in the Christian virtue of humility. These must appear to you such odd results—so little like those produced on the great majority of your readers, that you must allow me to explain them to you. Humbled, I must be, by finding my own intellect unequal to following, beyond a first step, the explanations by which you seek to make easy to comprehension the marvellous phenomena of the universe—humbled, by feeling the intellectual difference between you and me, placing you as much above me in the scale of reasoning beings, as I am above my dog. Still I rejoice with humility at feeling myself, in that order of understandings which, although utterly incapable of following the chain of your reasonings, calculations, and inductions—utterly deprived of the powers necessary sic itur ad astra—am yet informed, enlightened, and entertained with the series of sublime truths to which you conduct me.
In some foggy morning of November, I shall drive out to you at Chelsea and surprise you with my ignorance of science, by asking you to explain to me some things which you will wonder any one can have so long existed without knowing. In the mean time, I wish you could read in any combination of the stars the probability of our often having such a season as this, of uninterrupted summer since April last, and when last week it was sobering into autumn, has now returned to enter summer again. The thermometer was at 83° in the shade yesterday, and to-day promises to be as much. We are delighted with our two months' residence at this place, which we shall see with regret draw towards a close the end of this month. October we mean to spend at Paris, before we return to the nebulosities of London. During my residence in Paris, before we came here, I never had the good luck to meet with your friend M. Arago; had I not been reading your book, I should have begged you to give me a letter for him. But as it is, and as my stay at Paris will now be so short, I shall content myself with looking up at a respectful distance to all your great fixed stars of science, excepting always yourself, dear Mrs. Somerville. No "disturbing influence" will, I hope, ever throw me out of the orbit of your intimacy and friendship, whose value, believe me, is most duly and accurately calculated by your ignorant but very affectionate friend,
M. Berry.
FROM LORD BROUGHAM TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.
1834.
Many thanks for the sheets, which I have read with equal pleasure and instruction as those I formerly had from you. One or two things I could have troubled you with, but they are of little moment. I shall note them. The only one that is at all material relates to the way you mention Dr. Young—not that I object to the word "illustrious," or as applied to him. But as you don't give it to one considerably more so, it looks either as if you overrated him, or underrated Davy, or (which I suppose to be the truth) as if you felt Young had not had his due share of honour, and desired to make it up to his memory. Observe I give him a very high place—but Davy's discoveries are both of more unquestioned originality and more undoubtedly true—perhaps I should say, more brought to a close. The alkalis and the principle of the safety lamp are concluded and fixed, the undulation is in progress, and somewhat uncertain as to how and where it may end. You will please to observe that I reckon both those capital discoveries of Davy the fruit of inquiry, and not at all of chance—for, as to the lamp, it is plain; and as to the metals, if you look at the inquiries that immediately preceded, you will see he was thereby led to the alkalis. Indeed, I well remember saying, when I read them, "He will analyse lime and barytes." I am quite ready to admit his extreme folly in some things, but that is nothing to the present purpose.