The Life of Sir Humphrey Davy, Volume 1

Front Cover
Colburn & Bentley, 1831 - Scientists
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 84 - upon the brink of meaning, where light and darkness begin to mingle. this discovery : may it be pursued so as to acquaint us with some of the laws of life ! You have, undoubtedly, heard of Herschel's discovery concerning the production of heat by invisible rays emitted from the sun.
Page 5 - of my old schoolfellows can still bear witness that I had a distinguished character for that talent, at a time when the applause of my companions was my recompense for the disgraces and punishments which the future romance-writer incurred for being idle himself, and keeping others idle, during hours that should have been employed on our tasks.
Page 273 - From this same Register, it appears that, in the preceding month, he was deeply engaged in experiments on ' Antwerp blue,' which he found to consist of Prussiate of Iron and Alumina, "probably in the proportion of two-thirds of the former to one-third of the latter.
Page 264 - a good remark upon this subject. He says, " It is a great law of the imagination, that a likeness in part tends to become a likeness of the whole." It is thus that we trace images in the fire, castles in the clouds, and spectres in the gloom of twilight.
Page 154 - 26, 1802. IT is long since I have had the pleasure of hearing from you. You probably received a hasty letter that I wrote to you in the beginning of the summer. Since that period, I have been idling away much of my time in Derbyshire and North Wales. Till very lately, I had
Page 159 - the shade, several hours are required, to produce the full effect; and light transmitted through differently coloured glass, acts upon it with different degrees of intensity. It is found, for instance, that red rays, or the common sunbeams passed through red glass, have very little action upon it; yellow and green are more
Page 197 - beings, near us, surrounding us, which we do not perceive, which we can never imagine. We know very little; but, in my opinion, we know enough to hope for the immortality, the individual immortality of the better part of man. of
Page 160 - instance, as the woody fibres of leaves, and the wings of insects; for which purpose, it is only necessary to cause the direct solar light to pass through them, and to receive the shadows upon prepared leather. To Davy we are indebted for an extremely beautiful application of this principle,—that of copying small objects produced by means of the solar
Page 16 - great delight to ramble along the seashore, and often, like the orator of Athens, would he on such occasions declaim against the howling of the wind and waves, with a view to overcome a defect in his voice, which, although only slightly perceptible in his maturer age, was in the days of his boyhood exceedingly discordant. I may
Page 205 - their aery : so in after time Long shalt thou rest unalter'd mid the wreck Of all the mightiness of human works ; For not the lightning nor the whirlwind's force, Nor all the waves of ocean, shall prevail Against thy giant strength—and thou shalt stand Till the Almighty voice which bade thee rise

Bibliographic information