| CONCLUSION
In a work on the Decline of... 109 |
[Jan. 30th, 2010|02:29 am] |
CONCLUSION
In a work on the Decline of Science, at a period when England has
so recently lost two of its brightest ornaments, I should hardly
be excused if I omitted to devote a few words to the names of
Wollaston and of Davy Until the warm feelings of surviving
kindred and admiring friends shall be cold as the grave from
which remembrance vainly recalls their cherished forms, invested
with all the life and energy of recent existence, the volumes of
their biography must be sealed Their contemporaries can expect
only to read their eloge
In habits of intercourse with both those distinguished
individuals, sufficiently frequent to mark the curiously
different structure of their minds, I was yet not on such terms
even with him I most esteemed, as to view his great qualities
through that medium which is rarely penetrated by the eyes of
long and very intimate friendship
Caution and precision were the predominant features of the
character of Wollaston, and those who are disposed to reduce the
number of principles, would perhaps justly trace the precision
which adorned his philosophical, to the extreme caution which
pervaded his moral character It may indeed be questioned whether
the latter quality will not in all persons of great abilities
produce the former
Ambition constituted a far larger ingredient in the character of
Davy, and with the daring hand of genius he grasped even the
remotest conclusions to which a theory led him He seemed to
think invention a more common attribute than it really is, and
hastened, as soon as he was in possession of a new fact or a new
principle, to communicate it to the world, doubtful perhaps lest
he might not be anticipated |
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