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Humphry Davy

Humphry Davy Books

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“The moment after, I began to respire 20 quarts of unmingled nitrous oxide. A thrilling, extending from the chest to the extremities, was almost immediately produced. I felt a sense of tangible extension highly pleasurable in every limb; my visible impressions were dazzling, and apparently magnified, I heard distinctly every sound in the room and was perfectly aware of my situation. By degrees, as the pleasurable sensations increased, I last all connection with external things; trains of vivid visible images rapidly passed through my mind, and were connected with words in such a manner, as to produce perceptions perfectly novel. I existed in a world of newly connected and newly modified ideas. I theorised—I imagined that I made discoveries. When I was awakened from this semi-delirious trance by Dr. Kinglake, who took the bag from my mouth, indignation and pride were the first feelings produced by the sight of the persons about me. My emotions were enthusiastic and sublime; and for a minute I walked round the room, perfectly regardless of what was said to me. As I recovered my former state of mind, I felt an inclination to communicate the discoveries I had made during the experiment. I endeavoured to recall the ideas, they were feeble and indistinct; one collection of terms, however, presented itself: and with the most intense belief and prophetic manner, I exclaimed to Dr Kinglake, 'Nothing exists but thoughts!—the universe is composed of impressions, ideas, pleasures and pains!”

UniversePleasurePerceptionThoughtsDiscoveriesAlexander William KinglakeKinglake
Book:Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and Its Respiration.
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“John Dalton was a very singular Man: He has none of the manners or ways of the world. A tolerable mathematician He gained his livelihood I believe by teaching the mathematics to young people. He pursued science always with mathematical views. He seemed little attentive to the labours of men except when they countenanced or confirmed his own ideas... He was a very disinterested man, seemed to have no ambition beyond that of being thought a good Philosopher. He was a very coarse Experimenter & almost always found the results he required.—Memory & observation were subordinate qualities in his mind. He followed with ardour analogies & inductions & however his claims to originality may admit of question I have no doubt that he was one of the most original philosophers of his time & one of the most ingenious.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“Cavendish was a great Man with extraordinary singularities—His voice was squeaking his manner nervous He was afraid of strangers & seemed when embarrassed to articulate with difficulty—He wore the costume of our grandfathers. Was enormously rich but made no use of his wealth... Cavendish lived latterly the life of a solitary, came to the Club dinner & to the Royal Society: but received nobody at his home. He was acute sagacious & profound & I think the most accomplished British Philosopher of his time.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“I suppose there was never yet a woman who had not somewhere set up on a pedestal in her brain an ideal of manhood. ... He never is finished till the brain of his creator ceases to work, till she has added her last touch to him, and has laid down the burden of life and gone elsewhere, perhaps to some happy land where ideals are more frequently realised than ever happens here.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“The well-mannered man never puts out his hand in greeting until a lady extends hers. This is a test of good breeding that is constantly applied. ... The first move in the direction of cordiality must come from the lady, the whole code of behaviour being based on the assumption that she is the social superior.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“If I am allowed to give a metaphorical allusion to the future state of the blessed, I should imagine it by the orange-grove in that sheltered glen on which the sun is now beginning to shine, and of which the trees are at the same time, loaded with sweet golden fruit and balmy silver flowers. Such objects may well portray a state in which hope and fruition become one eternal feeling.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“The three states of the caterpillar, larva, and butterfly have, since the time of the Greek poets, been applied to typify the human being,--its terrestrial form, apparent death, and ultimate celestial destination.”

HumansStatesFormThreeHuman BeingsPoetUltimateImmortalityGreekDestinationButterflyCelestialCaterpillars
Book:Salmonia: Or, Days of Fly Fishing. With Some Account of the Habits of Fishes Belonging to the Genus Salmo
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“There may be beings, thinking beings, near or surrounding us, which we do not perceive, which we cannot 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.”

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Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. ...: Memoirs of the life of Sir Humphry Davy, by his brother, John Davy
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“We can trace back our existence almost to a point. Former time presents us with trains of thoughts gradually diminishing to nothing. But our ideas of futurity are perpetually expanding. Our desires and our hopes, even when modified by our fears, seem to grasp at immensity. This alone would be sufficient to prove the progressiveness of our nature, and that this little earth is but a point from which we start toward a perfection of being.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“Consistency in opinion is the slow poison of intellectual life, the destroyer of its vividness and energy.”

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Book:Fragmentary remains, literary and scientific, of Sir Humphry, Davy, bart., late president of the Royal society, etc: with a sketch of his life and selections from his correspondence
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“Profound minds are the most likely to think lightly of the resources of human reason, and it is the superficial thinker who is generally strongest in every kind of unbelief.”

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Book:Salmonia: or, Days of fly fishing ... By an Angler i.e. Sir Humphry Davy . Third edition. With plates
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“James Watt was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher and chemist; his inventions demonstrate his profound knowledge of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of genius - the union of them for practical application.”

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Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphrey Davy: Discourses delivered before the Royal Society. Elements of agricultural chemistry, pt. I
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“Mr. Dalton's permanent reputation will rest upon his having discovered a simple principle, universally applicable to the facts of chemistry - in fixing the proportions in which bodies combine, and thus laying the foundation for future labors... his merits in this respect resemble those of Kepler in astronomy.”

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Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy: Discourses delivered before the Royal Society, and Agricultural lectures, pt. 1
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“But if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would, indeed be a civil war of the worst description: we should rather, through the instrumentality of the men of science soften the asperities of national hostility. Davy's remarks to Thomas Poole on accepting Napoleon's prize for the best experiment on Galvanism.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“To me there never has been a higher source of honour or distinction than that connected with advances in science. I have not possessed enough of the eagle in my character to make a direct flight to the loftiest altitudes in the social world; and I certainly never endeavored to reach those heights by using the creeping powers of the reptile, who in ascending, generally chooses the dirtiest path, because it is the easiest.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“Geology, perhaps more than any other department of natural philosophy, is a science of contemplation. It requires no experience or complicated apparatus, no minute processes upon the unknown processes of matter. It demands only an enquiring mind and senses alive to the facts almost everywhere presented in nature. And as it may be acquired without much difficulty, so it may be improved without much painful exertion.”

MindMayMatterPhilosophyFactsScienceProcessNaturalAliveMinutesDemandDifficultyPainfulComplicatedSensesContemplationDepartmentGeologyExertionNatural Philosophy
Author:Humphry Davy
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“Every discovery opens a new field for investigation of facts, shows us the imperfection of our theories. It has justly been said, that the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by which it is surrounded.”

SaidFactsShowsLightScienceDarknessGreaterFieldsTheoryDiscoveryCirclesBoundariesImperfectionInvestigation
Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy ...: Salmonia, or Days of fly-fishing. Consolation in travel, or The last days of a philosopher
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“Natural science is founded on minute critical views of the general order of events taking place upon our globe, corrected, enlarged, or exalted by experiments, in which the agents concerned are placed under new circumstances, and their diversified properties separately examined. The body of natural science, then, consists of facts; is analogy,-the relation of resemblance of facts by which its different parts are connected, arranged, and employed, either for popular use, or for new speculative improvements.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“The progression of physical science is much more connected with your prosperity than is usually imagined. You owe to experimental philosophy some of the most important and peculiar of your advantages. It is not by foreign conquests chiefly that you are become great, but by a conquest of nature in your own country.”

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Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (etc.)
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“Oh, most magnificent and noble Nature! Have I not worshipped thee with such a love As never mortal man before displayed? Adored thee in thy majesty of visible creation, And searched into thy hidden and mysterious ways As Poet, as Philosopher, as Sage?”

MenWayScienceCreationPoetResearchPhilosopherNobleMysteriousMortalsTheeVisibleMagnificentSageMajestyMysterious Ways
Book:Fragmentary Remains, Literary and Scientific, of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. ... With a sketch of his life, and selections from his correspondence. Edited by his brother John Davy
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“The beginning of civilisation is the discovery of some useful arts, by which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries. The necessity or desire of preserving them leads to laws and social institutions. The discovery of peculiar arts gives superiority to particular nations ... to subjugate other nations, who learn their arts, and ultimately adopt their manners;- so that in reality the origin as well as the progress and improvement of civil society is founded in mechanical and chemical inventions.”

MenGivingWellsArtRealityLawScienceDesireNationsSocialProgressParticularComfortCivilizationDiscoveryInstitutionsPropertyImprovementInventionLuxuryMannersAcquireChemicalsPeculiarSuperiorityCivilisationCivil SocietySocial Institutions
Book:Salmonia: or, Days of fly-fishing; in a series of conversations: with some account of the habits of fishes belonging to the genus Salmo. Consolation in travel, or, The last days of a philosopher
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“Nature is beautiful, and you are in her bosom. That voice of comfort which speaks in the breezes of morning, may visit your mind, that the delightful influences which the green leaves, the blue sky, the moonbeams and clouds of the evening diffuse over the universe, may in their powers of soul-healing, visit your day visions, is my desire and hope.”

MindMaySoulBeautifulDesireUniverseSpeakVoiceNatureHealingVisionMorningSkyInfluenceComfortBlueGreenCloudsEveningDelightfulBreezeBosomsBlue SkyGreen LeavesSoul HealingMoonbeams
Book:Fragmentary remains, literary and scientific, of Sir Humphry, Davy, bart., late president of the Royal society, etc: with a sketch of his life and selections from his correspondence
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“The whole language of nature informs us, that in animated beings there is something above our powers of investigation; something which employs, combines, and arranges the gross elements of matter - a spark of celestial fire, by which life is kindled and preserved, and which, if even the instruments it employs are indestructible in their essence, must itself, of necessity, be immortal.”

IfsMatterWholeLife IsLanguageNatureFireElementsEssenceInstrumentsImmortalSparksInvestigationGrossAnimatedCelestialBeing ThereIndestructible
Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (etc.)
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“Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness, and small obligations given habitually, are what preserve the heart and secure comfort.”

LifeHeartLittlesMadeLife IsGivenFamilyKindnessSacrificeSecurityDutyComfortSmileObligationSecurePreservesLittle ThingsLove And KindnessActs Of KindnessGoodness And KindnessRandom Acts Of KindnessGreat SacrificeSmall Acts Of KindnessRandom KindnessSmall Kindnesses
Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. ...: Memoirs of the life of Sir Humphry Davy, by his brother, John Davy
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“Cavendish was a great Man with extraordinary singularities-His voice was squeaking his manner nervous He was afraid of strangers & seemed when embarrassed to articulate with difficulty-He wore the costume of our grandfathers. Was enormously rich but made no use of his wealth... He Cavendish lived latterly the life of a solitary, came to the Club dinner & to the Royal Society: but received nobody at his home. He was acute sagacious & profound & I think the most accomplished British Philosopher of his time.”

ThinkingMenMadeUseHomeVoiceWealthRichDifficultyProfoundExtraordinaryPhilosopherClubsStrangerDinnerBritishNervousAccomplishedGreat MenSolitaryGrandfatherEmbarrassedCostumesRoyalSingularity
Author:Humphry Davy
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“And by the influence of heat, light, and electrical powers, there is a constant series of changes; matter assumes new forms, the destruction of one order of beings tends to the conservation of another; solution and consolidation, decay and renovation, are connected; and whilst the parts of the system continue in a state of fluctuation and change, the order and harmony of the whole remain unalterable.”

MatterStatesWholeLightFormScienceOrderChangeAnimalInfluenceSolutionsDestructionHarmonyConstantAssumingSeriesConnectedSubstanceHeatDecayElectricityConservationElectricalFluctuationConsolidationRenovationElectrical Power
Author:Humphry Davy
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“Nothing tends so much to the advancement of knowledge as the application of a new instrument. The native intellectual powers of men in different times are not so much the causes of the different success of their labours, as the peculiar nature of the means and artificial resources in their possession.”

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Book:Elements of Chemical Philosophy
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“Cuvier had even in his address & manner the character of a superior Man, much general power & eloquence in conversation & great variety of information on scientific as well as popular subjects. I should say of him that he is the most distinguished man of talents I have ever known on the continent: but I doubt if He be entitled to the appellation of a Man of Genius.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“The wealth and prosperity of the country are only the comeliness of the body, the fullness of the flesh and fat; but the spirit is independent of them; it requires only muscle, bone and nerve for the true exercise of its functions. We cannot lose our liberty, because we cannot cease to think.”

ThinkingCountryBodySpiritLosesWealthLibertyExerciseFunctionIndependentProsperityBonesFleshCeaseFatsMusclesNervesFullness
Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. ...: Memoirs of the life of Sir Humphry Davy, by his brother, John Davy
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“There are very few persons who pursue science with true dignity.”

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Book:Salmonia: or, Days of fly-fishing; in a series of conversations: with some account of the habits of fishes belonging to the genus Salmo. Consolation in travel, or, The last days of a philosopher
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“By science calmed, over the peaceful soul, Bright with eternal Wisdom's lucid ray, Peace, meek of eye, extends her soft control, And drives the puny Passions far away.”

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Book:The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. ...: Memoirs of the life of Sir Humphry Davy, by his brother, John Davy
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