Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/111

SIR HUMPHRY DAVY 277 guished men of all parties, and couched in the following terms : " We, the under- signed Members of both Houses of Parliament, being anxious, upon public grounds, to show our respect for the memory of the late William Wilberforce, and being also satisfied that public honors can never be more fitly bestowed than upon such benefactors of mankind, earnestly request that he may be buried in Westminster Abbey, and that we and others who may agree with us in these sentiments may have permission to attend his funeral." The attendance of both Houses was numerous. Mr. Wilberforce was interred within a few yards of his great contemporaries, Pitt, Fox, and Canning. SIR HUMPHRY DAVY By John Timbs, F.S.A. (1778-1829) T k HE boyhood of Davy has been sketched in some of the most fascinating pieces of biography ever written : the annals of science do not furnish us with any record that equals the school-days and self-education of the boy, Humphry, in popular inter- est ; and, unlike many bright morn- ings, this commencement in a few years led to a brilliant meridian, and, by a succession of discoveries, accom- plished more in relation to change of theory and extension of science, than in the most ardent and ambitious mo- ments of youth he could either hope to effect or imagine possible. Humphry Davy was born at Pen- zance, in 1778 ; was a healthy, strong, and active child, and could speak fluently before he was two years old ; copied engravings before he learned to write, and could recite part of the " Pilgrim's Progress " before he could well read it. At the age of five years, he could gain a good account of the contents of a book while turning over the leaves ; and he retained this remarkable faculty through life He excelled in telling stories to his playmates ; loved fishing, and collecting, and painting birds and fishes ; he had his own little garden ; and recorded his impreS' sions of romantic scenery in verse of no ordinary merit. To his self-education, however, he owed almost everything. He studied with intensity mathematics.