Sketches of the Royal Society and Royal Society Club

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John Murray, 1849 - 212 pages
 

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Page 107 - On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation ; illustrating such work by all reasonable arguments ; as for instance the variety and formation of God's creatures in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms ; the effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion ; the construction of the hand of man, and an infinite variety of other arguments...
Page 185 - ... Francis Chantrey, and presented by the sculptor to the poet, as a token of esteem, in 1828.' " In the months of May and June in the same year, 1828, Sir Walter fulfilled his promise; and I finished, from his face, the marble bust now at Drayton Manor — a better sanctuary than my studio — else I had not parted with it. The expression is more serious than in the two former Busts, and the marks of age more than eight years deeper. " I have now, I think, stated all that is worthy of remembering...
Page 184 - The marble bust produced from these sittings was moulded ; and about forty-five casts were disposed of among the poet's most ardent admirers. This was all I had to do with plaster casts. The Bust was pirated by Italians ; and England and Scotland, and even the Colonies, were supplied with unpermitted and bad casts to the extent of thousands — in spite of the terror of an act of Parliament.
Page 72 - When an instrument of this description has been successfully exhausted, if the ball that is empty be immersed in a freezing mixture of salt and snow, the water in the other ball, though at the distance of two or three feet, will be frozen solid in the course of a very few minutes. The vapour contained in the empty ball is condensed by the common operation of cold, and the vacuum produced by this condensation gives opportunity for a fresh quantity to arise from the opposite ball, with proportional...
Page 82 - Resolved — That he be appointed, and in future denominated, Lecturer in Chemistry at the Royal Institution, instead of continuing to occupy the place of Assistant Lecturer, which he has hitherto filled.
Page 87 - ... matter. Finally, through his good efforts I went to the Royal Institution early in March of 1813, as assistant in the Laboratory; and in October of the same year, went with him abroad as his assistant in experiments and in writing. I returned with him in April 1815, resumed my station in the Royal Institution, and have, as you know, ever since remained there.
Page 68 - ... marked resemblances and discriminated differences ; the sagacity with which he devised experiments, and anticipated their results ; and the skill with which he executed the analysis of fragments of new substances, often so minute as to be scarcely perceptible by ordinary eyes. He was remarkable, too, for the caution with which he advanced from facts to general conclusions ; a caution which, if it sometimes prevented him from reaching at once to the most sublime truths, yet rendered every step...
Page 16 - There he continued his collection of plants, and he also made one of butterflies and other insects. I have often heard my father say, that being of the same age, they used to associate much together. Both were fond of walking and of swimming, and both were expert in the latter exercise. Banks always distinguished him, and in his old age he never ceased to show me every kindness in his power, in consequence of this old connexion.
Page 83 - Institution," says Mr. Purkis, " and the enthusiastic admiration which they obtained, is at this period hardly to be imagined. Men of the first rank and talent, — the literary and the scientific, the practical and the theoretical, — blue-stockings and women of fashion, the old and the young, all crowded, eagerly crowded the lecture-room.
Page 82 - Davy's uncouth appearance and address subjected him to many other mortifications on his first arrival in London. There was a smirk on his countenance, and a pertness in his manner, which although arising from the perfect simplicity of his mind, were considered as indicating an unbecoming confidence.

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