APPENDIX. Acids known to contain no Oxygen. Muriatic acid, (Hydro-chloric; Chlorine and Hydrogen.) Prussic acid, (Hydro-cyanic; Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Carbon.) Bromine. Hydro-Bromic acid, (Bromine and Hydrogen.) Ferro-cyanic acid, (Iron, Azote, Carbon and Hydrogen.) Hydro-selenic, (Selenium and Hydrogen.) And at least 150 more; as oxalic is perhaps the only vegetable acid which has no hydrogen. SIR JOSEPH BANKS. It is rare to observe a name among the active and successful promoters of science, and which yet cannot easily find a place in its annals from the circumstance of not being inscribed on any work, or connected with any remarkable discovery. Almost all the philosophers of both ancient and modern times have left us writings in which their doctrines were delivered, and the steps made by their labours were recorded. The illustrious exception of Socrates almost ceases to be one, from the memory of his opinions being preserved by two of his disciples in their immortal works; and the important discoveries of Archimedes and of Pythagoras are known distinctly enough in the books of ancient geometry, to leave no doubt resting upon their claims to the admiration and the gratitude of all ages. The lost works of the ancient geometers evidently afford no exception to the general remark, since they once existed, and contained the discoveries of their authors. It must, however, be observed, that the circumstance of a cultivator of science having left no works to after ages is merely accidental. He may have enriched philosophy with his achievements, and yet never have recorded them himself. Thus, had Black only made the great discovery of latent heat and specific heat, he would have been justly considered in all times as one of the greatest benefactors of natural science, and yet the history of that splendid discovery would only have been found in the memory of those who had heard his lectures; his only work being confined to the other discovery of fixed air, and the nature of the alkaline earths. To take a yet more remarkable instance;-how little of Watt's great and lasting fame depends on any written work which he has left! The like may be truly said of Arkwright; nay, the most important of inventions, the art of printing, is disputed by two names, Coster and Guttenberg, neither of which is connected with the composition of any literary work whatever. As men who have by their researches advanced the bounds of science,-"inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes," may never have given any written works to the world, and yet merit a high place among the greatest philosophers, so may others who have filled the less exalted but highly useful sphere of furthering the progress of the sciences or the arts, deserve a distinguished place among philosophers for the same reason which entitles authors to such a station, although they may never have contributed by any discoveries to the advancement of the sciences which they cultivated. The excellent and eminent individual whose life we are about to contemplate falls within this description; for although his active exertions for upwards of half a century left traces most deeply marked in the history of the natural sciences, and though his whole life was given up to their pursuit, it so happened, that with the exception of one or two tracts upon agricultural and horticultural questions, he never gave any work of his own composition to the world, nor left behind him anything, beyond his extensive correspondence with other cultivators of science. It is from this circumstance that not even an attempt has ever been made to write the history of Sir Joseph Banks. And yet, what so worthy of contemplation as the history of one who loved science for its own sake, who delighted in the survey of important facts connected with the study of nature, or tracing interesting truths belonging to the same branch of knowledge; whose pursuit of knowledge was wholly disinterested, not even stimulated by the hope of fame as the reward of his labours? And who better deserved the name of a philosopher than he whose life was devoted to the love of wisdom, whose rich reward was the delight of the study, whose more noble ambition left to others the gratification of recording their progress in books, and filling the mouths of men with their names? Much of what is explained, touching the real pleasures of science, in the life of D'Alembert, is applicable to the career of Sir Joseph Banks. He was of an ancient and wealthy family, established since the reign of Edward III., first in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and afterwards in the county of Lincoln, where they possessed ample estates from the end of the seventeenth century; and a considerable accession of fortune came to them early in the eighteenth, by marriage with an heiress in Derbyshire, named Hodgkinson, whose estates, by a shifting use in a settlement, were severed from those in Lincolnshire till 1792, when the whole fortune united in the person of Sir Joseph. He was born at Argyle Buildings, in London, on the 2d of February, 1743, O. S., according to a note in his own handwriting which lies before me, contrary to several accounts which represent him as born in Lincolnshire in December of that year. After being placed for some time under a private tutor, he was in his ninth year sent to Harrow and four years after to Eton, where his good disposition and cheerful temper recommended him to his masters; but they complained of his extreme aversion to study, and inordinate love of active sports. In about twelve months, however, when in his fourteenth year, his tutor found him reading at the hours of play, and the change which had been effected in his habits was described by himself to Sir Everard Home as arising from an accidental circumstance. One day he had been bathing with his fellow Etonians; and on coming out of the water to dress, * See Life of D'Alembert, and Appendix to Life of Robertson, vol. ii. †The parish register of St. James's makes his birth 4th January. he found that all but himself had gone away. Having put on his clothes, he walked slowly along a green lane. It was a fine summer's evening; flowers covered the sides of the path. He felt delighted with the natural beauties around him, and exclaimed, "How beautiful! Would it not be far more reasonable to make me learn the nature of these plants than the Greek and Latin I am confined to?" His next reflection was that he must do his duty, obey his father's commands, and reconcile himself to the learning of the school. But this did not hinder him from immediately applying to the study of botany; and having no better instructor, he paid some women who were employed in gathering plants-what is called culling simplesfor the druggists, for such information as they could give him, the price he gave being sixpence for each thing they told him. Returning home for the holidays, he was inexpressibly delighted to find in his mother's dressing room an old torn copy of Gerard's Herbal, having the names and figures of those plants with which he had formed an imperfect acquaintance, and he carried it with him back to school. 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 connection. My father described him as a remarkably finelooking, strong, and active boy, whom no fatigue could subdue, and no peril daunt; and his whole time out of school was given up to hunting after plants and insects, making a hortus siccus of the one, and forming a cabinet of the other. As often as Banks could induce him to quit his task in reading or in verse-making, he would take him on his long rambles; and I suppose it Ꮓ |