indulging myself in suspicious panegyric, by an attempt to delineate the character of this excellent man. The improvements which he was perpetually making in the iron manufactory by the introduction of new processes, his knowledge of chemistry, the conveniences of his laboratory, the hospitality of his house, and above all the liberality of his mind and the extent of his views, could not fail to attract and to attach to him any kindred heart."

From the first commencement of their intimacy, Dr. Beddoes was accustomed to pass a great part of his vacations at the Bank. During his necessary residence in Oxford he regularly corresponded with his new friend; and every letter evinces the high opinion that he entertained both of his head and his heart.

His acquaintance with Dr. Darwin appears also to have commenced about this period. A congenial spirit of philosophical inquiry, and a corresponding ardour for the improvement of medicine, procured for him the distinguishing notice and regard of this truly illustrious medical philosopher. A frequent and friendly epistolary intercourse was kept up between them, confined chiefly to medical and philosophical subjects. In the course of it, it appears that the proof sheets of Zoonomia were regularly sent to Dr. Beddoes, and his opinions and criticisms were freely invited by the author. They seem to have been communicated with the same candour with which they had been solicited. He was not afraid to use the language of commendation, for the intrinsic merit

f To vindicate the partiality of friendship, it would, in the neighbourhood of Bristol at least, be sufficient to state, that Mr. Reynolds was the son of a gentleman of that city, who employs an ample fortune in acts of the most extensive benevolence; one who can only be justly characterized by applying to him the eloquent language of Burke when speaking of Howard; that " he will receive, not in detail, but in the gross" the reward of those "who feed the hungry, who cloath the naked, and who visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction;" and that he was the worthy son of such a father.

of the work repelled the suspicion of flattery; and he offered his objections with as little reserve, because truth was the object of both.

On the other hand, the cordial, and, occasionally, even flattering style in which Dr. Darwin addresses him, proves that his mind was far superior to the littleness of envy; and that he felt a generous pleasure in doing honour to the rising merits of his younger brother in medicine. Indeed, it is well observed by Dr. Beddoes in a letter to another friend, and upon a very different occasion, that "those who have the sense of merit in their own breasts, can afford most cordially to praise, and they certainly best understand the merits of others."

To the names of Mr. Reynolds and Dr. Darwin that of a third correspondent remains to be added, Mr. Davies Giddy, now member for Bodmin, who, when the Doctor returned to the University to take the chemical chair, was an under-graduate of Pembroke College. Dr. Beddoes had a prompt discernment of mental ability, and soon discovered in this young man, evidences of a very superior understanding. In the pleasure of discovering and encouraging rising talent, the distinction between the professor and the undergraduate was soon passed over; and a frequent intercourse took place between them, which gradually ripened into a cordial friendship.

An access to the whole series of his correspondence with these three gentlemen, has enabled me to trace many of the movements of his mind, with a degree of accuracy, which his reserved habits would have effectually debarred me from attaining from other sources. Although, as has been already observed, his letters to Dr. Darwin were chiefly confined to professional and philosophical subjects, he occasionally introduces topics of a more personal nature. With

Mr. Giddy and Mr. Reynolds his communications were of a still more unreserved description, and he seems to have unveiled to them the inmost recesses of his heart.

In 1789 he appears to have made some exertions, in order to place the situation of the chemical reader in Oxford, on a more eligible footing. In a letter to his friend Reynolds, dated in March of that year, he expresses a wish that a statement could be made to some member of administration, of the situation of the Professorships held in Oxford by medical men. To all of these, although some were perfect sinecures, a fixed salary was annexed; while the chemical reader, whose services were necessarily active and regular, derived no other emolument from his situation, than the fees of such students as voluntarily attended his lectures; and these he had found by experience, although his class was considered as numerous, barely sufficient to defray the expences attendant upon the course. He states the delicacy that he felt in requesting any person to undertake this office; remarking, that as he "certainly thinks that he should himself be extremely unwilling to solicit favors from the great, he should be very slow in imposing such a task upon another." He afterwards expresses his desire that any person who should undertake that office should confine himself to a simple statement of facts, "So much only," says he, "I would wish to have said, when the occasion comes: as for any further solicitation, I abjure and despise it, both from principle and pride."

From a subsequent letter, it appears that the late Sir Richard Hill had laid such a statement before some member of administration, and had expressed the fullest confidence of effecting his object. "In general" says Dr. Beddoes, "the strong expressions of great men, as they are called, carry very little meaning; but from what I know of Sir Richard Hill, and I have had opportunities of knowing

a good deal, I verily believe that he would not say more than he knew or thought to be the strict truth."

A few years since, the dignity and emoluments of the chair which the Doctor then occupied, were increased by the establishment of a chemical professorship; but his connexion with the University had been for some time dissolved when that event took place.

In other parts of his correspondence with Mr. Reynolds, chemical hints, speculations, and experiments constitute a frequent topic. Many of these it would be now useless to record, for their value has been destroyed by the changes which have taken place in the whole system of chemical science. These changes he does not appear to have hastily adopted; for, in a letter dated in March 1789, he observes that Dr. Priestley had, in a paper then recently published, entirely overthrown the new system of Lavoisier." This concession is the more striking, as it seems that he was strongly disposed to admire the philosophical simplicity of the new doctrine, upon its first promulgation; but these difficulties induced him to suspend his assent. In the following year however, his doubts were finally dispelled by the experiments of the Dutch chemists.

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In the autumn of 1789, after passing the long vacation in Shropshire, he meditated an excursion with his friend down the Wye. He was, however, prevented from executing his intention; and in a short note addressed to him in October, laments that he shall "be debarred from feeling any of those soothing sensations, which the retired scenes of nature inspire, particularly in the melancholy season of her slow decay." A disappointment of this nature was, to Dr. Beddoes, a real privation. Few men have ever had a keener relish for the beauties of nature; and the simplicity and purity of his tastes preserved that relish unabated to the close of life. His fondness for botany and mineralogy, gave an interest to scenes which would pass unnoticed by a less observant eye; while those of a more generally

interesting character, were contemplated by him with the enthusiasm of a poet. This is abundantly proved by several little sketches of scenery that he had casually visited, which are scattered through his correspondence. One such now lies before me, in a letter evidently written with the most careless haste, describing to Mrs. Beddoes an excursion of a few days into the Principality, with two friends, one of whom was a sufferer from a nervous complaint. "While at Rhayader," says he," the spirit of adventure decided us for the Devil's bridge; this was leaving home far behind; we took a chaise, traversed long tracts of mountain, and called at most houses in these unfrequented solitudes. We passed no turnpike in fifty miles. There was often no track. At the Devil's bridge we found wildernesses worthy of a gang of Salvator's banditti. Conceive declivities impenetrably covered with wood; deep ravines cut by rapid rivers ; this mass of deep green; the sound of numerous waterfalls; and inclosing all, as if to shut out the world, bare mountains with their crested and corniced summits. The stillness of the woods contrasted strangely with the rapid motion and incessant roaring of the cataracts, of which one is above 100 feet in length. The sensations excited by this combination are terribly sublime; in nervous people they would be painful. One of our party, as he was crossing the bridge after a moonlight view of these woods and waters, felt as if a murderer was at his heels, with intent to throw his body into the depths below."

In like manner, the incidental mention of Kynance Cove near the Lizard, in a work to be hereafter noticed, betrays him into a description, which shews how deeply he felt the enchantment of its

scenery.

Upon his return to the University in Michaelmas Term, he expresses to his friend the gratification which he felt at the success of his lectures. He observes "that they were attended by a full and overflowing audience," and that "the interest for scientific researches