The following pages were originally intended for the perusal only of my own family and immediate friends. Some of these now persuade me to lay them before the public, believing that, to it, a detail of circumstances connected, as my Journal necessarily is, with the last recreations and pursuits of the late Sir Humphry Davy, must be interesting. To have been in any degree a partaker of the hours of this great man, whose name must shed a lustre over his native land, so long as genius and science shall be admired, I The state of Sir Humphry's health inducing him to seek its restoration in a tour on the Continent, he wrote to my mother, who was residing on my account and that of my brothers at Heidelberg, stating his plan to her, and naming his wish to have a son of his "warmly-loved and sincerely-lamented friend," as the assistant and companion of his journey. My mother did not hesitate to suspend my studies during the period of the proposed tour, conscious that in the society of such a mind and acquirements as those of Sir Humphry, mine must advance. And to have been the companion of his latter days, clouded as they often were by the sufferings which I beheld him endure, will be "With the undying energy of strength divine." Sir Humphry's health was in so shattered a state, that it often rendered his inclinations and feelings sensitive and variable to a painful degree. Frequently he preferred being left alone at his meals; and in his rides, or fishing and shooting excursions, to be attended only by his servant. Sometimes he would pass hours together, when travelling, without exchanging a word, and often appeared exhausted by his mental exertions. When he passed through Heidelberg to see my mother, he named all this to her, and with evident feeling thanked her for her request, To give any adequate idea of the beauty and grandeur of the scenes I beheld, must be well known to be impossible by those who have visited these parts of Europe, or been accustomed to view the changing tints and hues of the fine sky that encircles them; but if I have imparted only a faint reflection of the pleasure such scenes bestow, even in recollection, or have given enjoyment to any of my readers, my object will be fully attained, nor shall I then regret having listened to the voice of my perhaps too partial friends. J. J. T. Heidelberg, March 14, 1831. |