times struck with the analogy, particularly amidst mountain scenery. The
river, small and clear in its origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into
deep glens, and wantons and meanders through a wild and picturesque
country, nourishing only the uncultivated tree or flower by its dew or
spray. In this, its state of infancy and youth, it may be compared to the
human mind in which fancy and strength of imagination are predominant--it
is more beautiful than useful. When the different rills or torrents join,
and descend into the plain, it becomes slow and stately in its motions;
it is applied to move machinery, to irrigate meadows, and to bear upon
its bosom the stately barge;--in this mature state, it is deep, strong,
and useful. As it flows on towards the sea, it loses its force and its
motion, and at last, as it were, becomes lost and mingled with the mighty
abyss of waters."

"I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power,
wit, or fancy: but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I
believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to
every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness--creates
new hopes, when all earthly hopes vanish; and throws over the decay, the
destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life
even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity:
makes an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to
paradise; and, far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the
most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest,
the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the sceptic
view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair!"

Few of those whose fame and fortune are their own creation, enjoy, as did
Sir Humphry Davy, in the meridian of life, the enviable consciousness of
general esteem and respect, and the certainty of a distinguished place in