ABSTRACT
Davy, Sir Humphry The most important part of the history of a man of science is necessarily recorded in his works.
The works of scientific men are like the atoms of gold, of sapphire and diamonds, that exist in a mountain; they form no perceptible part of the mass of the mountain; they are neglected and unknown when it is entire; they are covered with vegetable mould, and by forests. But when time has sapped its foundation-when its fragments are scattered abroad by the elements, and its decayed materials carried down by rivers, then they glitter, and are found; then their immortality is known, and they are employed to ornament the diadems of emperors and the sceptures of kings.
