Excerpt from Humphry Davy, Poet and Philosopher For the details of Sir Humphry Davy's personal history, as set forth in this little book, I am mainly indebted to the well-known memoirs by Dr. Paris, and Dr. John Davy, As biographies, these works are of very unequal value. To begin with, Dr. Paris is not unfrequently inaccurate in his state ments as to matters of fact, and disingenuous in his inferences as to matters of conduct and Opinion. The very extravagance of his laudation suggests a doubt of his judgment or of his ...
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Excerpt from Humphry Davy, Poet and Philosopher For the details of Sir Humphry Davy's personal history, as set forth in this little book, I am mainly indebted to the well-known memoirs by Dr. Paris, and Dr. John Davy, As biographies, these works are of very unequal value. To begin with, Dr. Paris is not unfrequently inaccurate in his state ments as to matters of fact, and disingenuous in his inferences as to matters of conduct and Opinion. The very extravagance of his laudation suggests a doubt of his judgment or of his sincerity, and this is strengthened by the too evident relish with which he dwells upon the foibles and frailties of his* subject. The insincerity is re ected in the literary style of. The narrative, which is in ated and over-wrought. Sir Walter Scott, who knew Davy well and who admired his genius and his many social gifts, characterised the book as ungentlemanly in tone; and there is no doubt that it gave pain to many of Davy's friends who, like Scott, believed that justice had not been done to his character. Dr. Davy's book, on the other hand, whilst perhaps too partial at times - as might be expected from one who writes of a brother to whom he was under great obligations, and for whom, it is evident, he had the highest respect and affection - is written with candour, and a sobriety of tone and a directness and simplicity of statement far more effective than the stilted euphuistic periods of Dr. Paris, even when he seeks to be most forcible. When, therefore, I have had to deal with con icting or inconsistent statements in the two works on matters of fact, I have generally preferred to accept the version of Dr. Davy, on the ground that he had access to sources Of information not available to Dr. Paris. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at ... This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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