r
texture_ of a most violent and irresistible force, and a power that
in its tremendous effects seems to emulate the lightning and the
earthquake, Professor Playfair thus concludes: "When to this we add
the beneficial consequences, and the saving of the lives of men, and
consider that the effects are to remain as long as coal continues to
be dug from the bowels of the earth, it may be fairly said that
there is hardly in the whole compass of art or science a single
invention of which one would rather wish to be the author.... This,"
says Professor Playfair, "is exactly such a case as we should choose
to place before Bacon, were he to revisit the earth; in order to
give him, in a small compass, an idea of the advancement which
philosophy has made since the time when he had pointed out to her
the route which she ought to pursue."

Honors were showered upon Davy. He received from the Royal Society
the Copley, Royal, and Rumford Medals, and several times delivered
the Bakerian Lecture. He also received Napoleon's prize for the
advancement of galvanic researches from the French Institute. The
invention of the safety-lamp brought him the public gratitude of the
united colliers of Whitehaven, of the coal proprietors of the north
of England, of the grand jury of Durham, of the Chamber of Commerce
at Mons, of the coal-miners of Flanders, and, above all, of the
coal-owners of the Wear and the Tyne, who presented him (it was his
own choice) with a dinner-service of silver worth L2,500. On the
same occasion, Alexander, the Emperor of all the Russias, sent him a
vase, with a letter of commendation. In 1817, he was elected to the
dignity of an associate of the Institute of France; next year, at
the age of forty, he was created a baronet.

Davy's discoveries form a remarkable epoch in the history of the
Royal Society during the early part of this century; and from 1821
to 1829 almost every volume of the _Transactions_ contains a
communication by him. He was president of the Royal Society from
1820 to 1827.

Fond of travel, geology, and sport, Davy visited, for the purpose of
mineralogy and angling, almost every county of England and Wales. He
was provided with a portable laboratory, that he might experiment
when he chose, as well as fish and shoot. In 1827, upon resigning
the presidency of the Royal Society, he retired to the continent; in
1829, at Geneva, his palsy-stricken body returned to the dust. They
buried him at Geneva, wh