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
history, among the illustrious names of their country. "A great light has
gone out,"--short but brilliant has been his career; yet let us hope he
has but exchanged his worldly fame for unearthly immortality, to shine
amidst the never-dying lights of true glory.

[1] This apparatus is of immense power, and consists of 200
separate parts, each part composed of ten double plates, and each
plate containing 32 square inches. The whole number of double plates
is 2,000, and the whole surface 126,000 square inches.

[2] Memoir--New Monthly Magazine, Vol. I. Mr. Dillon has lately invented
an _Improved Safety Lamp_, an Engraving of which will be found at
page 137, Vol. XII. of the MIRROR.

[3] It deserves notice, that two of the most illustrious philosophers of
our times, Sir H. Davy and Dr. Wollaston, have died within the
present year.

[4] Extract of a Letter from Geneva, dated June 1, 1829--_Times_.

[5] These experiments, the last which engaged Sir Humphry Davy's
attention to any extent, were on the application of electrical
combinations, for the purpose of preserving the copper sheathing of
ships' bottoms. To this subject Sir Humphry gave much of his time,
and personally inspected all the boats and vessels on which the
trials were made. Although the theory upon which they were conducted
proved eminently correct, no advantage could be ultimately taken of
the plans which it sugg