large shrubs, looking like a wilderness, and in the middle a little plot of green ground and a knot of flowers. In short, it was multum in parvo with a witness. This is the very house occupied by the late Mr. Joyce."

To Mr. Johns, when absent from Manchester.

66

July 2nd, 1825. Yesterday I dined at Dr. Henry's, meeting Professor Almroth, of Stockholm, and a party, together with his own young family and Miss Bailey. Professor Almroth breakfasted with me this morning. He is well read in Shakespere, Sir Walter Scott, and the German literature, as well as in Shimistry.

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"You will have a new chapel to go to when you come here. The great water hole opposite has now a chapel on it, for Baptists, they say. I am nearly ready for a jaunt, but whether north or west I do not know till my stick falls."

We see from these letters that he was accustomed to lecture occasionally in all parts of the country, when invited, and we see also enough to let us judge a little of his temper. They are full of very simple kindly feeling, the very act of writing home so many details betokens a disposition to please, and entirely precludes every accusation of vanity or that absurd appearance of separation from his fellows, which we find so frequently the production of bigotry and of ignorance, but which we too often call by the name of dignity. We find him exceedingly pleased with the attentions of scientific men; he had, of course, frequent visits from such as came to Manchester, and foreigners of distinction seem to have pleased him as much as the young members of the family where he resided. At the same time he was tenacious of his opinions, and we find that in describing his conversations with men of science, he generally calls them discussions, and generally on scientific subjects we find him too much standing up for his own rights, as his results appeared to him to be. This

arose from a peculiarity of mind which seems to have been too much developed in him, as in those also where observation and experience are so tenaciously remembered as to become the only groundwork of opinion, and where the arguments of others are as mere fiction, having no influence upon the reasoning powers. Acting in this spirit, he discouraged reading, and prevented the Literary and Philosophical Society from obtaining a sufficient supply of books. He said, "I could carry all the books I have ever read on my back." In this, he was evidently forgetting how diverse were the faculties of mankind, and acting also in ignorance of the fact, that he was himself suffering from a want of reading, although it is probably true that he was a gainer in another direction from the same cause. But in summing up features of characters, we find great antagonism in our results, so that we are in error when we make up a very uniform design from what is too often a hastily prepared patchwork, and known to be so by the owners themselves, but which they are prevented from completing by circumstances, if not by time, which limits the progress of all. He, in fact, is often the great man who allows himself to act onesidedly, not for his own pleasure or profit, but because the struggle which he has to maintain, needs all energies to be concentrated on one point of attack.

In this way we may view Dalton. We must see him also as a man having limited assistance from the knowledge of others, ignorant of many of the elegant and easy methods of procuring knowledge and illustrating facts which have become the common inheritance of universities, and accustomed to the society of few only who had similar studies; and when meeting with his contemporaries from capital cities, forgetting that they were not like him, completely immersed in the study of nature, but were also expected to cultivate the soireé and the dinner table. Still sociality was not entirely checked Mr. Woolley is my authority.

in Dalton, although it was under subjection to routine. This was seen in the regular manner in which he went on Sunday to dine, at Mayfield, with Mr. Neild, even if the host were not at home, and in the regular manner in which he joined the family of Mr. Johns every evening, enjoying the society of the younger members who had grown up from childhood under his eye, and under the same roof, and in the great pleasure he had in taking them with him in his summer excursions. It was a mild enjoyment, allowing of little enthusiasm, this was reserved for the sterner aspects of nature on the summits of Scawfell or Helvellyn; but it was his nature to be calm, a violent life does not suit the inquirer into nature.

He was simple in his habits by nature and by education, but still more so from his pursuits. Such are always found to be disturbed when wealth, by enlarging the establishment, claims too much the care of the possessor, and when work, ceasing to be urgent, allows us to imagine that the cultivation of an acquaintance is the great business of our life. To the courtly especially, he seemed morose, but that it was merely a question of form, and not of inward feeling, we see additional proof in the letter where he makes a similar complaint of Sir H. Davy, as lacking that geniality which he jocularly represents under the symbol of tobacco.

To a certain extent he was separated from society by the constancy of his work. Many have been separated, and separated themselves for idleness, but for work, few; and whilst the world is overflowing with those who would willingly give themselves to the pleasure of social intercourse, an occasional exception for a higher purpose stands forth as a subject for our admiration, surely not for a censure.

Dalton never married, he had not time, he said. In early life his position prevented him, in middle life constant work, when he seems to have been struggling for an independency, not knowing that it would come to him with ease as soon as his failing strength demanded it. This desire to become in

dependent of his work induced in him an undue amount of care in the accumulation of his savings: we may consider them as the representatives of a certain amount of time entirely lost to all but his heirs. At the same it is to be remembered that he was accumulating his savings for a time, when he could no longer be able to work, and the simplicity and self-denial of such a course, instead of being worthy of blame, is a virtue, which, unfortunately, is not of sufficient Occurrence. This virtue gave him the opportunity of showing kindness to many of his friends, and of helping such as were in need.

He was on terms of friendship with several ladies whom he greatly admired, and there is little doubt that in one case in early life the admiration was that of love. Whether the fact of the lady's engagement to another affected him for any length of time with disappointment, is what his reserved nature never told to any one, but we are left to guess that the attachment was strong, when late in life he could not read without emotion, and even tears, some verses the lady had written, or allow any one else to read them in the letter. Tears and emotion were rare with him, and leave us room enough for speculating on what might have been the inner romance of that life which externally seemed so simple and so contented with matters of fact.

His attention to ladies, and his great respect for their mental attainments, makes us still more inclined to refer to awkwardness of manner, the appearance of "repulsiveness and harshness," words that seem out of place when used in speaking of one so little disposed to offend.

The answer to his friend Mr. Gough, who attacked him on the subject of the atmosphere, shows great forbearance and innate nobleness of feeling, under circumstances in which every thing that is most bitter and severe is generally admitted to pardon.

In a town like Manchester, where exertions to extend the

material portion of civilization take the form in the minds of most men of a struggle for wealth, in which the original object is forgotten, it is a proof of simplicity and singleness of character when we find that he was never once led away by the glare of the princely fortunes around him. He gave

lessons for very small fees, from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. a lesson. He made analyses, and was consulted by manufacturers, probably the earliest in the district of that class of scientific men called "professional chemists" who have risen as a necessity of the time, and by private establishments have made some compensation for the lack of public institutions and professorships, in some countries so abundant, and have chiefly in their hands the connexion of the chemical arts with the science as it progresses.

Dalton's character as a man is then easy to understand; he was a simple inquirer into nature, his enthusiasm rose only in her presence, his life was devoted to her study. Abstracted in a great measure from the world in its social relations, he was sufficiently connected with it to have endeared himself to all those with whom he lived, and to have formed with some of his contemporaries the warmest friendships. The friends of his childhood were never forgotten, but more warmly remembered as he grew older; whilst he did not the less remember those that he learnt to know only since his manhood. Gentle at least in his spirit, his very solitary life and abstract mode of thinking had not allowed him time to modulate his voice to suit the ears of those accustomed to more polished society, and a certain rigidity of body, as well as of mind, caused the movements of both to have the appearance more of power than of grace. He was simple, temperate, and regular in his habits, never carried away by the feelings of the moment to indulge in luxuries to which he was unaccustomed, in all his actions avoiding excess, yielding to order and regularity as the only master passion which had power to carry him beyond what we may consider the just bounds of reason.