The Dickinson press., 1905-12-30

Il4L 4OD NEWTON
HENRY CavENDlsss, THE SCIENTIST,
,ssss-a. 4ANps 75ls Asssa,iEEXeaiEsN IN I III ~,
,Is ssNsir.. a ses yser,,k:
VT,s One. il silscst of Morta7s,
lad an Intense i1atreu For women
and a Contempt For Wealth.
Henry C%avenlisn, tie great English
scientist, was one OF the snlest Of
men. SO far as we have any record,
lie was only i'll once i'll his life, and that
l4Ecss killed him at the respectable
lge Of seventy-Eine.
lie told his physician that .'any pro-
longation Of life would only prolong
his miseries," and he died. as he had
lived, alone. For the ordinary human
relations Of life he seemed to care moth
ing; he was absorbed in his expert.
ments and loved his books and his lab
oratory more than anything else on
earth. Henry C%avendish. who has been
called 1.-THE modern Newton" vas born
in 1871, only four years after Newton's
death. He was educated at a private
school at Hackney, from which lie pass
ed to Peterhouse, Cambridge, which he
left three years later without q degree
Thereafter he was a man Of science,
devoting his whole life. to experimental
philosophy.
'"The man who weighed. the world"
wrote Henry Cavendish's cousin, the
late Duke of Devonshire, buried his
science and his wealth in solitude at
Chaplain" His science, however. he
did not bury for lie published to the
world certain facts which placed him
in the first rank of experimental philos-
ophers. 1t vas he who converted oxy-
gen and hydrogen into water aud PROV.
ed that it consists of these gases; it was
he who first stated the difference be-
tween animal and ommon electricity,
and it vas he who, by a curse of. in
geniOus experiments, weighed the
world.
Cavendish had no vanity. He cared
for no ones praise, avoided society
and was, as one must suppose, an un
happy nan For money he cared
little. Up to his fortieth year he was
comparatively poor, probably having
an annual income of no more than f50t.
but in 17z2 Ia unclesd died WHO left him.
an enormous fortune. OF that he spent
very little. He was one of those are
men who have no idea, of the xalue Of
money. His personal needs were very
simple, and the fact that. yhe. was rich
never seems TO- have struck ;5himsas j
matter of interest.
,Cayendish had two houses. one OH
Chaplain common and another hear the
British museum, at the corner of Cow
er street and Montague place. He had
few visitors, but his library was at
the service Of any one who cared to
use it, yet, so anxious was he to te
undisturbed, that he hired q house In
Dean street in which to Accommodate
his books and paid a librarian to look
after them. When he wanted to refer
to his books, he Went around as though
to a circulating library AMI left n re-
:ceipt for whatever. he took away, an
admirable idea. which should be En-
couraged nowadays.
His house at Clapham was practi-
i, cally, q, workshop. The upper rooms
~wero~SSconvertedA;ito ~un~ob7or~atorW,
the drawing room-Cavendish- had no
use for drawing rooms-was a labora-
tory and in an anteroom he had fixed
up a forge. On the lawn he erected
a stage,S which enabled him to reach
the top Of. a large tree, on which Sc
cure and isolated perch he could be ab-
solutely alone with his thoughts.
AS a host one gathers that this
strange being was hardly a. success
The very few people who We're admit
ted to his table were always given the
occasion four scientific men We're to
dine with him. When his h~ousekeeper
consulted him as to what she was to
give them to eat, he said a leg Of NUT
ton. Sir" said the good soul, that
will not be enough for five" Well,
l1cu, ScI IWO, LIT cplIcu. Anu u1lS
man, who was content to eat mutton
everlastingly, had no sense Of beauty.
He cared for nothing beyond his own
work. His biographer, DR.. George Viii
son, said of him:
There was nothing earnest, enthusi-
astic, heroic or %chivalrous in the nature
of Cavendish, and as little was there
anything mean, groveling or ignoble.
He was almost p~assionless. All that
needed for its apprehension more thar
pure intellect or required the exercise
Of fancy, Imagination, affection or
faith was distasteful to Cavendish. An
intellectual head thinking, a pair of
wonderful. acute eyes observing and a
pair of very skillful hands expert
menting or recording are all that l re-
alize in reading his memorials"
He simply left his income to Gun
late. One DAY his bankers, finding that
they had a balance of fS0,OOO to his
credit, sent up u messenger to consult
him about it. Cavendish was extreme