Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/121

Rh poems, Orchestra: a Poem of Dancing (1594), and Nosce Teipsum (Know Thyself), in two elegies (I) Of Humane Knowledge (2) Of the Immortality of the Soul. The poem consists of quatrains, each containing a complete and compactly expressed thought. It was pub. in 1599. D. was also the author of treatises on law and politics.

 Author:John Davys (1550?-1605).—Navigator, known as D. of Sandridge to distinguish him from another of the same name. He was one of the most enterprising of the Elizabethan sailors, who devoted themselves to the discovery of the North-west Passage. Davis Strait was discovered by, and named after, him. He made many voyages, in the last of which he met his death at the hands of a Japanese pirate. He was the author of a book, now very scarce, The World's Hydrographical Description, and he also wrote a work on practical navigation, The Seaman's Secrets, which had great repute.

 Author:Thomas Osborne Davis (1814-1845).—Poet, b. at Mallow, ed. at Trinity Coll., Dublin, and called to the Irish Bar 1838. He was one of the founders of The Nation newspaper, and of the Young Ireland party. He wrote some stirring patriotic ballads, originally contributed to The Nation, and afterwards republished as Spirit of the Nation, also a memoir of Curran the great Irish lawyer and orator, prefixed to an ed. of his speeches; and he had formed many literary plans which were brought to naught by his untimely death.

 Author:Humphry Davy (1778-1829).—Chemist and man of letters, s. of a wood-carver, was b. at Penzance. He early showed an enthusiasm for natural science, and continued to pursue his studies when apprenticed in 1795 to a surgeon. He became specially interested in chemistry, to which in 1797 he began more exclusively to devote himself. Thereafter he assisted Dr. Beddoes in his laboratory at Bristol, and entered upon his brilliant course of chemical discovery. His Researches, Chemical, and Philosophical (1799), led to his appointment as Director of the Chemical Laboratory at the Royal Institution, where he also delivered courses of scientific lectures with extraordinary popularity. Thereafter his life was a succession of scientific triumphs and honours. His great discovery was that of the metallic bases of the earths and alkalis. He also discovered various metals, including sodium, calcium, and magnesium. In 1812 he was knighted, and m. a wealthy widow. Thereafter he investigated volcanic action and fire-damp, and invented the safety lamp. In 1818 he was cr. a baronet, and in 1820 became Pres. of the Royal Society, to which he communicated his discoveries in electro-magnetism. In addition to his scientific writings, which include Elements of Agricultural Chemistry (1813), and Chemical Agencies of Electricity, he wrote Salmonia, or Days of Fly Fishing (1828), somewhat modelled upon, and Consolations in Travel (1830), dialogues on ethical and religious questions. D. sustained an apoplectic seizure in 1826, after which his health was much impaired, and after twice wintering in Italy, he d. at Geneva, where he received a public funeral. Though not attached to any Church, D. was a sincerely religious man, strongly opposed to materialism and scepticism. He holds a foremost place among scientific discoverers.

