Miscellany

Abstract

THIS is a rather charmingly written study: not too deep, not heavy, not coldly ordered, and humane. With the central figure Lavoisier are portrayed (with sound art in passing to and fro between the characters) Priestley and Cavendish, as complements and foils. Cavendish, by birth noble, by inheritance wealthy, by genius a metrical hermit; and Priestley, the very opposite in each point, in whom an intolerable fluency in doctrine was joined with the happiest success in qualitative experimenting: these two men are quite indispensable to science, yet both humanly and scientifically they stand at antipodes. That third indispensable, Lavoisier, was equipped with a supremely lucid and systematising brain, and he commanded much of Cavendish's type of metrical skill, coupled (for scientific purposes) with Priestley's missionary instinct minus its naivety. Hence, though he lacked their peculiar gifts for discovery per se, he was able with this triple combination of abilities to rise to a summit higher than either of theirs.

Three Philosophers (Lavoisier, Priestley and Cavendish).

By W. R. Aykroyd. Pp. xi + 227 + 8 plates. (London: William Heinemann (Medical Books), Ltd., 1935.) 10s. 6d. net.