nor have I any other claim to merit, than that of
having edited the last remnant of his scientific labours.
To your Lordship, however, I fortunately need not
appeal for that kindness which will find excuse for
any errors and imperfections in the style and arrangement
of the following pages; and the same kindness will
prompt you to believe, that, the substance, if defective,
might have been amended and improved, had the care
of revisal been left to the author himself, rather than
to his widow.
With deference therefore, though not without confidence,
I submit this work to the Public, under the
protection of your Lordship’s name’ and subscribe
myself, with feelings of gratitude and respect,
Your Lordship’s
Much Obliged
And most Obedient Servant,
London, Morph, 1825. « S. BOWDICH.
P R E F A C E .
W H E N I had corrected thé proofs of the concluding sheet of
the present volume, I considered that my labour was at an end ;
but I am told that there m u s t b e a Preface, and that I am generally
expected to compose it of the memoirs of him whose loss I
have so much reason to deplore.
This is a task, howevér, which I cannot undertake ; not because
it would add to the poignancy of my sufferings, for my greatest
happiness consists in talking or writing of him ; m retracing
every hour that we passed together, and in repeating all I have
èver heard of him before we met. But my reason for declining
it is, because his own numerous works are the best pictures ef his
scientific labours and attainments ; and the only part of his
life which is not generally known, belongs to his domestic and
social virtues. On this subject I dare not trust myself to write,
as I might be led by affection and happy retrospect, to expatiate
in a manner that would be little interesting to the public.
For the favourable reception of the first part of my book, I feel
little or no apprehension. The errors which may have- crept
in when correcting the press, will justly be laid to my charge,