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CHAPTER IV.

Old Walker-His lectures at Eton-Their effect on Shelley - New direction of his mind-The solar microscope Experimental philosophy Chemical studies-Correspondence at Eton-A refuted chemist.

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SOON after Shelley's arrival at Eton, there was a certain itinerant lecturer, known as Old Walker, who came into the town for the purpose of delivering his usual entertainment, which consisted of a course of lectures of a very popular, and a very desultory character; on Astronomy, Chemistry, and Mechanics, the most attractive part of which, however, was the exhibition of an orrery, a solar microscope, an electrical machine, and other chemical apparatus.

In the first lecture, Shelley was astonished at the minute calculations of the Astronomer, which unfolded the universe to him, and adjusted the exact distances of the planets from each other. But his excited imagination was peculiarly charmed with the idea of a plurality of worlds. Lifted at once into the regions of immensity, he began to expatiate upon the glories and the wonders of creation. "Night became his jubilee; his spirit bounded on the shadow of darkness, and flew to the countless worlds beyond it." In the contemplation of the superior endowments of one planet over the other, he loved to consider our existence but as a state of transition, and that as spirits in a future state, we might proceed from star to star till we had attained to the highest perfection, the nearest to the effulgence of God.

The chemical experiments likewise introduced him to a new world of thought. That earth, air, and water, are not simple elements in themselves, but combinations of matter, under peculiar forms, were truths yet strange to him, exciting his eager curiosity; nor did the exhibition of the solar microscope astonish him It taught him that the grand principle of

less.

life is every where present, whether in the atoms of the earth, or in the structure of the universe.

It is suggested that Walker's lectures were a misfortune to Shelley, since they supplied him with the means of producing interesting and startling results with very little application of mind, and thereby increased his aversion to the studies of the school. But the same writer hints that had there been some one to guide the peculiar bent that his mind had now taken, instead of allowing it to wander at will, the most favourable consequences might have flowed from it.

As it was, he was allowed to follow his own unguided impulses, and to these lectures may be traced the source and direction of all his after speculations. His imagination was fascinated, his curiosity excited to the utmost, and he plunged with avidity into a course of study which entailed on him in after-life the greatest calamities.

Having his mind now directed to an object, he proceeded with great earnestness. He possessed himself of a solar microscope, which became ever after his constant companion. He

entertained for it a childish affection, as he generally did for anything that afforded him delight. He always carried it with him as he grew up, and it used to form part of his ar rangements with his landlord, in taking a house, that he might, if he desired, make a hole through the wall, or otherwise deface a room, so as to receive his solar microscope.

He also procured an electrical machine from Old Walker's assistant, who had picked up a smattering of his master's knowledge, which enabled him to drive a large trade in such things with the boys at Eton.

He now commenced those chemical studies of which so many stories have been told, inquiring into the nature of gases and fluids, and investigating the laws of nature-and so eagerly did he pursue them, that he nearly blew up himself and Mr. Hexter's house into the bargain.

A sagacious reviewer remembered Shelley at Eton as being peculiarly mischievous in setting trees on fire with a burning-glass, and his obtuse intellect took this as sufficient evidence of his love of destruction. Doubtless Shelley's phi

losophical and chemical experiments were often carried on to the infinite delight of his schoolfellows-for as at Oxford the young chemist in his laboratory seemed to revel in throwing everything into confusion and disorder, staining his hands, his clothes, his books, his furniture, with acids, and burning holes in the carpet, which often caught his foot, and tripped him up, as he paced with characteristic stride across the room in pursuit of truth, piling plates, glasses, cups and saucers, crucibles, retorts, and vessels of various kinds, used as recipients of the most deleterious ingredients, into one heap-so must we regard him at Eton.

Indeed, we have pretty strong evidence that such was the case; for he once told a friend that he had inflicted upon himself a serious injury at Eton, by swallowing inadvertently some mineral poison, left in a vessel used indifferently for mixing lemonade and arsenic. He declared that on this occasion he had not only injured his health at the time, but that he feared he never should recover from the shock it had inflicted on his constitution. It appears, however, that his lively imagination exaggerated the recol

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