English scientist and author, born in London on the 27th of November 1808. He was not educated at any school, having to work from his twelfth year, but was fond of reading, and so prepared himself that in 1830 he became assistant in a classical school and afterward started a school with his brother near Salisbury, where he introduced scientific lectures, then a novelty, and even carried on some original investigations. He became connected with the Saturday Magazine and moved to London; became scientific lecturer at King’s College, London, and contributed much work to magazines and journals, mostly publications of various societies, to many of which he belonged. His works include Student’s Manual of Natural Philosophy (1838); a translation of Goethe’s Hermann and Dorothea (1849); a volume on The Sonnet (1844); a translation of Dante’s Inferno (1877); Essays, Old and New (1887); Amusements in Chess; and Essays by an Octogenarian (1888). His theory is that the culture of a scientific man is very imperfect, unless combined with a literary taste.
