"The most extraordinary man... is John Dalton... He is generally styled... the Father of Modern Chemistry... Yet this man... is earning... a penurious existence by teaching boys the elements of mathematics, with which he is so totally occupied, that he can hardly snatch a moment for the prosecution of discoveries which have already put his name on a level with the courtly and courted Davy. But the remarkable thing is that this simple and firm-minded man preserves all the original simplicity and equanimity of his mind, and calmly leaves his fame, like Bacon, to other nations and future ages."