LITER ART NOTICES. 



377 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Faraday as a Discoverer : By JonN Tyn- 

 dall. New York : D. Appleton & Co., 

 1868. 



Michael Faraday : By Dr. J. H. Glad- 

 stone, F.R.S. London: 1872. 



Notice sur Michel Faraday, sa Vie et ses 

 Travaux : A. de la Rive. Geneva: 1867. 



The name of Faraday has been a fa- 

 miliar one to all of us for many years. As 

 students, it was in our class-books, occur- 

 ring on page after page, with others nearly 

 as familiar ; and it i3 almost ludicrous to 

 remember the notion we had, as boys, of 

 the men whose works were before us. 

 Their names were the only realities to us; 

 their real existence was a vague concession 

 to authority; the possibility of knowing 

 any thing of their true life and character 

 was too remote to be considered. 



Their work was before us, and the hand 

 that did it unknown. Liebig was a myth, 

 Regnault a shadow, the double-headed Du- 

 long et Petit a visionary Cerberus who 

 barked at error. Afterward we began to 

 know more of them as lecturers, or by their 

 portraits, and, to some of us, Herschel, 

 Faraday, Tyndall, are as real as our friends. 

 And how delightful it was, this making 

 friends of our shadowy acquaintances ; how 

 grateful we were to Arago for his long se- 

 ries of eloffcs of great men ! The curious 

 steel portrait of Laplace prefixed to the 

 French editions of his " Systeme du Monde " 

 told us much of him, but how much more 

 we knew from Arago's anecdote of this 

 towering genius, who could and did pro- 

 nounce an opinion on the probable dura- 

 tion of the solar system ; how one day he, 

 sitting in his study, was timidly approached 

 by Madame de Laplace, with the request 

 that he might " intrust " to her " the key 

 of the sugar." He, a "peer of France; 

 Grand-officer of the Legion of Honor ; one 

 of the forty of the French Academy ; of the 

 Academy of Sciences ; member of the Bu- 

 reau of Longitude of France ; of the Royal 

 Societies of London and Gottingen ; of the 

 Academies of Science of Russia, Denmark, 

 Sweden, Prussia, the Low Countries, Italy," 

 etc., he with the " key of the sugar ! " 



So, we first began to know Faraday as a 

 man, through a steel engraving of him pub- 



lished by the Society for the Diffusion of 

 Useful Knowledge ; and the promise in his 

 youthful, tender face we may read fulfilled 

 in the books before us. Prof. Tyndall's 

 book contains two engravings of Faraday, 

 with the fire of his young face subdued to 

 a peaceful light ; and, if this volume should 

 pass to a second edition, it would add to its 

 value as- an exponent of Faraday's inner 

 life, to include in it a copy of one of his 

 early portraits. Its title is "Faraday as 

 a Discoverer," but in spite of its title we 

 cannot but know of the sweetness and 

 light of his character; as if, indeed, it were 

 impossible to conceive of his place as a 

 philosopher, without knowing somewhat of 

 the man. 



His " Life and Letters," by Dr. Bence 

 Jones, gives best a conception of his de- 

 velopment as a man and as a scientist, for 

 it is shown by his own hand. And yet 

 these tributes of his three friends must be 

 read to understand him ; and, in reading 

 these, you cannot fail to be struck with one 

 thing, which is in itself a key to his char- 

 acter. 



Dr. Gladstone proposes to treat of his 

 " life and noble character " so as to be ap- 

 preciated by those who " cannot follow his 

 scientific researches," and yet one gath- 

 ers from this life his scientific methods 

 and a knowledge of his principal results : 

 De la Rive and Tyndall mean to speak 

 chiefly of his work, and yet they must turn 

 aside to tell of his loveliness of disposition. 

 The truth is that, in his life, science was 

 not a thing apart ; he lived in it ; his house 

 and his laboratory joined, and his thoughts 

 knew no difference as to place. 



In reading these books you are not 

 struck with the wonderful facts of his life ; 

 that he should be born a smith's' son, and 

 die a member of seventy-three scientific 

 bodies ; it requires an effort to remember 

 this, for from the first you feel, with De la 

 Rive, that he had that condition which ex- 

 ists but rarely, " c'est le genie." E. s. h. 



Quarterly German Magazine. (Ber- 

 lin, 1872, Carl Habel.) This appears to 

 be intended for English readers, but a slight 

 acquaintance with German will be found 

 of great use for whoever wishes to find out 

 what the writers are driving at. Not hav- 



