OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : JUNE 9, 1868. 31 



papers which the antislavery cause called forth. The common schools 

 of Maine are more indebted to him than any other man for his agency 

 in favor of the "graded system." He was active, influential, self- 

 denying in behalf of the church and congregation with which he was 

 associated. His decided mechanical skill was freely bestowed in super- 

 intending the erection of the new church edifice near the College and 

 in the principal brick school-house of the village. His last work of 

 this sort was the preparation for the Memorial Hall to commemorate 

 distinguished alumni and friends of the College, especially those who 

 served with honor in the war of the Rebellion. All his energy and 

 skill he threw into this which he was wont to regard as his last work. 

 He was consulting with a contractor on the grounds, when he was 

 seized with the fatal symptoms which, after a little more than two 

 hours of suffering, terminated in death. 



Since our last annual meeting, Physical Science has lost, by death, 

 the distinguished services of three of its devotees, — Faraday, Brew- 

 sterj and Foucault. Of the last two, one was the veteran associate of 

 the French Academy of Sciences, the other the youngest member of 

 his section, already great, however, in achievement as well as in prom- 

 ise ; and both of them in the fulness of their strength and useful- 

 ness. 



Michael Faraday was born September 20, 1791 ; the son of 

 a blacksmith in Newington Butts, Surrey, England. He died in the 

 apartments in Hampton Court Palace, which the Queen had assigned 

 to him, on August 25, 18G7 : and with him went out the brightest light 

 which had radiated through the chemical and physical sciences for forty 

 years. 



In 1804, at the age of thirteen, and with a scanty education, Fara- 

 day was sent to a bookbinder, with whom he served an apprenticeship 

 of eight years. But he was not toiling these many years merely 

 upon the outside of books. He felt through his whole life his indebted- 

 ness to the works of Mrs. Marcet, and he says : " Whenever I pre- 

 sented her with a copy of my memoirs, I took care to add that I sent 

 them to her as a testimony of my gratitude to my first instructress." 

 A copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, ■ sent to be bound, riveted 

 Faraday's attention ; particularly the article on Electricity. Out of 

 an old bottle he constructed his first electrical machine, and out of a 

 medicine-phial a Leyden Jar, and, thus equipped, he began to experi- 

 ment. It is to be observed, however, that a great many other boys 



