MICHAEL FARADAY 261 



Faraday knew how to avoid the difficulties which he would 

 have met with, living as he did upon a high and lonely level 

 of thought and feeling, which he was unwilling to leave, 

 among the average of mankind; he avoided all his life activi- 

 ties and memberships to which he, as he was, would not have 

 been adapted. For this reason he believed himself obliged 

 to refuse, in the most definite manner possible, the presi- 

 dency of the Royal Society which was offered to him,i and 

 he likewise refused to accept a title. He wished to remain 

 simple Michael Faraday, but this did not prevent the 

 Court treating him with great honour. It is certainly no 

 good sign of the nature of the world, that Faraday had to 

 regard himself as unsuitable for such relationships. Newton, 

 who was not by any means more of a man of the world, or 

 more shallow a character, did not regard this as necessary 

 in his time, although he was not without his embarrass- 

 ments. However, Faraday's desire for the greatest possible 

 retirement agreed, as did also his rejection of profitable 

 activities, entirely with his intention of remaining completely 

 devoted to science. In this respect the laboratory of the 

 Royal Institution was ideally adapted for his work; his only 

 assistant there was an old soldier. 



Along with this, he gave, in the large lecture theatre of 

 that Institution, his experimental lectures for an audience 

 drawn from all circles - being in this respect also Davy's 

 great successor - and at Christmas he always added a few 

 special lectures for children. ^ Thus Faraday, in spite of 

 his retired mode of life, was a personality well known 

 and greatly honoured by all circles in London, and his 



^ This refusal had for Faraday in later years a curious consequence, 

 which would certainly not have occurred under his presidency; one of his 

 papers was refused by the Royal Society. It was then only published 

 together with his posthumous papers {Life and Letters, vol. 2, pages 

 41 1-418). 



2 Of these lectures, one in particular later appeared as an immortal 

 example: The Chemical History of a Candle; see the edition with preface by 

 J. Arthur Thompson, London and Toronto, 1920, 



