382 Notices respecting Nexa Books. 



Dr. Paiis's second volume commences with a subject of peculiar 

 interest ; we allude to the introduction of Mr. Faraday to Sir H. 

 Davy. Dr. Paris observes that " it is said of Bergman, that he con- 

 sidered the greatest of his discoveries to have been the discovery 

 of Scheele. Amongst the numerous services conferred upon sci- 

 ence by Sir Humphry Davy, we must not pass unnoticed that kind 

 and generous patronage which first raised Mr. Faraday from ob- 

 scurity, and gave to the chemical world a philosopher capable of 

 pursuing that brilliant path of inquiry which the genius of his 

 master had so successfully explored." 



" The circumstances which first led Mr. Faraday to the study of 

 chemistry, and by which he became connected with the Royal 

 Institution, were communicated to me by himself in the following 

 letter." 



" To J. A. Paris, M.D. 



'« My dear Sir, Royal Institution, Dec. 33, 1839. 



" You asked me to give you an account of my first introduction 

 to Sir H. Davy, which I am very happy to do, as I think the cir- 

 cumstances will bear testimony to his goodness of heart. 



" When I was a bookseller's apprentice, I was very fond of ex- 

 periment, and very averse to trade. It happened that a gentleman, 

 a member of the Royal Institution, took me to hear some of Sir 

 H. Davy's last lectures in .'Vlbemarle-street. I took notes, and af- 

 terwards wrote them out more fairly in a quarto volume. 



" My desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and 

 selfish, and to enter into the service of science, which I imagined 

 made its pursuers amiable and liberal, induced me at last to take 

 the bold and simple step of writing to Sir H, Davy, expressing my 

 wishes, and a hope that, if an opportunity came in his way, he would 

 favour my views 5 at the same time I sent the notes I had taken at 

 his lectures. 



" The answer, which makes all the point of my communication, 

 I send you in the original, requesting you to take great care of 

 it, and to let me have it back ; for you may imagine how much I 

 value it. 



" You will observe that this took place at the end of the year 

 1812, and early in 1813 he requested to see me, and told me of the 

 situation of assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, then 

 just vacant. 



" At the same time that he thus gratified my desires as to scien- 

 tific employment, he still advised me not to give up the prospects 

 I had before me, telling me that science was a harsh mistress ; and, 

 in a pecuniary point of view, but poorly rewarding those who de- 

 voted themselves to her service. He smiled at my notion of the 

 superior moral feelings of philosophic men, and said he would leave 

 me to the experience of a few years to set me right on that matter. 



" Finally, through his good efforts I went to the Royal Institu- 

 tion early in March of 1813, as assistant in the laboratory ; and in 

 October of the same year, went with him abroad as his assistant in 

 experiments and in writing. I returned with him in April 1815, 



resumed 



