Faraday. 291 



a pride and pleasure beyond what I can express in having 

 such friends. Collingwood is a house by itself in the 

 world, there certainly is nothing like it for all that is 

 great and good. The charm of the conversation is only 

 equalled by its variety every subject Sir John touches 

 turns to doubly refined gold ; profound, brilliant, amiable, 

 and highly poetical, I could never end admiring and 

 praising him. Then the children are so nice and he so 

 kind and amusing to them, making them quite his friends 

 and companions. 



Yours, my dearest Woronzow, 



Most affectionately, 



M. SOMEBVILLE. 



. We had formed such a friendship with Mr. Fara- 

 day that while we lived abroad he sent me a copy 

 of everything he published, and on returning to 

 England we renewed our friendship with that illus- 

 trious philosopher, and attended his lectures at the 

 Royal Institution. He had already magnetized a 

 ray of polarised light, but was still lecturing on the 

 magnetic and diamagnetic properties of matter. At 

 the last lecture we attended he showed the diamag- 

 uetism of flame, which had been proved by a foreign 

 philosopher. Mr. Faraday never would accept of 

 any honour ; he lived in a circle of friends to whom 

 he was deeply attached. A touching and beautiful 

 memoir was published of him by his friend and 



il 



