MICHAEL FARADAY. 



TT is interesting to learn some of the incidents in 

 the life of Michael Faraday, the great chemist, 

 who died in London a few years since. His parent- 

 age, birth, and early life afford so much encourage- 

 ment to the indigent, obscure, but resolute, industri- 

 ous youth of our country, that these incidents should 

 be widely published. His origin is but a counter- 

 part of that of his distinguished friend and patron, 

 Sir Humphry Davy. In carefully studying the lives 

 "of all the great men through whose labors chemis- 

 try has been wrested from the hands of the super- 

 stitious, and empirical, we are surprised to find that 

 nearly all started in life without means, without 

 education, without friends. Poor, obscure boys 

 were they all, but possessed of a natural enthusiasm 

 and love for science, and also an indomitable cour- 

 age and perseverance. Who, that might have 

 chanced to see that ungainly boy, with strange 

 contortions of countenance, hanging on the door- 

 gate of Mr. Borlase's house in Cornwall, would 

 have^ ventured to predict the future eminence and 

 renown of the man? When Mr. Dayies Giddy 



