86 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



event in his career, and from it must be dated all 

 his subsequent advancement and prosperity. In 

 1829, Dr. Paris wrote a note to Faraday, asking 

 him for a statement of the circumstances by which 

 he became connected with the Royal Institution. 

 He returned the following charming autobiograph- 

 ical letter : 



To J. A. PARIS, M. D. 



ROYAL INSTITUTION, Dec. 23, 1829. 



MY DEAR SIR, You asked me to give you an account of my 

 first introduction to Sir Humphry Davy, which I am very happy 

 to do, as I think the circumstances will bear testimony to his good- 

 ness of heart. 



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

 iments, 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 Albermarle Street. I took notes, and 

 afterwards 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 for- 

 ward my views. 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 Institu- 

 tion, then just vacant. 



