MICHAEL FARADAY. 89 



poverty and obscurity, without the education which 

 the schools confer, he was, during the period of a 

 full half-century, the companion of the learned and 

 the great, who sought his acquaintance from all 

 parts of the civilized world. The late Prince Al- 

 bert loved to steal away from the vexations and 

 cares of state, and hold, in Faraday's study, famil- 

 iar conversations upon matters of science with this 

 venerable man. He was always simple, sincere, 

 unostentatious. He had no hankerings for places 

 and honors. Such, in brief, was the career of Far- 

 aday, the blacksmith's son ; and such may be the 

 history of many of the youth who may read these 

 pages. Chemistry in our country, in its industrial 

 applications, opens a wide field for intelligent re- 

 search ; and the honors to be won are as accessible 

 and numerous almost as they were fifty years ago, 

 when Faraday left the shop of the bookbinder to 

 experiment at the Royal Institution. 



