LIFE AND LETTERS OF FARADAY. 305 
offering him the post of assistant in the laboratory of the 
Royal Institution. He was engaged March 1, 1813, and 
on the 8th we find him extracting the sugar from beet- 
root. He joined the City Philosophical Society which 
had been founded by Mr. Tatum in 1808. " The disci- 
pline was very sturdy, the remarks very plain, and the 
results most valuable." Faraday derived great profit 
from this little association. In the laboratory he had a 
discipline sturdier still. Both Davy and himself were at 
this time frequently cut and bruised by explosions of 
chloride of nitrogen. One explosion was so rapid " as to 
blow my hand open, tear away a part of one nail, and make 
my fingers so sore that I cannot use them easily." In 
another experiment " the tube and receiver were blown to 
pieces, I got a cut on the head, and Sir Humphry a bruise 
on his hand." And again speaking of the same substance, 
he says, " when put in the pump and exhausted, it stood 
for a moment, and then exploded with a fearful noise. 
Both Sir H. and I had masks on, but I escaped this time 
the best. Sir H. had his face cut in two places about the 
chin, and a violent blow on the forehead struck through 
a considerable thickness of silk and leather." It was this 
same substance that blew out the eye of Dulong. 
Over and over again, even at this early date, we can dis- 
cern the quality which, compounded with his rare intel- 
lectual power, made Faraday a great experimental phi- 
losopher. This was his desire to see facts, and not to rest 
contented with the descriptions of them. He frequently 
pits the eye against the ear, and affirms the enormous 
superiority of the organ of vision. Late in life I have 
heard him say that he could never fully understand an ex- 
periment until he had seen it. But he did not confine 
himself to experiment. He aspired to be a teacher, and 
reflected and wrote upon the method of scientific exposi- 
tion. "A lecturer," he observes, " should appear easy and 
collected, undaunted and unconcerned:" still " his whole 
behavior should evince respect for his audience." These 
recommendations were afterward in great part embodied 
by himself. I doubt his " unconcern," but his fearless- 
ness was often manifested. It used to rise within him as 
a wave, which carried both him and his audience along 
with it. On rare occasions also, when he felt himself and 
his subject hopelessly unintelligible, he suddenly evoked a 
