LIFE AND LETTERS OF FARADA T. 309 
for himself the experiments which he described. It was 
while thus instructing himself that he succeeded in caus- 
ing a wire, carrying an electric current, to rotate round a 
magnetic pole. This was not the result sought by Wollas- 
ton, but it was closely related to that result. 
The strong tendency of Faraday's mind to look upon 
the reciprocal actions of natural forces gave birth to his 
greatest discoveries; and we, who know this, should be 
justified in concluding that, even had Wollaston not pre- 
ceded him, the result would have been the same. But in 
judging Davy we ought to transport ourselves to his time, 
and carefully exclude from our thoughts and feelings that 
noble subsequent life, which would render simply impos- 
sible the ascription to Faraday of anything unfair. It 
would be unjust to Davy to put our knowledge in the 
place of his, or to credit him with data which he could 
not have possessed. Rumor and fact had connected the 
name of Wollaston with these supposed interactions between 
magnets and currents. When, therefore, Faraday in 
October published his successful experiment, without any 
allusion to Wollaston, general, though really ungrounded, 
criticism followed. I say ungrounded because, firstly, 
Faraday's experiment was not that of Wollaston, and sec- 
ondly, Faraday, before he published it, had actually called 
upon Wollaston, and not finding him at home, did not 
feel himself authorized to mention his name. 
In December, Faraday published a second paper on the 
same subject, from which, through a misapprehension, 
the name of Wollaston was also omitted. Warburtou and. 
others thereupon affirmed that Wollaston's ideas had been 
appropriated without acknowledgment, and it is plain 
that Wollaston himself, though cautious in his utterance, 
was also hurt. Censure grew till it became intolerable. 
''I hear," writes Faraday to his friend Stodart, "every 
day more and more of these sounds, which, though only 
whispers to me, are, I suspect, spoken aloud among scien- 
tific men." He might have written explanations and de- 
fenses, but he went straighter to the point. He wished to 
see the principals face to face to plead his cause before 
them personally. There was a certain vehemence in hia 
desire to do this. He saw Wollaston, he saw Davy, he saw 
Warburtou; and I am inclined to think that it was the 
irresistible candor and, truth of character which tkeso 
