316 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
" Et vous, monsieur/' he writes to Faraday, " qui ap- 
parteuez a une societe a laquelle je n'avaisrien offert, vous 
qui me conuaissiez a peine de nom; vous u'avez pas <3e- 
mandesi j'avaisdesennemis faibles ou puissants, ni calcule 
quel en etait le notnbre; mais vousavez parle pour 1'opprime 
Stranger, pour celui qui n'avait pas le moindre droit a taut 
de bienveillance, et vos paroles out ete accueillies favorable- 
ment par des collegues conscieucieux! Je reconnais bien 
la des hommes dignes de leur noble mission, les veritable 
representants de la science d'un pays libre et genereux." 
Within the prescribed limits of this article it would be 
impossible to give even the slenderest summary of Faraday's 
correspondence, or to carve from it more than the merest 
fragments of his character. His letters, written to Lord 
Melbourne and others in 1836, regarding his pension, illus- 
trate his uncompromising independence. The prime min- 
ister had offended him, but assuredly the apology demanded 
and given was complete. I think it certain that, notwith- 
standing the very full account of this transaction given by 
Dr. Bence Jones, motives and influences were at work 
which even now are not entirely revealed. The minister was 
bitterly attacked, but he bore the censure of the press with 
great dignity. Faraday, while he disavowed having either 
directly or indirectly furnished the matter of those attacks, 
did not publicly exonerate the primier. The Hon. Caro- 
line Fox had proved herself Faraday's ardent friend, and 
it was she who had healed the breach between the phi- 
losopher and the minister. She manifestly thought that 
Faraday ought to have come forward in Lord Melbourne's 
defense, and there is a flavor of resentment in one of her 
letters to him on the subject. No doubt Faraday had good 
grounds for his reticence, but they are to me unknown. 
In 1841 his health broke down utterly, and he went to 
Switzerland with his wife and brother-in-law. His bodily 
vigor soon revived, and he accomplished feats of walking 
respectable even for a trained mountaineer. The published 
extracts from his Swiss journal contain many beautiful 
and touching allusions. Amid references to the tints of 
the Jungfrau, the blue rifts of the glaciers, and the noble 
Niesen towering over the lake of Thun, we come upon 
the charming little scrap which I have elsewhere quoted: 
" Clout-nail making goes on here rather considerably, and 
is a very neat and pretty operation to observe. I love a, 
