422 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



conceive from the general tenor of your letters that your 

 mind is, at proper times, occupied upon serious subjects 

 to the exclusion of those that are frivolous." Plainly 

 he had fallen into that - stern Puritan mood, which not 

 only crucifies the affections and lusts of him who har- 

 bors it, but is often a cause of disturbed digestion to 

 his friends. 



About three months after his engagement with De la 

 Roche, Faraday quitted him and bookbinding together. 

 He had heard Davy, copied his lectures, and written to 

 him, entreating to be released from Trade, which he 

 hated, and enabled to pursue Science. Davy recognized 

 the merit of his correspondent, kept his eye upon him, 

 and, when occasion offered, drove to his door and sent in 

 a letter, 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 discipline 

 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 an- 

 other 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 ex- 

 hausted, it stood for a moment, and then exploded with 



