FARADAY. 351 



himself free from the distractions of society. He was bright 

 and joyful boylike, in fact, though he is now sixty-two. 

 His work excites admiration, but contact with him warms 

 and elevates the heart. Here, surely, is a strong man. I 

 love strength, but let me not forget the example of its 

 union with modesty, tenderness, and sweetness, in the char- 

 acter of Faraday." 



Faraday's progress in discovery, and the salient points 

 of his character, are well brought out by the wise choice of 

 letters and extracts published in these volumes. I will not 

 call the labors of the biographer final. So great a char- 

 acter will challenge reconstruction. In the coming time 

 some sympathetic spirit, with the requisite strength, knowl- 

 edge, and solvent power, will, I doubt not, render these 

 materials plastic, give them more perfect organic form, and 

 send through them, with less of interruption, the currents 

 of Faraday's life. " He was too good a man," writes his 

 present biographer, " for me to estimate rightly, and too 

 great a philosopher for me to understand thoroughly." 

 That may be, but the reverent affection to which we owe 

 the discovery, selection, and arrangement of the materials 

 here placed before us, is probably a surer guide than mere 

 literary skill. The task of the artist who may wish in 

 future times to reproduce the real though unobtrusive 

 grandeur, the purity, beauty, and childlike simplicity of 

 him whom we have lost, will find his chief treasury already 

 provided for him by Dr. Bence Jones's labor of love. 



Library 



