XVIII. 



LIFE AND LETTERS OF FARADAY. 

 1870. 



YTNDERTAKEN and executed in a reverent and 

 U loving spirit, the work of Dr. Bence Jones 

 makes Faraday the virtual writer of his own life. 

 Everybody now knows the story of the philosopher's 

 birth; that his father was a smith; that he was born 

 at Newington Butts in 1791; that he ran along the 

 London pavements, a bright-eyed errand boy, with a 

 load of brown curls upon his head and a packet of 

 newspapers under his arm; that the lad's master was a 

 bookseller and bookbinder a kindly man, who became 

 attached to the little fellow, and in due time made him 

 his apprentice without fee; that during his apprentice- 

 ship he found his appetite for knowledge provoked and 

 strengthened by the books he stitched and covered. 

 Thus he grew in wisdom and stature to his year of legal 

 manhood, when he appears in the volumes before us 

 as a writer of letters, which reveal his occupation, ac- 

 quirements, and tone of mind. His correspondent was 

 Mr. Abbott, a member of the Society of Friends, who, 

 with a forecast of his correspondent's greatness, pre- 

 served his letters and produced them at the proper time. 

 In later years Faraday always carried in his pocket 

 a blank card, on which he jotted down in pencil his 

 thoughts and memoranda. He made his notes in the 

 laboratory, in the theatre, and in the streets. This 



