416 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



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, regard- 

 ing his pension, illustrate his uncompromising independ- 

 ence. The Prime Minister had offended him, but 

 assuredly the apology demanded and given was com- 

 plete. I think it certain that, notwithstanding 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 bit- 

 terly 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 Premier. 

 The Hon. Caroline Fox had proved herself Faraday's 

 ardent friend, and it was she who had healed the breach 

 between the philosopher and the minister. She mani 

 festly thought that Faraday ought to have come for- 

 ward in Lord Melbourne's defence, and there is a flavour 

 of resentment in one of her letters to him on the sub- 

 ject. 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 vigour 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 



