418 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



One turns with renewed pleasure to Faraday's letters 

 to his wife, published in the second volume. Here 

 surely the loving essence of the man appears more dis- 

 tinctly than anywhere else. From the house of Dr. 

 Percy, in Birmingham, he writes thus : 



* Here even here the moment I leave the table, 

 I wish I were with you IN QUIET. Oh, what happiness 

 is ours ! My runs into the world in this way only serve 

 to make me esteem that happiness the more.' 

 And again: 



'We have been to a grand conversazione in the 

 town-hall, and I have now returned to my room to 

 talk with you, as the pleasantest and happiest thing 

 that I can do. Nothing rests me so much as com- 

 munion with you. I feel it even now as I write, and 

 catch myself saying the words aloud as I write them.' 

 Take this, moreover, as indicative of his love for 

 Nature : 



' After writing, I walk out in the evening hand in 

 hand with my dear wife to enjoy the sunset ; for to 

 me who love scenery, of all that I have seen or can see, 

 there is none surpasses that of heaven. A glorious sun- 

 set brings with it a thousand thoughts that delight me.' 



Of the numberless lights thrown upon him by the 

 ' Life and Letters,' some fall upon his religion. In a 

 letter to Lady Lovelace, he describes himself as belong- 

 ing to 'a very small and despised sect of Christians, 

 known, if known at all, as Sandemanians, and our 

 hope is founded on the faith that is in Christ.' He 

 adds : ' I do not think it at all necessary to tie the study 

 of the natural sciences and religion together, and in 

 my intercourse with my fellow-creatures, that which 

 is religious, and that which is philosophical, have ever 

 been two distinct things.' He saw clearly the danger of 

 quitting his moorings, and his science acted indirectly 



