LIFE AND LETTERS OF FARADAY 421 



and memoranda. He made his notes in the laboratory, in 

 the theatre, and in the streets. This distrust of his mem- 

 ory reveals itself in his first letter to Abbott. To a propo- 

 sition that no new inquiry should be started between them 

 before the old one had been exhaustively discussed, Fara- 

 day objects.. "Your notion," he says, "I can hardly al- 

 low, for the following reason: ideas and thoughts spring 

 up in my mind which are irrevocably lost for want of 

 noting at the time." Gentle as he seemed, he wished 

 to have his own way, and he had it throughout his life. 

 Differences of opinion sometimes arose between the two 

 friends, and then they resolutely faced each other. "I 

 accept your offer to fight it out with joy, and shall in the 

 battle of experience cause not pain, but, I hope, pleas- 

 ure." Faraday notes his own impetuosity, and inces- 

 santly checks it. There is at times something almost 

 mechanical in his self-restraint. In another nature it 

 would have hardened into mere *' correctness" of conduct; 

 but his overflowing affections prevented this in his case. 

 The habit of self-control became a second nature to him 

 at last, and lent serenity to his later years. 



In October, 1812, he was engaged by a Mr. Be la Roche 

 as a journeyman bookbinder; but the situation did not 

 suit him. His master appears to have been an austere 

 and passionate man, and Faraday was to the last degree 

 sensitive. All his life he continued so. He suffered at 

 times from dejection; and a certain grimness, too, per- 

 vaded his moods. "At present," he writes to Abbott, "I 

 am as serious as you can be, and would not scruple to 

 speak a truth to any human being, whatever repugnance 

 it might give rise to. Being in this state of mind, I 

 should have refrained from writing to you, did I not 



