FAKADAY. 415 



to one of the many unfulfilled hopes which spring up 

 in the minds of fertile investigators : 



* Gro on and prosper, " from strength to strength," 

 like a victor marching with assured step to furthei 

 conquests ; and he certain that no voice will join more 

 heartily in the peans that already begin to rise, and 

 will speedily swell into a shout of triumph, astounding 

 even to yourself, than that of J. F. W. Herschel.' 



Faraday's behaviour to Melloni in 1835 merits a 

 word of notice. The young man was a political exile 

 in Paris. He had newly fashioned and applied the 

 thermo-electric pile, and had obtained with it results 

 of the greatest importance. But they were not appre- 

 ciated. With the sickness of disappointed hope Melloni 

 waited for the report of the Commissioners, appointed 

 by the Academy of Sciences to examine the Primier. 

 At length he published his researches in the ' Aimales 

 de Chimie.' They thus fell into the hands of Faraday, 

 who, discerning at once their extraordinary merit, 

 obtained for their author the Rumford Medal of the 

 Royal Society. A sum of money always accompanies 

 this medal ; and the pecuniary help was, at this time, 

 even more essential than the mark of honour to the 

 young refugee. Melloni's gratitude was boundless : 



<Et vous, monsieur,' he writes to Faraday, 4 qui 

 appartenez a une pociete a laquelle je n'avais rien offert, 

 vous qui me connaissiez a peine de nom ; vous n'avez 

 pas demande si j'avaisdes ennemis faibles ou puissants, 

 ni calcule quel en etait le nombre ; mais vous avez 

 parle pour 1'opprime etranger, pour celui qui n'avait 

 pas le moindre droit a tant de bienveillance, et vos 

 paroles ont ete accueillies favorablement par des col- 

 legues consciencieux ! Je reconnais bien la des hoinmes 

 dignes de leur noble mission, les veritable represeu- 

 tants de la science d'un pays Hbre et genereux.' 



