vi WORK AT MANCHESTER 139 



place with you. I think so of those which I have and should 

 never allow a mistake to cause the displacement of the least 

 of them. I would send the portrait back at once, but fear to 

 annoy you in some way and so shall wait until I see you face 

 to face and then 



Ever Yours Truly, 



M. FARADAY. 

 H. E. Roscoe, Esq., 

 &c., &c. 



Everybody who has lectured frequently on the 

 Friday evenings at the Royal Institution knows that 

 the audience is a very peculiar one. It consists 

 of ladies and gentlemen who for the most part 

 have no knowledge whatever of the subject of 

 the discourse. The lecturer must not only make 

 his subject as plain as possible to the uninitiated, 

 but must be able to give a scientific presentation to his 

 colleagues and others of the " Fach " who honour him 

 by their presence. I remember on one occasion, when 

 I was explaining the origin and properties of some of 

 the remarkable colours extracted from coal products, 

 that a lady who had been an attentive listener came 

 up, as is their wont, at the conclusion of the lecture, 

 and said that she was particularly obliged to me for 

 the information I had given her, for it had explained 

 to her in a most satisfactory manner a question about 

 which she had long sought for a solution, and that was 

 concerning the colours of natural flowers. I replied 

 that I was much pleased, but that I did not quite 

 understand how my lecture had given her this in- 

 formation. "Why," she said, "it's quite clear: you 

 have explained how these beautiful artificial colours 

 are obtained from coal ; coal, as you tell us, is present 

 in the earth, and of course it is from the coal in the 

 earth that the flowers obtain their various tints." 



I once met at a ball a young lady friend who had 



