PHYSICS OF NINETEENTH CENT. ELECTRICITY. 579 



being loved, of being admired, of being mourned. Fidelity to his 

 religious faith, the constant observance of the moral law, constitute 

 the ruling characteristics of his life. Doubtless his firm belief in that 

 justice on high which weighs all our merits, in that sovereign goodness 

 which weighs all our sufferings, did not inspire Faraday with his great 

 discoveries ; but it gave him the straight-forwardness, the self-respect, 

 the self-control, and the spirit of justice which enabled him to combat 

 evil fortune with boldness, and to accept prosperity without being 

 puffed up. There was nothing dramatic in the life of Faraday. It 

 should be presented under that simplicity of aspect which is the gran- 

 deur of it. There is, however, more than one useful lesson to be 

 learnt from the proper study of this illustrious man, whose youth en- 

 dured poverty with dignity, whose mature age bore honours with mode- 

 ration, and whose last years have just passed gently away, surrounded 

 by marks of respect and tender affection." 



That such a man as Faraday would receive innumerable scientific 

 honours in the shape of medals and fellowships and honorary member- 

 ships of learned societies will be understood as a matter of course. It 

 may, however, be stated that more than seventy scientific societies of 

 their own accord elected him into their bodies. The academical 

 degree of doctor was conferred upon him by several universities, and 

 he was decorated with several foreign distinctions. The number of 

 his various titles and tokens of honour was not far short of a hundred. 

 He was at one time offered the highest scientific distinction in England 

 the Presidentship of the Royal Society : he declined it, preferring, 

 as he said, "to remain plain Michael Faraday to the last." 



The first experiment in which Faraday succeeded in producing elec- 

 tricity from magnetism is described in his note-book : He had made 

 a ring of soft iron |- ths of an inch thick, and 6 inches in diameter. He 

 wound many coils of copper wire round the ring, the coils being sepa- 

 rated from each other by interposed twine and calico. There were two 

 separate lengths of wire, A and B, Fig. 291, each containing about 60 or 

 70 feet, and all the coils were wound in one direction. The extremities 



FIG. 291. FIG. 292. 



of the coil B were connected with a copper wire, which passed just over 

 a magnetic needle at some distance. When the ends of the coil A were 

 connected with a battery, p, an effect on the needle was perceptible : it 

 oscillated, but soon settled in its original position. On breaking the 



372 



