XVIII 



LIFE AND LETTERS OF FARADAY 

 1870 



UNDERTAKEN" and executed in a reverent and lov- 

 ing spirit, tlie work of Dr. Bence Jones makes 

 Faraday the virtual writer of his own life. Every- 

 body now knows the story of the philosopher's birth; 

 that his father was a smith; that he was bom at New- 

 ington Butts in 1791 ; that he ran along the London pave- 

 ments, a bright-eyed errand boy, with a load of brown 

 curls upon his head and a packet of newspapers under 

 his arm; that the lad's master was a bookseller and book- 

 binder — a kindly man, who became attached to the little 

 fellow, and in due time made him his apprentice without 

 fee; that during his apprenticeship he found his appetite 

 for knowledge provoked and strengthened by the books 

 he stitched and covered. Thus he grew in wisdom and 

 stature to his year of legal manhood, when he appears in 

 the volumes before us as a writer of letters, which reveal 

 his occupation, acquirements, and tone of mind. His 

 correspondent was Mr. Abbott, a member of the Society 

 of Friends, who, with a forecast of his correspondent's 

 greatness, preserved his letters and produced them at the 

 proper time. 



In later years Faraday always carried in his pocket a 

 blank card, on which he jotted down in pencil his thoughts 

 (420) 



