834 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



organ of vision. Late in life I have heard him say that he 

 could never have fully understand an experiment until he 

 had seen it. But he did not confine himself to experiment. 

 He aspired to be a teacher, and reflected and wrote upon 

 the method of scientific exposition. " A lecturer," he ob- 

 serves, " should appear easy and collected, undaunted and 

 unconcerned : " still " his whole behavior should evince 

 respect for his audience." These recommendations were 

 afterward in great part embodied by himself. I doubt 

 his unconcern, but his fearlessness was often manifested. 

 It used to rise within him as a wave, which carried both 

 him and his audience along with it. On rare occasions 

 also, when he felt himself and his subject hopelessly unin- 

 telligible, he suddenly evoked a certain recklessness of 

 thought, and without halting to extricate his bewildered 

 followers, he would dash alone through the jungle into 

 which he had unwittingly led them ; thus saving them from 

 ennui by the exhibition of a vigor which, for the time being, 

 they could neither share nor comprehend. 



In October, 1813, he quitted England with Sir Hum- 

 phry and Lady Davy. During his absence he kept a 

 journal, from which copious and interesting extracts have 

 been made by Dr. Bence Jones. Davy was considerate, 

 preferring at times to be his own servant rather than 

 impose on Faraday duties which he disliked. But Lady 

 Davy was the reverse. She treated him as an underling ; 

 he chafed under the treatment, and was often on the point 

 of returning home. They halted at Geneva. De la Rive 

 the elder had known Davy in 1799, and by his writings in 

 the " Bibliotheque Britannique," had been the first to make 

 the English chemist's labors known abroad. He welcomed 

 Davy to his country residence in 1814. Both were sports- 

 men, and they often went out shooting together. On these 

 occasions Faraday charged Davy's gun, while De la Rive 

 charged his own. Once the Gencvese philosopher found 



