FARADAY. 349 



Take this, moreover, as indicative of his love for Na- 

 ture : 



" After writing, I walk out in the evening hand-in-hand 

 with my dear wife to enjoy the sunset ; for to me who love 

 scenery, of all that I have seen or can see there is none 

 surpasses that of heaven. A glorious sunset brings with it 

 a thousand thoughts that delight me." 



Of the numberless lights thrown upon him by the " Life 

 and Letters," some fall upon his religion. In a letter to a 

 lady he describes himself as belonging a " a very small and 

 despised sect of Christians, known, if known at all, as San- 

 demanians, and our hope is founded on the faith that is in 

 Christ." He adds : " I do not think it at all necessary to 

 tie the study of the natural sciences and religion together, 

 and in my intercourse with my fellow-creatures, that which 

 is religious, and that which is philosophical, have ever been 

 two distinct things." He saw clearly the danger of quit- 

 ting his moorings, and his science became the safeguard 

 of his particular faith. For his investigations so filled his 

 mind as to leave no room for skeptical questionings, thus 

 shielding from the assaults of philosophy the creed of his 

 youth. His religion was constitutional and hereditary. It 

 was implied in the eddies of his blood and in the tremors 

 of his brain ; and however its outward and visible form 

 might have changed, Faraday would still have possessed 

 its elemental constituents — awe, reverence, truth, and love. 



It is worth inquiring how so profoundly religious a mind, 

 and so great a teacher, would be likely to regard our pres- 

 ent discussions on the subject of education. Faraday 

 would be a " secularist " were he now alive. He had no 

 sympathy with those who contemn knowledge unless it be 

 accompanied by dogma. A lecture delivered before the 

 City Philosophical Society in 1818, when he was twenty- 

 six years of age, expresses the views regarding education 

 which he entertained -to the end of his life. " First, then," 



