350 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



he says, " all theological considerations are banished from 

 the society, and of course from my remarks ; and whatever 

 I may say has no reference to a future state, or to the means 

 which are to be adopted in this world in anticipation of it. 

 Next, I have no intention of substituting any thing for re- 

 ligion, but I wish to take that part of human nature which 

 is independent of it. Morality, philosophy, commerce, the 

 various institutions and habits of society, are independent 

 of religion, and may exist either with or without it. They 

 are always the same, and can dwell alike in the breasts of 

 those who from opinion are entirely opposed in the set of 

 principles they include in the term religion, or in those who 

 have none. 



" To discriminate more closely, if possible, I will ob- 

 serve that we have no right to judge religious opinions, but 

 the human nature of this evening is that part of man which 

 we have a right to judge ; and I think it will be found, on 

 examination, that this humanity — as it may perhaps be 

 called — will accord with what I have before described as 

 being in our own hands so improvable and perfectible." 



Among my old papers I find the following remarks on 

 one of my earliest dinners with Faraday : " At two o'clock 

 he came down for me. He, his niece, and myself, formed 

 the party. ' I never give dinners,' he said. ' I don't know 

 how to give dinners, and I never dine out. But I should 

 not like my friends to attribute this to a wrong cause. I 

 act thus for the sake of securing time for work, and not 

 through religious motives, as some imagine.' He said 

 grace. I am almost ashamed to call his prayer a ' saying ' 

 of grace. In the language of Scripture, it might be de- 

 scribed as the petition of a son, into whose heart God had 

 sent the Spirit of His Son, and who with absolute trust 

 asked a blessing from his father. We dined on roast beef, 

 Yorkshire pudding, and potatoes ; drank sherry, talked of 

 research and its requirements, and of his habit of keeping 



