LIFE AND LETTERS OF FARADAY. 305 



offering him the post of assistant in the laboratory of the 

 Royal Institution. He was engaged March 1, 1813, and 

 on the 8th we find him extracting the sugar from beet- 

 root. He joined the City Philosophical Society which 

 had been founded by Mr. Tatum in 1808. " The disci- 

 pline was very sturdy, the remarks very plain, and the 

 results most valuable." Faraday derived great profit 

 from this little association. In the laboratory lie had a 

 discipline sturdier still. Both Davy and himself were at 

 this time frequently cut and bruised by explosions of 

 chloride of nitrogen. One explosion was so rapid " as to 

 blow my hand open, tear away a part of one nail, and make 

 my fingers so sore that I cannot use them easily." In 

 another experiment " the tube and receiver were blown to 

 pieces, I got a cut on the head, and Sir Humphry a bruise 

 on his hand." And again speaking of the same substance, 

 he says, " when put in the pump and exhausted, it stood 

 for a moment, and then exploded with a fearful noise. 

 Both Sir H. and I had masks on, but I escaped this time 

 the best. Sir H. had his face cut in two places about the 

 chin, and a violent blow on the forehead struck through 

 a considerable thickness of silk and leather." It was this 

 same substance that blew out the eye of Dulong. 



Over and over again, even at this early date, we can dis- 

 cern the quality which, compounded with his rare intel- 

 lectual power, made Faraday a great experimental phi- 

 losopher. This was his desire to see facts, and not to rest 

 contented with the descriptions of them. He frequently 

 pits the eye against the ear, and affirms the enormous 

 superiority of the organ of vision. Late in life I have 

 heard him say that he could never fully understand an ex- 

 periment 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 exposi- 

 tion. "A lecturer," he observes, " should appear easy and 

 collected, undaunted and unconcerned:" still " his whole 

 behavior should evince respect for his audience." These 

 recommendations wore afterward in great part embodied 

 by himself. I doubt his " unconcern," but his fearless- 

 ness was often manifested. It used to rise within him ?is 

 a wave, which carried both him and his audience along 

 with it. On rare occasions also, when he felt himself and 

 his subject hopelessly unintelligible, he suddenly evoked a 



