LIFE AND LETTERS OF FA RAD A T. 309 



for himself the experiments which he described. It was 

 while thus instructing himself that he succeeded in caus- 

 ing a wire, carrying an electric current, to rotate round a 

 magnetic pole. This was not the result sought by Wollas- 

 ton, but it was closely related to that result. 



The strong tendency of Faraday's mind to look upon 

 the reciprocal actions of natural forces gave birth to his 

 greatest discoveries; and we, who know this, should be 

 justified in concluding that, even had Wollaston not pre- 

 ceded him, the result would have been the same. But in 

 judging Davy we ought to transport ourselves to his time, 

 and carefully exclude from our thoughts and feelings that 

 noble subsequent life, which would render simply impos- 

 sible the ascription to Faraday of anything unfair. It 

 would be unjust to Davy to put our knowledge in the 

 place of his, or to credit him with data which he could 

 not have possessed. Rumor and fact had connected the 

 name of Wollaston with these supposed interactions between 

 magnets and currents. When, therefore, Faraday in 

 October published his successful experiment, without any 

 allusion to Wollaston, general, though really ungrounded, 

 criticism followed. I say ungrounded because, firstly, 

 Faraday's experiment was not that of Wollaston, and sec- 

 ondly, Faraday, before he published it, had actually called 

 upon Wollaston, and not finding him at home, did not 

 feel himself authorized to mention his name. 



In December, Faraday published a second paper on the 

 same subject, from which, through a misapprehension, 

 the name of Wollaston was also omitted. Warburtou and 

 others thereupon affirmed that Wollaston's ideas had been 

 appropriated without acknowledgment, and it is plain 

 that Wollaston himself, though cautious in his utterance, 

 was also hurt. Censure grew till it became intolerable. 

 "I hear," writes Faraday to his friend Stodart, "every 

 day more and more of these sounds, which, though only 

 whispers to me, are, I suspect, spoken aloud among scien- 

 tific men." He might have written explanations and de- 

 fenses, but he went straighter to the point. He wished to 

 see the principals face to face to plead his cause before 

 them personally. There was a certain vehemence in his 

 desire to do this. He saw Wollaston, he saw Davy, he saw 

 War bur ton; and I am inclined to think that it was the 

 irresistible candor and truth of character which these 



