LIFE AND LETTERS OF FARADAY. 315 



illustrative of the power of the inductive philosophy. The 

 brain may be filled with that philosophy; but without the 

 energy and insight which this man possessed, and which 

 with him were personal and distinctive, we should never 

 rise to the level of his achievements. His power is that of 

 individual genius, rather than of philosophical method; the 

 energy of a strong soul expressing itself after its own 

 fashion, and acknowledging no mediator between it and 

 Nature. 



The second volume of the " Life and Letters/' like the 

 first, is a historic treasury as regards Faraday's work and 

 character, and his scientific and social relations. It con- 

 tains letters from Hum bold t, Herschel, Hachette, De la 

 Rive, Dumas, Liebig, Melloni, Becquerel, Oersted, Pliicker, 

 Du Bois-Reymond, Lord Melbourne, Prince Louis Napo- 

 leon, and many other distinguished men. I notice with 

 particular pleasure a letter from Sir John Herschel, in 

 reply to a sealed packet addressed to him by Faraday, but 

 which he had permission to open if he pleased. The 

 packet referred to one of the many unfulfilled hopes which 

 spring up in the minds of fertile investigators: 



" Go on and prosper, ' from strength to strength,' like 

 a victor marching, with assured step to further conquests; 

 and be certain that no voice will join more heartily in the 

 peans that already begin to rise, and will speedily swell 

 into a shout of triumph, astounding even to yourself, than 

 that of J. F. W. Herschel." 



Faraday's behavior to Melloni in 1835 merits a word of 

 notice. The young man was a political exile in Paris. 

 He had newly fashioned and applied the thermo-electric 

 pile, and had obtained with it results of the greatest im- 

 portance. But they were not appreciated. With the 

 sickness of disappointed hope Melloni waited for the re- 

 port of the commissioners, appointed by the Academy of 

 Sciences to examine the prirnier. At length he published 

 his researches in the " Annales de Chimie."" They thus 

 fell into the hands of Faraday, who, discerning at once 

 their extraordinary merit, obtained for their author the 

 Rum ford Medal of the Royal Society. A sum of money 

 always accompanies this medal; and the pecuniary help 

 was, at this time, even more essential than the mark of 

 honor to the young refugee. Melloni's gratitude was 

 boundless: 



