Faraday as a Discoverer. 37 
and binder, but am now turned philosopher,* which happened 
thus:—Whilst an apprentice, I, for amusement, learnt a little 
chemistry and other parts of philosophy, and felt an eager desire 
to proceed in that way further. After being a journeyman for six 
months under a disagreeable master, I gave up my buisness, and 
through the interest of a Sir H. Davy, filled the situation of chem- 
ical assistant to the Royal Institution of Great Britain, in which 
office I now remain; and where I am constantly employed in ob- 
serving the works of nature, and tracing the manner in which she 
directs the order and arrangement of the world. Ihave lately had 
proposals made to me by Sir Humphry Davy, to accom i 
in his travels through Europe and Asia as philosophical assistant. 
If I go at all I expect it will be in October next—about the end, 
and my absence from home will perhaps be as long as three years. 
But as yet all is uncertain.” 
This account is supplemented by the following letter, writ- 
ten by Faraday to his friend De la Rive,t on the occasion of 
the death of Mrs. Marcet. The letter is dated 2d Sept., 1858: 
“ My dear Friend,—Your subject interested me deeply every 
way; for Mrs. Marcet was a good fri 
oks. Now it was in those books, in the hours after work, that 
d the beginning of my philosophy. There were two that 
especially helped me, the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica,’ from which 
ine first notions of electricity, and Mrs. Marcet’s ‘Con- 
versations on Chemistry, which gave me my foundation in that 
science, ‘ pie ‘ . . 
“Do not suppose that I was a very deep thinker, or was marked 
as a precocious person. I was a very lively, imaginative person, 
e‘ Ency- 
clopedia.’ But facts were important to me, and saved me. 
‘You may imagine my delight when I came to know Mrs. Ma- 
cet personally; how often I cast my thoughts backward, delight- 
ing to connect the past and the present; how often, when sending 
_ * Faraday loved this word and employed it to the last; he had an intense dis- 
like to the modern term physicist. 
+ To whom I am indebted for a copy of the original letter. 
