1870.] Notices of Scientific Works. 233 



gether with his foreign journal, occupy the main portion of the first 

 volume. Most heartily do we thank Mr. Abhott for having preserved 

 these letters. With all Faraday's disadvantages of education, his 

 letters, though often laboured, it is true, are written with an elegance 

 and thoughtfulness of which anyone might be proud. When twenty- 

 one years old, he wrote the following passage to Mr. Abbott, in which 

 at that age his discernment is well seen. How many would do well to 

 listen to these words : — " A lecturer falls deeply beneath the dignity of 

 his character when he descends so low as to angle for claps, and asks 

 for commendation. Yet have I seen a lecturer even at this point. I 

 have heard him causelessly condemn his own powers. I have heard 

 him dwell for a length of time on the extreme care and niceness that 

 the experiment he will make requires. I have heard him hope for 

 indulgence when no indulgence was wanted, and I have even heard 

 him declare that the experiment now made cannot fail from its beauty, 

 its correctness, and its application, to gain the approbation of all. Yet 

 surely such an error in the character of a lecturer cannot require 

 pointing out, even to those who resort to it ; its impropriety must be 

 evident, and I should, and perhaps have done well, to pass it." 



The first lectures that Faraday delivered were given at the City 

 Philosophical Society in 1816. These were prepared with all the 

 careful assiduity which marked his subsequent work. From the notes 

 of these lectures we glean what Faraday was at twenty-four. Here 

 are his thoughts at the close of one of these lectures : — " The philo- 

 sopher should be a man willing to listen to every suggestion, but 

 determined to judge for himself. He should not be biassed by ap- 

 pearances ; have no favourite hypothesis ; be of no school ; and in 

 doctrine have no master. He should not be a respecter of persons, 

 but of things. Truth should be his primary object. If to these 

 qualities be added industry, he may indeed hope to walk within the 

 veil of the temple of nature." More than fifty years have passed 

 since these words were spoken, and now we perceive how perfectly 

 Faraday himself realized this noble ideal. 



From the journal he kept when travelling with Davy, we learn 

 some interesting facts concerning the social as well as the scientific 

 state of Europe at that time. Here, too, are to be found traces of 

 his keen and accurate observation, of his humour, of his kindliness, 

 and of his constant affection for those at home. In this journal one 

 of the most valuable of his entries relates to the combustion of the 

 diamond, a feat, it will be remembered, that Davy first accomplished 

 at Florence by the aid of the fine lens belonging to the Grand 

 Duke of Tuscany. Our readers may be glad of the extract : — 



" To-day we made the grand experiment of burning the diamond, 

 and certainly the phenomena presented were extremely beautiful and 

 interesting. A glass globe, containing about 22 cubical inches, was 

 exhausted of air, and filled with very pure oxygen, procured from 



