IVIichael Faraday, his Life and Works, 411 



having no interest but that of science, and no ambition but that 

 of advancing it, Faraday was of all savants the one most com- 

 pletely and exclusively devoted to the investigation of scientific 

 truth of which the present century offers us an example. 



One may easily understand what must be produced under such 

 circumstances by a life thus wholly consecrated to science, when 

 to a strong and rigorous intellect is joined a most brilliant ima- 

 gination. Every morning Faraday went into his laboratory as 

 the man of business goes to his office, and then tried by experi- 

 ment the truth of the ideas which he had conceived overnight, 

 as ready to give them up if experiment said no, as to follow out 

 the consequences with rigorous logic if experiment answered yes. 

 His everyday labour experienced no interruption, except the few 

 hours which he devoted from time to time to the exposition in the 

 theatre of the Royal Institution, before an audience equally nu- 

 merous and select, of certain parts of physics and chemistry. 

 Nothing can give a notion of the charm which he imparted to 

 these improvised lectures, in which he knew how to combine ani- 

 mated and often eloquent language with a judgment and art in 

 his experiments which added to the clearness and elegance of his 

 exposition. He exerted an actual fascination upon his auditors ; 

 and when, after having initiated them into the mysteries of 

 science, he terminated his lecture, as he was in the habit of doing, 

 by rising into regions far above matter, space, and time, the emo- 

 tion which he experienced did not fail to communicate itself to 

 those who listened to him, and their enthusiasm had no longer 

 any bounds. 



Faraday was, in fact, thoroughly religious, and it would be a 

 very imperfect sketch of his life which did not insist upon this 

 peculiar feature which characterized him. His christian convic- 

 tions occupied a great place in the whole of his being; and he 

 showed their power and sincerity by the conformity of his life 

 to his principles. It was not in arguments derived from 

 science that he sought the evidences of his faith; he found them 

 in the revealed truths at which he saw that the human mind could 

 not arrive by itself alone, even though they are in such great 

 harmony with that which is taught by the study of nature and 

 the marvels of creation. Faraday had long and justly perceived 

 that scientific data, so moveable and variable, cannot suffice to 

 give to man a solid and impregnable basis for his religious con- 

 victions ; but he at the same time showed by his example that 

 the best answ T er which the man of science can give to those who 

 assert that the progress of science is incompatible with these 

 convictions, is to say to them, And yet I am a Christian. 



The sincerity of his Christianity appeared in his actions as 

 much as in his words. The simplicity of his life, the rectitude 



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