vi 



each in turn. On the intervening Wednesday evenings friends also of the 

 members were admitted, and a lecture was delivered, literary or philo- 

 sophical, each member taking the duty, if possible, in turn (or in default 

 paying a fine of half a guinea). This Society was very moderate in its pre- 

 tensions, and most valuable to the members in its results." [I remember, 

 too, says one of the members, we had a " class-book," in which, in rota- 

 tion, we wrote essays, and passed it to each other's houses.] 



Sir H. Davy, at his first interview, advised him to keep in business as a 

 bookbinder, and he promised to give him the work of the Institution, as 

 well as his own and that of as many of his friends as he could influence. 



One night, in Weymouth Street, he was startled by a loud knock at 

 the door, and on looking out he saw a carriage from which the footman 

 had alighted and left a note for him. This was a request from Sir H. that 

 he would call on him the next morning. Sir H. then referred to their 

 former interview, and inquired whether he was still in the same mind, 

 telling him that if so he would give him the place of assistant in the 

 laboratory of the Royal Institution, from which he had on the previous 

 day ejected its former occupant. The salary was to be 25s. a week, with 

 two rooms at the top of the house. 



In the minutes of the meeting of Managers on the 1st of March, 1813, is 

 this entry : — ee Sir Humphry Davy has the honour to inform the Managers 

 that he has found a person who is desirous to occupy the situation in the In- 

 stitution lately filled by William Payne. His name is Michael Faraday. He 

 is a youth of twenty-two years of age. As far as Sir H. Davy has been able 

 to observe or ascertain, he appears well fitted for the situation. His habits 

 seem good, his disposition active and cheerful, and his manner intelligent. 

 He is willing to engage himself on the same terms as given to Mr. Payne 

 at the time of quitting the Institution. 



"Resolved, — That Michael Faraday be engaged to fill the situation 

 lately occupied by Mr. Payne, on the same terms." 



As early as the 8th of March, Faraday dates his first letter from the 

 Royal Institution to his friend Abbott. 



u I have been employed," he says, " to-day. in part in extracting the 

 sugar from a portion of beetroot, and also in making a compound of sul- 

 phur and carbon — a combination which has lately occupied in a consider- 

 able degree the attention of chemists." 



A month later he says : — " When writing to you I seize that opportunity 

 of striving to describe a circumstance or an experiment clearly, so that you 

 will see I am urged on, by selfish motives partly, to our mutual correspon- 

 dence ; but though selfish yet not censurable. 



" Agreeable to what I have said above, I shall at this time proceed to 

 acquaint you with the results of some more experiments on the detonating 

 compound of chlorine and azote ; and I am happy to say I do it at my 

 ease, for I have escaped (not quite unhurt) from four different and strong 

 explosions of the substance. Of these the most terrible was when I was 



