VI 11 



at the Royal Institution, in the furthest and uppermost room in the house, 

 then Faraday's place of residence. 



He says : — " In the autumn Sir H. Davy proposed going abroad, and 

 offered me the opportunity of going with him as his amanuensis, and the 

 promise of resuming my situation in the Institution upon my return to 

 England. Whereupon I accepted the offer, left the Institution on the 

 13th of October, and, after being with Sir H. Davy in France, Italy, Swit- 

 zerland, the Tyrol, Geneva, &c. in that and the following year, returned to 

 England and London the 23rd April 1815." 



Whilst abroad he kept a daily journal, " not," he said, " to instruct or 

 to inform, or to convey even an imperfect idea of what it speaks ; its sole use 

 is to recall to my mind at some future time the things I see now, and 

 the most effectual way to do that will be, I conceive, to write down, be 

 they good or bad, my present impressions." From this journal, and from 

 his letters to his mother and his friend Benjamin Abbott, only a few cha- 

 racteristic passages can be given here. 



In his journal he wrote, Wednesday, 13th October: — "This morning 

 formed a new epoch in my life. I have never before, within my recollec- 

 tion, left London [he had as an infant gone to Newcastle and Whitehaven, 

 by sea chiefly] at a greater distance than twelve miles, and now I leave it 

 perhaps for many years, to visit spots between which and home whole 

 realms will intervene. 'T is indeed a strange venture at this time to trust 

 ourselves in a foreign and hostile country, where also so little regard is had 

 to protestations and honour, that the slightest suspicion would be sufficient 

 to separate us for ever from England, and perhaps from life. But curiosity 

 has frequently incurred dangers as great as these, and therefore why 

 should I wonder at it in the present instance. If we return safe, the plea- 

 sures of recollection will be highly enhanced by the dangers encountered ; 

 and a never-failing consolation is that, whatever be the fate of our party, 

 variety, a great source of amusement, and pleasure must occur." 



Some idea of the variety of his observat'ons may be got from this note, 

 28th October, Dreux : — "I cannot help dashing a note of admiration to 

 one thing found in this part of the country — the pigs ! At first I was po- 

 sitively doubtful of their nature ; for though they have pointed noses, long 

 ears, rope-like tails, and cloven feet, yet who would have imagined that an 

 animal with a long thin body, back and belly arched upwards, lank sides, 

 long slender feet, and capable of outrunning our horses for a mile or two 

 together, could be at all allied to the fat sow of England ! When I first 

 saw one, which was at Morlaix, it started so suddenly, and became so ac- 

 tive in its motions on being disturbed, and so dissimilar in its actions to 

 our swine, that I looked out for a second creature of the same kind before 

 I ventured to decide on its being a regular or an extraordinary production 

 of nature ; but I find they are all alike, and that what at a distance I 

 should judge to be a greyhound, I am obliged, on a near approach, to ac- 

 knowledge a pig." 



