Ixvi 



be done without my retiring altogether, and can you help me in this 

 matter? " 



In looking back to his work for the Trinity House, going down to ana- 

 lyses of cottons, oils, paints, and waters, and recalling his words "that 

 £200 a year is quite enough in itself, but not if it is to be the indicator of 

 the character of the appointment/' one is rejoiced to find that he received 

 the highest reward which the scientific man can obtain. After himself test- 

 ing the results by the most complete and searching trials, he was able to 

 recommend that his own grandest discovery should be applied to " the 

 great object of guiding the mariner across the dark and dreary waste of 

 waters." 



To the Managers of the Royal Institution he wrote, March 1 : — 



" Unless it be that as I get older I become more infirm in mind, and 

 consequently more timid and unsteady, and so less confident in your warm 

 expressions, I might, I think, trust more surely in your resolution of the 

 2nd of December, 1861, and in the reiterated verbal assurances of your 

 kind Secretary than I do ; but I become from year to year more shaken 

 in mind, and feel less able to take any responsibility on me. I wish, there- 

 fore, to retire from the position of Superintendent of the house and labo- 

 ratories. That which has in times past been my chiefest pleasure has now 

 become a very great anxiety ; and I feel a growing inability to advise on 

 the policy of the Institution, or to be the one referred to on questions both 

 great and small as to the management of the house. 



" In a former letter, when laying down the juvenile lectures, I mentioned 

 s that other duties, such as research, superintendence of the house, and 

 other services still remain ;' but I then feared that I might be found unfit 

 for them ; I am now persuaded that this is the case. If under these cir- 

 cumstances you may think that with the resignation of the positions I have 

 thus far filled the rooms I occupy should be at liberty, I trust that you 

 will feel no difficulty in letting me leave them ; for the good of the Institution 

 is my chief desire in the whole of this action. Permit me to sign myself 

 personally, your dear, indebted, and grateful friend. " 



" Resolved unanimously — 



" That the Managers thank Professor Faraday for the scrupulous 

 anxiety which he has now and ever shown to act in every respect for the 

 good of the Royal Institution. They are most unwilling that he should 

 feel that the cares of the laboratories and the house weigh upon him. 

 They beg that he will undertake only so much of the care of the house as 

 may be agreeable to himself, and that whilst relinquishing the duties of 

 ' Director of the laboratory,' he will retain his home at the Royal In- 

 stitution." 



Sir David Brewster sent him a pamphlet on the Invention and Intro- 

 duction of the Dioptric Lights, and asked him to give his opinion on the 

 value and importance of these lights. He replied : — " .... I would rather 

 not enter as an arbitrator or judge into the matter, for I have of late been 



