MICHAEL FARADAY. 
203 
“ But hark! a voice arises near the chair, 
Its liquid sounds glide smoothly through the air; 
The listening Muse with rapture bends to view 
The place of speaking and the speaker too ; 
Neat was the youth in dress, in person plain, 
His eye read thus— Philosopher in grain : 
Of understanding clear, repletion deep, 
Expert to apprehend, and strong to keep ; 
His watchful mind no subject can elude, 
Nor specious arts of sophists e’er delude ; 
His powers unshackled, range from pole to pole, 
His mind from error free, from guilt his soul; 
Warmth in his heart, good humour in his face, 
A friend to decent mirth, but foe to vile grimace; 
A temper candid, manner unassuming, 
Always correct, yet always unpresuming. 
Such was the youth, the chief of all the band, 
His name well known, Sir Humphry’s right-hand ; 
With manly ease towards the chair he bends, 
With Watts’s logic at his fingers’ ends.” 
In 1821 Mr. Faraday was married to Miss Barnard, the daughter of a 
silversmith in Paternoster Bow, and a member of* the religious sect to which 
he belonged. 
In 1823, he was elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences 
of Paris, and about the same time he received a similar mark of distinction 
at home, being admitted a Fellow of the Eoyal Society. 
In 1824, the Athenaeum Club was formed for the association of scientific 
and literary men, and noblemen and gentlemen who were patrons of science 
and literature ; and of this club, when first started, Faraday was the honorary 
secretary, while he still retained his position at the Eoyal Institution, where 
he resided. 
He had now become a contributor to the Transactions of the Eoyal Society, 
and henceforth he engaged in more important and elaborate investigations. 
The first paper he communicated to the Eoyal Society was read on the 21st 
of December, 1820, “On Two new Compounds of Chlorine and Carbon,” and 
“ On a new Compound of Iodine, Carbon, and Hydrogen.” The subject of 
this paper was one of the most important of his chemical investigations. He 
communicated a paper in 1822, “ On the Alloys of Steel;” and in 1823, “ On 
Fluid Chlorine,” and “ On the Condensation of several Gases.” In 1825 and 
1826, he read papers “ On new Compounds of Carbon and Hydrogen, and on 
certain other Products obtained during the Decomposition of Oil by Heat;” 
“ On the Mutual Action of Sulphuric Acid and Naphthaline ;” and “ On the 
Existence of a Limit to Vaporization.” In 1829, he delivered the Bakerian 
Lecture, “ On the Manufacture of Glass for Optical Purposes;” and in 1831, 
he read a paper “On a Peculiar Class of Acoustic Figures; and on Certain 
Forms assumed by Groups of Particles upon Vibrating Surfaces.” 
We must now go back to 1821, in which year Faraday’s electrical dis¬ 
coveries appear to have commenced. In September of this year he commu¬ 
nicated to the Journal of the Eoyal Institution (the ‘ Quarterly Journal of 
Science ’) the results of some experiments he had just then made, “ On some 
new Electro-magnetical Motions, and on the Theory of Magnetism.” A writer 
in the ‘ Laboratory ’ of August 31st, who describes himself as having been a 
fellow-assistant with Faraday at the time these experiments were made, refers 
to the subject in the following terms:—“In the autumn of 1821, Faraday 
repeated w r ith great care the experiments of Ampere, on the mutual action of 
magnets and electric currents, and was eventually led to the discovery of 
