FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168  
169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   >>   >|  
about 700 persons. Our President, Lord Prudhoe, was in the chair, and greatly desirous of knowing the age of the wheat. You know he is learned in Egyptian matters, and was anxious about the label or inscription accompanying the corn. I hope I have not done wrong, but I rather fear your letter will be published, or at least the wheat part, for a gentleman asked me whether he might copy it, and I instantly gave him leave, but found that he was connected with the press, the _Literary Gazette_. I hope you will not object since without thought on my part the matter has gone thus far. The news is so good and valuable that I do not wonder at the desire to have it,--Ever your obliged servant, "M. Faraday. "M.F. Tupper, Esq., &c. &c. &c. "_P.S._--I am happy to say that I am plain Mr. Faraday, and if I have my wish shall keep so.--M.F." An early volume of my so-called "Critica Egotistica" has many letters and printed communications on this subject: but as not being a recognised agriculturist myself, I did not wish it called by my name,--so it is only known in the markets (chiefly I have heard in Essex) as "Mummy Wheat." Talking of declined honours in nomenclature, I may here mention that a new beetle, found by Vernon Wollaston and urged by him to be named after the utterly "unsharded" me (who had however gratified that distinguished entomologist by my poem on Beetles) was respectfully refused the prefix of my name, as scarcely knowing a lepidopt from a coleopt. _Ne sutor ultra crepidam._ If honour is to be given, let it be deserved. CHAPTER XXV. HONOURS--INVENTIONS. Authorship reaps honour in these latter days quite as much as it did in the classic times of Augustus with Virgil and Horace for his intimates, and of Petrarch crowned at the Capitol laureate of all Italy during the vacancy of a popedom in the Vatican. Not but that, with or without any titular distinction, authorship is practically the most noticeable rank amongst us. Many will pass by a duke who would have stopped and waited to have looked at a Darwin when he was in this lower sphere; and I am quite sure that the grand presence of Alfred Tennyson would attract more affectionate homage than that of any other ennobled magnate in the land. As to his title, I was glad that his good taste and wisdom elected to be calle
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168  
169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
honour
 

called

 

Faraday

 

knowing

 

Virgil

 
Augustus
 
Authorship
 

INVENTIONS

 
classic
 

unsharded


distinguished

 

entomologist

 
coleopt
 

gratified

 
lepidopt
 

respectfully

 
refused
 
prefix
 

scarcely

 

deserved


CHAPTER

 

utterly

 

Beetles

 

crepidam

 

HONOURS

 

Tennyson

 

Alfred

 

attract

 

affectionate

 

presence


Darwin

 
sphere
 

homage

 

wisdom

 

elected

 
ennobled
 

magnate

 
looked
 

waited

 
vacancy

popedom
 

Vatican

 
Petrarch
 
intimates
 

crowned

 

Capitol

 
laureate
 

titular

 
distinction
 

stopped