n. Caroline Fox had
proved herself Faraday's ardent friend, and it was she who had healed
the breach between the philosopher and the minister. She manifestly
thought that Faraday ought to have come forward in Lord Melbourne's
defence, and there is a flavour of resentment in one of her letters to
him on the subject. No doubt Faraday had good grounds for his
reticence, but they are to me unknown.

In 1841 his health broke down utterly, and he went to Switzerland with
his wife and brother-in-law. His bodily vigour soon revived, and he
accomplished feats of walking respectable even for a trained
mountaineer. The published extracts from his Swiss journal contain
many beautiful and touching allusions. Amid references to the tints
of the Jungfrau, the blue rifts of the glaciers, and the noble Niesen
towering over the Lake of Thun, we come upon the charming little scrap
which I have elsewhere quoted: 'Clout-nail making goes on here rather
considerably, and is a very neat and pretty operation to observe. I
love a smith's shop and anything relating to smithery. My father was
a smith.' This is from his journal; but he is unconsciously speaking
to somebody--perhaps to the world.

His description of the Staubbach, Giessbach, and of the scenic effects
of sky and mountain, are all fine and sympathetic. But amid it all,
and in reference to it all, he tells his sister that 'true enjoyment
is from within, not from without.' In those days Agassiz was living
under a slab of gneiss on the glacier of the Aar. Faraday met Forbes
at the Grimsel, and arranged with him an excursion to the 'Hotel des
Neufchatelois'; but indisposition put the project out.

From the Fort of Ham, in 1843, Faraday received a letter addressed to
him by Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. He read this letter to me
many years ago, and the desire, shown in various ways by the French
Emperor, to turn modern science to account, has often reminded me of
it since. At the age of thirty-five the prisoner of Ham speaks of
'rendering his captivity less sad by studying the great discoveries'
which science owes to Faraday; and he asks a question which reveals
his cast of thought at the time: 'What is the most simple combination
to give to a voltaic battery, in order to produce a spark capable of
setting fire to powder under water or under ground?' Should the
necessity arise, the French Emperor will not lack at the outset the
best appliances of modern science; while we,