om his father. We dined on roast beef, Yorkshire pudding,
and potatoes; drank sherry, talked of research and its requirements,
and of his habit of keeping himself free from the distractions of
society. He was bright and joyful--boy-like, in fact, though he is
now sixty-two. His work excites admiration, but contact with him
warms and elevates the heart. Here, surely, is a strong man. I love
strength; but let me not forget the example of its union with modesty,
tenderness, and sweetness, in the character of Faraday.'

Faraday's progress in discovery, and the salient points of his
character, are well brought out by the wise choice of letters and
extracts published in the volumes before us. I will not call the
labours of the biographer final. So great a character will challenge
reconstruction. In the coming time some sympathetic spirit, with the
requisite strength, knowledge, and solvent power, will, I doubt not,
render these materials plastic, give them more perfect organic form,
and send through them, with less of interruption, the currents of
Faraday's life. 'He was too good a man,' writes his present
biographer, 'for me to estimate rightly, and too great a philosopher
for me to understand thoroughly.' That may be: but the reverent
affection to which we owe the discovery, selection, and arrangement of
the materials here placed before us, is probably a surer guide than
mere literary skill. The task of the artist who may wish in future
times to reproduce the real though unobtrusive grandeur, the purity,
beauty, and childlike simplicity of him whom we have lost, will find
his chief treasury already provided for him by Dr. Bence Jones's
labour of love.

********************

XIX. THE COPLEY MEDALIST OF 1870.

THIRTY years ago Electro-magnetism was looked to as a motive power,
which might possibly compete with steam. In centres of industry, such
as Manchester, attempts to investigate and apply this power were
numerous. This is shown by the scientific literature of the time.
Among others Mr. James Prescot Joule, a resident of Manchester, took
up the subject, and, in a series of papers published in Sturgeon's
'Annals of Electricity' between 1839 and 1841, described various
attempts at the construction and perfection of electro-magnetic
engines. The spirit in which Mr. Joule pursued these enquiries is
revealed in the following extract: 'I am particularly anxious,' he
says, 'to communicate any new arrangement i