n
Faraday, to urge him to accept the president's chair. All that argument
or friendly persuasion could do was done to induce him to yield to the
wishes of the council, which was also the unanimous wish of scientific
men. A knowledge of the quickness of his own nature had induced in
Faraday the habit of requiring an interval of reflection, before he
decided upon any question of importance. In the present instance he
followed his usual habit, and begged for a little time.

On the following morning, I went up to his room and said on entering
that I had come to him with some anxiety of mind. He demanded its cause,
and I responded:--'Lest you should have decided against the wishes of
the deputation that waited on you yesterday.' 'You would not urge me to
undertake this responsibility,' he said. 'I not only urge you,' was my
reply, 'but I consider it your bounden duty to accept it.' He spoke of
the labour that it would involve; urged that it was not in his nature to
take things easy; and that if he became president, he would surely have
to stir many new questions, and agitate for some changes. I said that in
such cases he would find himself supported by the youth and strength
of the Royal Society. This, however, did not seem to satisfy him. Mrs.
Faraday came into the room, and he appealed to her. Her decision was
adverse, and I deprecated her decision. 'Tyndall,' he said at length, 'I
must remain plain Michael Faraday to the last; and let me now tell you,
that if I accepted the honour which the Royal Society desires to confer
upon me, I would not answer for the integrity of my intellect for a
single year.' I urged him no more, and Lord Wrottesley had a most worthy
successor in Sir Benjamin Brodie.

After the death of the Duke of Northumberland, our Board of Managers
wished to see Mr. Faraday finish his career as President of the
Institution, which he had entered on weekly wages more than half a
century before. But he would have nothing to do with the presidency. He
wished for rest, and the reverent affection of his friends was to him
infinitely more precious than all the honours of official life.

The first requisite of the intellectual life of Faraday was the
independence of his mind; and though prompt to urge obedience where
obedience was due, with every right assertion of manhood he intensely
sympathized. Even rashness on the side of honour found from him ready
forgiveness, if not open applause. The wisdom of years, temp