sonal traits as may be necessary to the completion of your picture of
the philosopher, though by no means adequate to give you a complete idea
of the man.

The newspapers have already informed you that Michael Faraday was born
at Newington Butts, on September 22, 1791, and that he died at Hampton
Court, on August 25, 1867. Believing, as I do, in the general truth
of the doctrine of hereditary transmission--sharing the opinion of Mr.
Carlyle, that 'a really able man never proceeded from entirely stupid
parents'--I once used the privilege of my intimacy with Mr. Faraday
to ask him whether his parents showed any signs of unusual ability. He
could remember none. His father, I believe, was a great sufferer during
the latter years of his life, and this might have masked whatever
intellectual power he possessed. When thirteen years old, that is to
say in 1804, Faraday was apprenticed to a bookseller and bookbinder in
Blandford Street, Manchester Square: here he spent eight years of his
life, after which he worked as a journeyman elsewhere.

You have also heard the account of Faraday's first contact with the
Royal Institution; that he was introduced by one of the members to Sir
Humphry Davy's last lectures, that he took notes of those lectures;
wrote them fairly out, and sent them to Davy, entreating him at the
same time to enable him to quit trade, which he detested, and to pursue
science, which he loved. Davy was helpful to the young man, and this
should never be forgotten: he at once wrote to Faraday, and afterwards,
when an opportunity occurred, made him his assistant.[1] Mr. Gassiot has
lately favoured me with the following reminiscence of this time:--

'Clapham Common, Surrey,

'November 28, 1867.

'My Dear Tyndall,--Sir H. Davy was accustomed to call on the late Mr.
Pepys, in the Poultry, on his way to the London Institution, of which
Pepys was one of the original managers; the latter told me that on one
occasion Sir H. Davy, showing him a letter, said: "Pepys, what am I
to do, here is a letter from a young man named Faraday; he has been
attending my lectures, and wants me to give him employment at the Royal
Institution--what can I do?" "Do?" replied Pepys, "put him to wash
bottles; if he is good for anything he will do it directly, if he
refuses he is good for nothing." "No, no," replied Davy; "we must try
him with something better than that." The result was, that Davy engaged
him to assist in the Laboratory at wee