r to be any reason for believing that
his unusual abilities were the result of direct heredity. His father, an
ordinary journeyman blacksmith, never exhibited any special intellectual
ability, though possibly poverty and poor health may have been
responsible for this failure. His mother, too, it appears, was of but
ordinary mentality.

The environment of those early years--that is, from 1804 to 1813, while
in the book-binding business--was far from calculated to develop any
marked abilities inherent in our young philosopher. What would seem less
calculated to inspire a wish to obtain a deeper insight into the
mysteries of the physical world than the trade of book-binding,
especially in the case of a boy whose scholastic education ceased at
fourteen years and was limited to the mere rudiments of learning? But,
fortunately for the world, the inquiring spirit of the lad led him to
examine the inside of the books he bound, and thus, by familiarizing
himself with their contents, he received the inspiration that good
writing is always ready to bestow on those who properly read it. Two
books, he afterwards informs us, proved of especial benefit; namely,
"Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry," already referred to, and the
"Encyclopaedia Britannica." To the former he attributes his grounding in
chemistry, and to the latter his first ideas in electricity, in both of
which studies he excelled in after years. As we have seen, even at this
early age he followed the true plan for the physical investigator,
cross-questioned all statements, only admitting those to the dignity of
facts whose truth he had established by careful experimentation.

But our future experimental philosopher has not as yet fairly started on
the beginnings of his life-work. The possibilities of the book-binding
trade were too limited to permit much real progress. A circumstance
occurred in the spring of 1812 that shaped his entire after-life. This
was the opportunity then afforded him to attend four of the last
lectures delivered at the Royal Institution, by the great Sir Humphry
Davy. Faraday took copious notes of these lectures, carefully wrote them
out, and bound them in a small quarto volume. It was this volume, which
he afterwards sent to Davy, that resulted in his receiving, on March 1,
1813, the appointment of laboratory assistant in the Royal Institution.
His pay for this work was twenty-five shillings a week, with a lodging
on the top floor of the Insti