Volume 1

The life and letters of Faraday / by Bence Jones.

Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life and letters of Faraday / by Bence Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    1812. at this period of his life. They are also evidence as to iET.2'0-21. the first knowledge which he gained in chemistry and electricity, and they prove that he was even then trying to add to that knowledge by experiment. PAEADAY'S first letter to benjamin ABBOTT. ' Dear A , Ceremony is useless in many cases, and sometimes impertinent; now between you and me it may not be the last, yet I conceive it is the first: there- fore I have banished it at this time. But first let me wish you well, and then I will proceed on to the subject of this letter. Make my respects, too, if you please, to Mr. and Mrs. A., and also to your brother and sister. ' I was lately engaged in conversation with a gentle- man who appeared to have a very extensive corre- spondence : for within the space of half an hour he drew observations from two letters that he had received not a fortnight before—one was from Sicily and the other from France. After a while I adverted to his correspondence, and observed that it must be very m- teresting and a source of great pleasure to himself. He immediately affirmed, with great enthusiasm, that it was one of the purest enjoyments of his life (observe, he, hke you and your humble servant, is a bachelor). Much more passed on the subject, but I wiU not waste your time in recapitulating it. However, let me notice, before I cease from praising and recommending epistolary correspondence, that the great Dr. Isaac Watts (great in all the methods respecting the attainment of learn- ing) recommends it as a very effectual method of im- proving the mind of the person who writes and the person who receives. Not to forget, too, another strong