Thanks to the permission of the managers of the Royal Institution, a number of short extracts from Faraday’s notebooks, hitherto unpublished, are now printed for the first time. Much more remains which it is to be hoped, for the benefit of science, may be published ere long. The author desires further to acknowledge the kindness of Messrs. Longmans & Co. in allowing the reproduction of the illustrations on pages 3 and 258, which are taken from Bence Jones’s “Life and Letters of Faraday,” published in 1868. Mr. Elkin Mathews has kindly permitted the insertion of the sonnet by Mr. Cosmo Monkhouse which follows the title-page. The author is also indebted to Dr. J. Hall Gladstone, F.R.S., for many valuable notes and suggestions, and to Miss M. K. Reynolds for photographs used in preparing Fig. 14. Most of all he is indebted to Miss Jane Barnard for access to Faraday’s private papers, and for permission to print certain extracts from them. S. P. T. CONTENTS PAGE CHAP. I.--EARLY LIFE, TRAINING, AND TRAVEL 1 CHAP. II.--LIFE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION 35 CHAP. III.--SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES--FIRST PERIOD 75 CHAP. IV.--SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES--SECOND PERIOD 102 CHAP. V.--SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES--THIRD PERIOD 172 CHAP. VI.--MIDDLE AND LATER LIFE 222 CHAP. VII.--VIEWS ON THE PURSUIT OF SCIENCE AND ON EDUCATION 261 CHAP. VIII.--RELIGIOUS VIEWS 286 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Portrait _Frontispiece_