In Miss Reid's recollections of her illustrious uncle, from which we have quoted in an earlier chapter, there was something said about the reading which interested the scientist in his hours of relaxation. This is always an interesting matter in connection with our great men; we are always glad to know what they read, and, if possible, why they read it. At a party about this time, Faraday joined in a discussion which was being carried on on the subject of novel reading, and some one of those present took a few notes of such works as he mentioned as being specially interesting or entertaining to him. He liked novels, he said, with some stir and life in them, such as _Paul Ferrol_, _Jane Eyre_, too--although of this he characteristically said, "there's a touch of mesmerism and mystery at the end which would be better away." Of Scott's novels he was always a great admirer, liking particularly _Ivanhoe_, _Guy Mannering_, and _Waverley_; he also spoke admiringly of Fanny Burney's novel, _Evelina_, a book that is hardly among the generally read novels of to-day. Writing in 1858 to Professor de la Rive on the death of Mrs. Marcet,[9] Faraday mentions his early reading as follows: "Do not suppose that I was a very deep thinker, or was marked as a precocious person, I could believe in the _Arabian Nights_ as easily as in the _Encyclopædia_. But facts were important to me and saved me. I could trust a fact, and always cross-examined an assertion. So when I questioned Mrs. Marcet's book by such little experiments as I could find means to perform, and found it true to the facts as I could understand them, I felt that I had got hold of an anchor in chemical knowledge, and clung fast to it. Thence my deep veneration for Mrs. Marcet." When, in 1857, Mr. Cyrus Field was in England preparing for the laying of the great telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean, he inquired of Faraday as to what he thought of its practicability; the philosopher doubted the possibility of transmitting a message. Field saw that an objection from so great an authority would prove well-nigh fatal, and that it must be removed at once; he therefore offered to pay Faraday sufficiently for his services if he would undertake such experiments as were necessary. Faraday declined the money, but undertook the experiments, and on their completion reported to Field, "It can be done, but you will not get an instantaneous message." "How long will it take?" anxiously inquired the engineer. "Oh, perhaps a second." "Well, that's quick enough for me."