Michael Faraday: Third Edition, with PortraitGladstone, J. H. (John Hall)
Science
Michael Faraday: Third Edition, with Portrait
Gladstone, J. H. (John Hall)
Faraday, Michael, 1791-1867
Is it possible that he can be happier when lecturing to the juveniles?
The front rows are filled with the young people; behind them are ranged
older friends and many of his brother philosophers, and there is old
Sir James South, who is quite deaf, poor man, but has come, as he says,
because he likes to see the happy faces of the children. How perfect
is the attention! Faraday, with a beaming countenance, begins with
something about a candle or a kettle that most boys and girls know,
then rises to what they had never thought of before, but which now is
as clear as possible to their understandings. And with what delight
does he watch the performances of Nature in his experiments! One could
fancy that he had never seen the experiments before, and that he was
about to clap his hands with boyish glee at the unexpected result! Then
with serious face the lecturer makes some incidental remark that goes
far beyond natural philosophy, and is a lesson for life.
Some will remember one of these occasions which forms the subject of
a painting by Mr. Blaikley. Within the circle of the table stands the
lecturer, and waiting behind is the trusty Anderson, while the chair is
occupied by the Prince Consort, and beside him are the young Prince of
Wales and his brother, the present Duke of Edinburgh; while the Rev.
John Barlow and Dr. Bence Jones sit on the left of the Princes; Sir
James South stands against the door, and Murchison, De La Rue, Mrs.
Faraday, and others may be recognized among the eager audience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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