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
His reverence towards Man showed itself in the respect he uniformly
paid to others and to himself. Thoroughly genuine and simple-hearted
himself, he was wont to credit his fellow-men with high motives and
good reasons. This was rather uncomfortable when one was conscious of
no such merit, and I at least have felt ashamed in his presence of the
poor commonplace grounds of my words and actions. To be in his company
was in fact a moral tonic. As he had learned the difficult art of
honouring all men, he was not likely to run after those whom the world
counted great. "We must get Garibaldi to come some Friday evening,"
said a member of the Institution during the visit of the Italian hero
to London. "Well, if Garibaldi thinks he can learn anything from us,
we shall be happy to see him," was Faraday's reply. This nobility
of regard not only preserved him from envying the success of other
explorers in the same field, but led him heartily to rejoice with them
in their discoveries.
Dumas gives us a picture of Foucault showing Faraday some of his
admirable experiments, and of the two men looking at one another with
eyes moistened, but full of bright expression, as they stood hand in
hand, silently thankful--the one for the pleasure he had experienced,
the other for the honour that had been done him. He also tells how, on
another occasion, he breakfasted at Albemarle Street, and during the
meal Mr. Faraday made some eulogistic remarks upon Davy, which were
coldly received by his guest. After breakfast, he was taken downstairs
to the ante-room of the lecture theatre, when Faraday, walking up to
the portrait of his old master, exclaimed, "Wasn't he a great man!"
then turning round to the window next the entrance door, he added, "It
was there that he spoke to me for the first time." The Frenchman bowed.
They descended the stairs again to the laboratory. Faraday pulled out
an old note-book, and turning over its pages showed where Davy had
entered the means by which the first globule of potassium was produced,
and had drawn a line round the description, with the words, "Capital
experiment." The French chemist owned himself vanquished, and tells
the tale in honour of him who remembered the greatness and forgot the
littlenesses of his teacher.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account