Thoughts of him always
delight me. We shall look at his black sulphur together. I heard
from Schonbein the other day. He tells me that Liebig is full of
ozone, i.e., of allotropic oxygen.
'Good-bye for the present.
'Ever, my dear Tyndall,
'Yours truly,
'M. Faraday.'
The contemplation of Nature, and his own relation to her, produced
in Faraday a kind of spiritual exaltation which makes itself
manifest here. His religious feeling and his philosophy could not
be kept apart; there was an habitual overflow of the one into the
other.
Whether he or another was its exponent, he appeared to take equal
delight in science. A good experiment would make him almost dance
with delight. In November, 1850, he wrote to me thus: --'I hope
some day to take up the point respecting the magnetism of associated
particles. In the meantime I rejoice at every addition to the facts
and reasoning connected with the subject. When science is a
republic, then it gains: and though I am no republican in other
matters, I am in that.' All his letters illustrate this catholicity
of feeling. Ten years ago, when going down to Brighton, he carried
with him a little paper I had just completed, and afterwards wrote
to me. His letter is a mere sample of the sympathy which he always
showed to me and my work.
'Brighton, December 9, 1857.
'My Dear Tyndall,--I cannot resist the pleasure of saying how very
much I have enjoyed your paper. Every part has given me delight.
Pages:
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153