208 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
fore, difficult to determine the part played by heredity in his
genius. Robert Faraday lived at and owned Clapham Wood
House in Yorkshire. He had ten sons and daughters. About
1790 troubles appeared and some of the family property was
sold. Robert Faraday's son, James, a blacksmith, therefore left
Yorkshire to seek livelihood in London. On September 22, 1791
James Faraday's third child, Michael, was born in Newington.
So Faraday was a man of Surrey. When Michael was five
years old the family migrated to Marylebone, and here he received
his early education, in the three R's. On leaving school he
entered the service of a bookseller, where he bound and sold
books ; but what is more significant he read them. He was
interested in chemistry and electricity. For his attendance at
lectures his brother Robert generously paid, at the rate of one
shilling per lecture. On four occasions, one of the bookseller's
customers took Faraday to hear Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal
Institution. He took notes of these lectures and bound them in
book form. When his bookselling apprenticeship ended, he
found employment with a master under whom he became restless.
So he ventured to send Sir Humphry Davy the bound notes of his
lectures, and as a result was appointed assistant in the Royal
Institution Laboratory.
At this time, Faraday missed becoming an archaeologist. Re-
search on the Papyri of Herculaneum was projected. Davy-
had been applying his chemical knowledge in unrolling them and
making them legible. Further research on them, to be con-
ducted by Faraday, did not however materialise. But he accom-
panied Sir Humphry Davy on a lengthy tour of Europe, of which
Faraday kept a journal wherein he records methodical observa-
tions of the Roman remains encountered. On his return to
England, the arrangement of the mineralogical collection was
one of his first labours, and also the extraction of sugar from
beetroot. These successive events—which we call Chance—
almost led Faraday into the realm of Natural History. Had he
laboured in this field, we wonder what aspect civilisation would
be wearing to-day!
Faraday filled his week-days and evenings with work. He
continued his self-education in English, becoming thereby an
accomplished speaker, with great powers of description and
sequence of presentation. On Saturdays he visited his mother