214
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Faraday's Note-books.
Many years ago, if people collected snails, insects, or other
objects loathed by the popular mind, their sanity was regarded
as questionable. Lady Granville collected insects and was
considered to be demented; John Ray, the great Essex naturalist,
was called as a witness to her sanity. Faraday collected infor-
mation, in note-books ingeniously indexed. His earlier common-
place books, now in possession of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers, show his unquenchable thirst for knowledge by the
diversity of their subject matter. Not only chemistry and
physics, but literature, music and social life figure therein. Fire-
eating, electric fish, fairy rings, glow worms, and the effect of
garlic on moles are mentioned. One entry is of topical interest—
an extract from the Liverpool Courier of Sept., 1823.
"Walking the Streets.—It has been found a difficult thing
"at Liverpool to make the townsfolk adopt the well-known
"and useful rule of keeping the right hand side of the path in
"walking ; and reason having failed, an attempt has been
"made to shame them into obedience to it, the following
"courteous placard having appeared on the walls of the town :
' Respectable people are requested to keep the right hand
side of the footpath, and Blackguards the left.'"
Faraday's London evidently presented its traffic problems to
him !
In the possession of the Royal Institution are other note-
books and diaries, mostly of later date than the commonplace
books. These later books show less diversity of subject. The
greater part of them is devoted to chemistry, electricity and
magnetism. In one entry (Dec. 20th, 1833) Faraday wonders
if the movement of sap in trees is due to electrical causes.
Faraday—the Man.
These glimpses of Faraday's works give some idea of Faraday
the man. His outstanding features were (1) his wonderful
ability to construct and describe mental pictures of natural
phenomena, (2) his love of knowledge for its own sake and not
for any pecuniary advantage arising from it, (3) his earnest
search after truth, (4) his love of his fellow men.
He did not engage in the application of his discoveries to
industry, though he may have pondered such possibilities. On