Faraday to Benjamin Abbott   6 September 1814

Geneve | Sept 6th 1814

Dear Ben

It is with extreme pleasure that I pursue a correspondence which I find is not to be impaired either by time absence or distance a correspondence which has been dear to me from the first moment of its existence which I have found full of pleasure and which I have never regretted and its continuance continually gives me fresh proofs that it will ever remain as it has been a strong & irreproachable source of instruction and amusement. I thank you Dear Ben as earnestly as I can do for your long and kind letter which I shall endeavour to answer as well as I can though not in such a manner as it ought to be[.] I have not I can truly assure you enough time to write you a letter as long as your own[.] I have a great deal of occupation which leaves me but little time to myself and my Journal is much behind hand and as we leave this place in eight or nine days I shall have difficulty in arranging my things and clearing up my papers[.] My head at this moment is full of thoughts respecting you and me respecting your uneasy situation and mine which is not at all times pleasant and what I expected your last letter has partly collected those thoughts and I shall probably state some of them on this sheet of paper - I must beg of you to acknowledge on my part the receipt of your brother’s second letter and the receipt of a second one from my brother. I had them both on Augt. 31. eight days after the post date they gave me great pleasure and I shall not delay longer than is convenient thanks under my own hand but I will here desire of you Dear Ben to inform my friends that I wish whatever letters they will send me may be directed to me alone or to me at Sir Humphry Davy or chez Monsieur le Chevalier Davy[.] I have already given this notice in a letter to my brother but for security (for I should wish it to be attended to) I give it again to you well knowing that you will do every thing I can wish - I feel a pleasure which I cannot describe on perceiving the interest you take in my i.e. our friends in Weymouth Street and I hope to return and be grateful for your attentions they are such as I expected from a friend and they deserve better acknowledgements than I can give but I trust words are as little wanting from me to Ben as from Ben to me[.] In my last letter to my brother I wrote a few lines to Peggy but I unaccountably forgot to thank her for her present which I had received with yours and I know of no way of compensating for my slip than by engaging you to thank her for me[.] I feel great very great interest in Peggy she has talents in a high degree accompanied by a strong and rapid memory and a willing mind and were knowledge to be communicated to her by those who know how to lead a child by attention to their numerous and simple questions and a soft and pleasing demeanour I should hope to see her at some time what I should like to be myself[.] With the thanks you will give my love and answer fully if you please any questions she may put to you respecting me or the country where I am or may be[.] I was very happy to hear of Mrs. Greenwalls [sic] health and hope you will repeat your commission and my remembrances[.] Sir Humphry was glad to hear that she was well. I hope you will see Mr. Newman again and name me to him and if he would remember me to Mr. Fincher I should feel much obliged[.] I remember Mr. Fincher on more account than one and he will understand me if Mr. Newman tells him that I often think on our conversations together and wish I were at home. Some doubts have been expressed to me lately with respect to the continuance of the Royal Institution¹[.] Mr. Newman can probably give a guess at the issue of it[.] I have three boxes of books etc. there and I should be sorry if they were lost by the turning up of unforeseen circumstances but I hope all will end well (you will not read this out loud) - Remember me to all there if you please - and “now for you and I to ourselves”.

I was much hurt in mind to hear of you ill health and still more so to understand your uncomfortable situation for from what I have felt at times I can judge of your feelings under such a painful bondage[.] I am as yet but very young Ben very unacquainted with the world with men and manners and too conscious of my ignorance to set up for a moralizer but yet dear friend I have not passed on to this day without a little experience and though not endued with the acutest powers of mind I have been forced to notice many things which are of service to me and may be useful to you if they are I shall not repent the trouble I give you and if they are not you must attribute them to the warmth of my feelings for you - You are you inform me in a situation where gain only is the object where every sentiment is opposed to yours where avarice has shut out every manly feelings where liberal thought and opinions are unknown where knowledge except as it is subservient to the basest and lowest of feelings is shut out and where your thoughts if not lookings to the acquisition of money are censured and where liberality and generosity never enter[.] These are things which I know to be so opposite to your mind and inclinations that I can well conceive your feelings and as if it were to increase those feelings this disagreeable situation follows one that was perfectly pleasant and agreeable[.] In passing through life my Dear Friend every one must expect to receive lessons both in the School of Prosperity and in that of adversity and taken in a general sense those schools do not only include riches & poverty but every thing that may cause the happiness and pleasure of man and every feeling that may give him pain[.] I have been in at the door of both those schools nor am I so far on the right hand at present that I do not get hurt by the thorns on my left. With respect to myself I have always perceived (when after a time I saw things more clearly) that those things which at first appeared as misfortunes or evils ultimately were actual benefits and productive of much good in the future progress of things sometimes I compared them to storms and tempests which cause a temporary dyrangement [sic] to produce a permanent good sometimes they appeared to me like roads stony uneven hilly and uncomfortable it is true but the only roads to a good beyond them and sometimes I said they were clouds which intervened between me and the sun of prosperity but which I found were refreshing reserving to me that tone and vigour of mind which prosperity alone would enervate & ultimately destroy[.] I have observed that in the progress of things circumstances have so worked together without my knowing how or in what way that an end has appeared which I could never have fancied and which circumstances ultimately shew could never have been obtained by any plans of mine[.] I have found also that those circumstances which I have earnestly wished for and which ultimately I have obtained were productive of effects very different to those I had assigned to them and were often times more unsatisfactory than even a disappointment would have been[.] I have experienced too that pleasures are not the same when attained as when sought after and from these things I have concluded that we generally err in our opinions of happiness and misery[.]

I condole with you Dear Ben most sincerely on the uneasiness of your situation but at the same time I advise you to remember that is an opportunity of improvement that must not be lost in regret & repining[.] It is necessary for man to learn how to conduct himself properly in every situation for the more knowledge he has of this kind the more able is he to cope with those he is at times sure to meet with[.] You have under your eye a copy of thousands and you have the best opportunities of studying him in noticing his errors you will learn to avoid them what he has good will be contrast appear more strongly you will see the influence of the passions one on another and may observe how a good feeling may be utterly destroyed by the predominance of an opposite one you will perceive the gradual increase of the predominant sentiment and the mode in which it surrounds the heart utterly debarring the access of opposite feelings - At the same time dear friend you will learn to bear uneasy situations with more patience you will look to the end which may reward you for your patience and you will naturally gain a tone of mind which will enable you to meet with more propriety both the prosperity & adversity of your future fortune[.] Remember that, in leaving your present situation you may find a worse one and that though a prospect is fair you know not what it may produce[.]

You talk of travelling and I own the word is seducing but travelling does not secure you from uneasy circumstances[.] I by no means intend to deter you from it though I should like to find you at home when I come home and though I know how much the loss would be felt by our friends yet I am aware that the fund of knowledge and of entertainment opened would be almost infinite but I shall set down a few of my own thoughts & feelings &c in the same circumstances[.] In the first place then my dear Ben I fancy that when I set my foot in England I shall never take it out again for I find the prospect so different from what it at first appeared to be that I am certain if I could have foreseen the things that have passed I should never have left London[.] In the second place enticing as travelling is and I appreciate fully its advantages and pleasures I have several times been more than half decided to return hastily home but second thoughts have still induced me to try what the future may produce and now I am only retained by the wish of improvement[.] I have learned just enough to perceive my ignorance and ashamed of my defects in every thing I wish to seize the opportunity of remedying them[.] The little knowledge I have gained in languages makes me wish to know more of them and the little I have seen of men & manners is just enough to make me desirous of seeing more added to which the glorious opportunity I enjoy of improving in the knowledge of Chemistry and the Sciences continually determines me to finish this voyage with Sir Humphry Davy. but if I wish to enjoy those advantages I have to sacrifice much and though those sacrifices are such as an humble man would not feel yet I cannot quietly make them[.] Travelling too I find is almost inconsistent with religion (I mean modern travelling) and I am yet so old fashioned as to remember strongly (I hope perfectly) my youthful education and upon the whole malgré the advantages of travelling it is not impossible but that you may see me at your door when you expect a letter[.]

You will perceive Dear Ben that I do not wish you hastily to leave your present situation because I think that a hasty change will only make things worse you will naturally compare your situation with others you see around you and by this comparison your own will appear more sad whilst the others seem brighter than in truth they are for like the two poles of a battery the ideas of each will become exalted by approaching them - But I leave you dear friend to act in this case as your judgement may direct hoping always for the best I fear that my train of thoughts have been too dull in this letter but I have not yet attained to the power of equalizing them and making them flow in a regular stream if you find them sad remember that it was thinking on you that they fell and then excuse them[.]

I felt much interested in reading the philosophical part of your letter and congratulate you upon the advances which you must now make and it was doubly pleasing to me as it showed me that no circumstances could overpower the industry of your active and vigilant mind[.] I felt highly flattered in understanding the good opinion that was entertained of my friend at the Surrey Institution² but I was still more pleased at learning his determination since it shews me that he can so easily and successfully combat & overcome pride by humility[.]

With respect to Boyle’s Statical Baroscope I am not sure that I know the instrument[.] I suppose it is an exhausted flask that is balanced³[.] The experiments are I supposed made with several at a time of different sizes and of different glasses for as glasses vary in their particular ratio of expansion by heat it will cause variations in the results but I can give no opinion on it - Sir Humphry works often on iodine and has lately been making experiments on the prismatic spectrum at M. Pictets⁴ these are not yet perfected but from the use of very delicate air thermometers it appears that the rays producing most heat are certainly out of the spectrum and beyond the red rays⁵. Our time has been employed lately in fishing and shooting and many a Quail has been killed in the plains of Geneve and many a trout and grayling have been pulled out of the Rhone - Go as usual to Weymouth Street and give my kindest love to them all and if you have not time ask them to do so in the City remember me to Boyer Magrath Castle &c and kindly to Mr. & Mrs. Abbott & Your Brother and Sister - I need not say Ben how perfectly I am yours,

Adieu | M. Faraday

Endorsed: Recd 9/17 1814

Address: Mr. B. Abbott | Barlows Row | Long Lane | Bermondsey | London