Faraday to George Riebau   5 January 1815

Rome, Jan. 5th, 1815.

Honoured Sir,

It is with very peculiar but very pleasing and indeed flattering sentiments that I commence a letter intended for you, for I esteem it as a high honour that you should not only allow but even wish me to write to you. During the whole of the short eight years that I was with you, Sir, and during the year or two that passed afterwards before I left England, I continually enjoyed your goodness and the effects of it; and it is gratifying to me in the highest degree to find that even absence has not impaired it, and that you are willing to give me the highest proof of (allow me to say) friendship that distance will admit. I have received both the letters that you have wrote to me, Sir, and consider them as far from being least proofs of your goodwill and remembrance of me. Allow me to thank you humbly but sincerely for these and all other kindness, and I hope that at some future day an opportunity will occur when I can express more strongly my gratitude.

I beg leave to return a thousand thanks to my kind Mistress, to Mr. and Mrs. Paine¹ and George² for their remembrances, and venture mine with respect in return. I am very glad to hear that all are well. I am very much afraid you say too much of me to Mr. Dance, Mr Cosway³, Mrs. Udney⁴, etc., for I feel unworthy of what you have said of me formerly, and what you may say now. Since I have left England, the experience I have gained in more diversified and extended life, and the knowledge I have gained of what is to be learned and what others know, have sufficiently shown me my own ignorance, the degree in which I am surpassed by all the world, and my want of powers; but I hope that at least I shall return home with an addition to my self-knowledge. When speaking of those who are so much my superiors, as Mr. Dance, Mr. Cosway, and Mrs. Udney, etc., I feel a continual fear that I should appear to want respect, but the manner in which you mention their names in your letter emboldens me to beg that you will give my humblest respects to those honored persons, if, and only if (I am afraid of intruding) they should again speak of me to you. Mr. Dance’s kindness claims my gratitude, and I trust that my thanks, the only mark that I can give, will be accepted.

Since I have been abroad, my old profession of books has oftentimes occurred to my mind and been productive of much pleasure. It was my wish at first to purchase some useful book at every large town we came to, but I found my stock increase so fast that I was obliged to alter my plan and purchase only at Capital Cities. The first books that I wanted were grammars and dictionaries, but I found few places like London where I could get whatever I wanted. In France (at the time we were there) English books were very scarce, and also English and French books; and a French grammar for an Englishman was a thing difficult to find. Nevertheless the shops appeared well stocked with books in their own language, and the encouragement Napoleon gave to Arts and Sciences extended its influence even to the printing and binding of books. I saw some beautiful specimens in both these branches at the Bibliothèque Impériale at Paris, but I still think they did not exceed or even equal those I had seen in London before. We have as yet seen very little of Germany, having passed rapidly through Switzerland and stopping but a few days at Munich, but that little gave me a very favorable idea of the Booksellers’ shops. I got an excellent English and German dictionary immediately I asked for it, and other books I asked for I found were to be had, but E. and G. Grammars were scarce, owing to the little communication between the two Empires, and the former power of the French in Germany. Italy I have found the country furnished with the fewest means - if books are the means of disseminating knowledge, and even Venice which is renowned for Printing appeared to me bare and little worthy of its character. It is natural to suppose that the great and most estimable use of printing is to produce those books which are in most general use and which are required by the world at large; it is those books which form this branch of trade, and consequently every shop in it gives an account of the more valuable state of the art (i.e.) the use made of it. In Italy there are many books, and the shelves of the shops there appear full, but the books are old, or what is new have come from France; they seem latterly to have resigned printing and to have become satisfied with the libraries their forefathers left them. I found at Florence an E. and I. Grammar (Veneroni’s), which does a little credit to Leghorn⁵; but I have searched unsuccessfully at Rome, Naples, Milan, Bologna, Venice, Florence, and in every part of Italy for an E. and I. Dictionary, and the only one I could get was Rollasetti⁶ in 8vo. E. F. and I. A circumstance still more singular is the want of bibles; even at Rome, the seat of the Roman Catholic faith, a bible of moderate size is not to be found, either Protestant or Catholic. Those which exist are large folios or 4tos and in several volumes, interspersed with the various readings and commentaries of the fathers, and they are in the possession of the Priests and religious professors. In all shops at Rome where I ask for a small pocket bible the man seemed afraid to answer me, and some Priest in the shop looked at me in a very inquisitive way.

I must now, Kind Sir, put an end to this letter, which I fear you will think already too long. I beg you will have the goodness to send to my mother and say I am well, and give my duty to her and my love to my brother and sisters. I have wrote four or five times lately from Rome to various friends. Remember me, if you please, to Mr. Kitchen⁷, and others who may enquire after me. I thank you for your concluding wishes and am, Sir,

Your most dutifully, | Faraday.