R.I. Sunday Evening
Dear Abbott
I promised to write to you at the end of the last week and yet have suffered this to commence without doing so however I haste to follow my past word and endeavour (vainly) to overtake it if I had chosen a roguish part I might have put saturday evening at the top have deceived you and in losing my credit have saved it. I was aware however that in the latter part of this paper it would be sure to go and then so small a thing as the above became of no consequence[.]
I am much vexed at the circumstance of my present situation rendering me incapable of making the arrangement you desire[.] I had fixed tomorrow or Tuesday as days convenient to me but on speaking to Mrs. Greenwood for tea equipage and the &c &c she gave me to understand that I should run the risk of being censured for breaking the rules of the house and as the Managers meet very often of being called to answer to a breach of appearances.- I endeavoured to modify things in some way so as to suit all parties but found I could not gain my point at this time of the year - Had Mrs Greenwood health permitted her she could have received you for me but at present it is so low and so much impaired that I cannot ask such a thing - and so for the present Dear Ben I am obliged very reluctantly to decline the honor intended me.
I had when I read your first letter a great deal to say in answer to it but I do not feel inclined to take up the subject at present indeed there is not much in it but may be settled with a few yes’s & no’s and as my tone of mind is not just now what it was at the reading I shall adopt & have adopted the latter more concise method of answering you - You hint at a sheet full of observations on Lectures & Lecturers - and you shall have it some time or another but as I intend making some experiments on that subject soon I will defer it till after such experiments are made1. In the meantime as preparatory & introductory to such a course of experiments I will ask your opinions of & observations on English composition - style - delivery - reading - oratory - grammar - pronunciation - perspicacity & in general, all the branches into which the Belles Lettres divide themselves and if by asking I procure I shall congratulate myself on the acquisition of much useful knowledge & experience[.]
I must bid you good night Ben for I am quite tired & very dull.
Yours ever | M. Faraday
11. o’clk
Address: Mr. B. Abbott | Long Lane | Bermondsey
Postmark: <<1>>5 JA
Please cite as “Faraday0062,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0062