Manchester, 8/2/1831
.... Having got your second edition1 off your hands, you must permit me to say that I hope you will direct your next exertions to some of those elevated topics of chemical philosophy to which you have established your title to aspire. In the exercise of your public duties in the Royal Institution, you must necessarily, while treading the ground which has been already cleared, sometimes cast your eye beyond its boundaries, and catch glimpses of extensive tracts on which nothing more than a dawning light is yet shed. It is impossible for anyone (even for a person like myself, whose energies of thought and purpose are on the wane) not to be warmed into something like enthusiasm when fancy pictures the glories that are yet to be won in the fields of chemical science. These bright though distant prospects will, I trust, tempt you to open and pursue paths that may lead you to great discoveries, to the benefit of science, and to the increase of your own honourable fame ....
William Henry
To Michael Faraday.
FARADAY, Michael (1830b): Chemical Manipulation, being instructions to students in chemistry, on the methods of performing experiments of demonstration or of research, with accuracy and success, 2nd edition, London.
Please cite as “Faraday0480a,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0480a