Faraday to Richard Phillips   23 September 1831

Royal Institution | Sept. 23, 1831.

My dear Phillips

I write now though it may be some time before I send my letter but that is of no great consequence. I received your letter to Dr Reid¹ and read it on the coach going to Hastings where I have been passing a few weeks and I fancy my fellow passengers thought I had got something very droll in hand²; they sometimes started at my sudden bursts especially when I had the moment before been very grave & serious amongst the proportions[.] As you say in the letter there are some new fact[s] and they are always of value; otherwise I should have thought you had taken more trouble than the matter deserved. Your quotation from Boyle³ has nevertheless great force in it⁴.

I shall send with this a little thing in your own way On the Alleged decline of science in England ⁵[.] It is written by Dr. Moll of Utrecht whose name may be mentioned in conversation though it is not printed in the pamphlet[.] I understand the view taken by Moll is not at all agreeable to some. “I do not know what business Moll had to interfere with our scientific disputes” is however the strongest observation I have heard of in reply.

I do not think I thanked you for your last Pharmacopoeia. I do so now very heartily⁶. I shall detain this letter a few days that I may send a couple of my papers (i.e. a paper and appendix⁷) with it, for though not chemical I think you will like to have them. I am busy just now again on Electro-Magnetism and think I have got hold of a good thing but can’t say; it may be a weed instead of a fish that after all my labour I may at last pull up⁸. I think I know why metals are magnetic when in motion though not (generally) when at rest.

We think about you all very much at times and talk over affairs of Nelson Square but I think we dwell more upon the illnesses & nursings and upon the sudden calls & chats rather than the regular parties. Pray remember us both to Mrs. Phillips and the damsils[.] I hope the word is not too familiar[.]

I am Dear Phillips | Most Truly Yours | M. Faraday

R Phillips, Esq | &c &c &c