Faraday to Gerard Moll   28 June 18321

Royal Institution | June 28th 1832

My dear Sir

I have great pleasure in writing a few words to you (though in great haste) for the purpose of introducing to your acquaintance Mr Forbes of Edinburgh[.] You know so well what goes on here that when I have named my friend you will know all about him. I hope you received my post letter a few weeks ago2. I wish also you had been at the Oxford meeting last week3. You would have been amused by hearing Airy of Cambridge join your side of the Decline question4 & by seeing Babbage within a few feet of him at the time. I was not present at the time but heard of it on all sides.

There has been a lecture published by Professor Powell5 of Oxford on the subject of the backwardness of the University in cultivating & supporting useful knowledge in which he speaks of "a pamphlet of considerable interest entitled "On the alleged decline of Science &c &c &c."["]6 I understand you are coming to England or I would send you a copy of it[.]

I am | My dear Sir | Most Truly Yours | M. Faraday

Professor Moll | &c &c &c | Utrecht


Address: Professor Moll | &c &c &c | Utrecht

1
It seems likely, since this letter is in the Forbes papers, that it was not delivered, unlike Faraday's letter of introduction to Plateau which was delivered and has not been found. See letter 600. Forbes cut short his tour because the Professorship of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh became vacant. See Shairp et al (1873), 83.
2
Letter 586.
3
Of the British Association.
4
See Airy, G.B. (1832), especially 185-6.
5
Baden Powell (1796-1860, DSB). Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, 1827-1860.
6
Powell (1832a), 29 on [Moll] (1831).

Bibliography

POWELL, Baden (1832a): The Present State and Future Prospects of Mathematical and Physical Studies in the University of Oxford, Oxford.

Please cite as “Faraday0593,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0593