Faraday to Charles Lemon   25 April 1834¹

R Institution | 25 April 1834

Dear Sir

I am much obliged to you for a sight of Mr. Fox's letter[.] At present my mind is very unsettled with regard to the nature of the Electric agent[.] The usual notions attached to Positive & negative & to the term current I suspect are altogether wrong but I have not a clear view of what ought to be put in their places[.] It is easy to imagine forces with certain directions as a kind of abstract notion of electricity but that is saying little or nothing although all the pheno‑mena may be accounted for in such a way. It is the cause of the forces which we want to lay hold of. I have no idea that in what we call the current in the decomposition of bodies any thing but a resolution & recombination of forces occurs between contiguous particles but I want to see clearly how these changes come about & as yet cannot[.]

That being the case I have no opinion to offer on our friends views but to hope that he will go on either stren<<gthen>>ing or correcting them by experiment[.]

I am dear Sir | Very Truly Yours | M. Faraday

Sir C. Lemon Bart MP | &c &c &c