Faraday to Lambert-Adolphe-Jacques Quetelet   12 May 1836

Royal Institution | 12 May, 1836

My dear Sir

I ought to have written & thanked you and M Plateau long ago for your last kindness¹, but I have been ill and so exceedingly engaged in business that I have had no time for research, experiment or writing; and I did not like to send without furnishing at the same time evident proofs that I was industrious if not successful[.] But I have no paper this season except a small one² that is not worth sending alone.

Remember me to M Plateau. I received his handsome present & beautiful Machine the effect of which is indeed exceedingly curious and good. It has wonderfully surprized many to whom I have shown it and they all refuse to believe their own eyes and cannot admit that the forms seen are all the things looked at[.]

I suppose that the approaching eclipse of the sun is now engaging your attention. The astronomers here are all alive & getting up to the latitudes in which it will be annular & I trust they well have fine weather³. It has been very bad weather here for some time past, but appears now to have changed & we have great expectations that it will continue good[.]

I write these few lines in all haste merely to remind you of one who cannot forget you. As I purpose sending it by the Royal Societys box I hardly know when it will arrive, but as it is worth nothing its delay will be of no consequence[.]

I am My dear Sir | Your obliged & faithful Servant | M. Faraday

Professor Quetelet | &c &c &c

Address: Professor Quetelet | &c &c &c | Observatory | Bruxelles