Benjamin Humphrey Smart to Faraday   10 February 18411

55 Connaught Terrace, Feb. 10, 1841

My dear Sir,

I have a favour to beg of you, which I should have solicited personally, had I not learned with regret, that your labours have been so unremitting as to render an interval of absolute repose and freedom from the calls of friends necessary to your health. I believe the favour I have to ask will not be attended with trouble to you, if you have no objection to grant it on other accounts.- My very early friend, Revd Richard Jones2, the Prof. of Political Econ. at Hertford, has proposed me as Candidate for admission into the Athenaeum club - I am extremely desirous of being elected into it - and I believe no seconder would afford me so good a chance as yourself. No one can better judge my claims whether as to merit or defect. Mr Jones has known me something longer, but you know my career, such as it has been, better. My time of life, and, I am happy to say, the greater leisure I am able to afford myself, make me desirous of increasing my acquaintance with literary men; and on this account, I wish to get my name placed as advantageously as I can on the Candidate book of the Club3.

Believe me, My Dear Sir, | always very faithfully Yours | B.H. Smart

Michael Faraday Esqre | &c &c &c

1
Benjamin Humphrey Smart (1786-1872, DNB). Writer on elocution, who had helped Faraday with his lecturing. See Bence Jones (1870a), 1: 420, 2: 113. See also Faraday to Abbott, 25 September 1817, letter 79, volume 1 and Memorandum to Peel, 31 March 1835, letter 775, volume 2.
2
Richard Jones (1790-1855, DNB). Professor of Political Economy at East India College at Haileybury, 1835-1855.
3
Faraday did second Smart's nomination. AC MS Book of Candidates, 1841-1850, entry 2056. Smart was not elected to the Athenaeum until 1850. Waugh [1894], 133.

Bibliography

BENCE JONES, Henry (1870a): The Life and Letters of Faraday, 1st edition, 2 volumes, London.

WAUGH, Francis Gledstanes [1894]: Members of the Athenaeum Club from its foundation, np.

Please cite as “Faraday1338,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 2 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1338