Christian Friedrich Schoenbein to Faraday   22 August 1842

My dear Faraday

An opportunity offering itself to me for sending letters to England I cannot help making use of it and expressing you my thanks for the kind lines you had the goodness to address to me from Tynemouth the other day¹. I am very happy indeed to learn from your letter that you are enjoying health and what is still more valuable that you are in good spirits. I am strongly inclined to consider such a state of body and mind as a sure indication that your memory will also be entirely restored to its primitive power and that you will soon be enabled to reenter into your scientific career. Should however our expectations not be quite fulfilled and should you be obliged to be a little careful with yourself as to undertaking philosophical researches you must bear in mind that you are entitled to the "otium cum dignitate"² for you have contributed your full share to the general stock of science and already done more in that line than it falls to the lot of the great majority of philosophers to be able of doing during their whole life. You know as well as I do that we are not to measure the length of our earthly existence by the number of years to which it extends; the true magnitude of life is determined only by the intrinsic value of our doings and in that respect it may be said that some men do and live in one single year more and longer than many others do in fifty.

My papers on the electrolysing power of simple voltaic circles and the peculiar condition of Iron will be published in the forthcoming number of the "Archives"³ and I am really very curious to know what you will say about the subject. As to the cause of the inactive state which that metal assumes under certain circumstances I am still in the dark and must say that the longer I am investigating the subject the more inexplicable and enigmatical it becomes to me. I have now succeeded to make Iron the negative electrode within common nitric acid without destroying by so doing its peculiar condition into which state that metal is brought previous to its performing the function mentioned. Such a fact seems to exclude altogether the Idea of a film of oxigen being the cause of the inactivity of Iron. In spite of the difficulties I have hitherto met in my endeavours to solve the problem in question I shall not give up the hope to succeed at last. My letter and paper sent to the British Association to Manchester⁴ have not yet been acknowledged an ommission of formality which I rather wonder at. Or is it perhaps the custom not to acknowledge such communications? I dare say you have heard of Moser's discoveries. If true, they are really wonderful and to my opinion the most important ones made in our days. What interesting conclusions may be drawn from the simple fact that in utter darkness the image of a medal is impressed upon a common plate of silver &c this effect being produced at a sensible distance. In the last number of Poggendorff's Annals you will find all the particulars about the subject alluded to⁵. Though the little work I took the liberty of sending you some months ago⁶, is hardly worth your notice still I should not be sorry if you were made acquainted with the contents of some of its chapters. They contain in some respects the articles of faith of the author and would give you some insight into the views he takes of nature, mankind &c. Though some of those views will most likely not quite agree with your way of thinking, I trust and am confident that such a difference of opinion will on your part not loosen the bonds of friendship by which the author feels himself so intimately attached to you. The germans are a very queer set of beings and you are well aware that the author of the said publication belongs to that nation and has not altogether divested himself of the peculiarities of his country men. These are said to be born metaphysicians, very fond of the subtilities of philosophy and prone to mysteries. Though I believe to have taken my stand on rather a solid ground and being very averse to obscure and misty speculations, still there is a german bias left in my mind which looks in the midst of the material world for something immaterial and which is strongly inclined to see even in the most common phenomenon exhibited to our senses the immediate and direct manifestation of something spiritual, of that power in and by which every thing lives and exists and which is the foundation and the source of the most minute being as well as of the infinity of the universe. The way in which the majority of philosophers consider Nature is to me, I openly confess it to you, too crude, too material, too narrow, too onesided. It is true, they declare nature to be an admirable machinery constructed with consummate skill, arranged with infinite wisdom; but for all that it is to them a machinery only and that is too little for me. I must look upon the visible and material world with very different eyes in order to satisfy the demands of my mind. But enough of a subject which is too delicate and extensive to be spoken of in a letter.

A few days ago I returned from a trip which I took into the south of Germany during our Midsummer-holidays and which carried me through some parts of the black forest. Most of the valleys of that chain of mountains are really delightful and such as I am sure you would like; fresh air, picturesque hills, dark woods, limpid streams &c are to be found there in abundance. Could you not manage it to spend next summer some weeks with Mrs. Faraday in some retired corner there; Mrs. Schoenbein and myself would be exceedingly happy to join you.

My wife and Children are quite well with the exception of my eldest daughter who fell ill of nervous fever two or three weeks ago. We have however reason to hope that she will recover. The good Child recollects you perfectly well even in her illness and Mrs. Schoenbein continues to think you the most amiable of all philosophers she ever met with in her life which opinion I do, of course, not combat at all. I flatter myself that Mrs. Faraday has not forgotten Mr. Schoenbein and does still reckon him amongst the number of her friends. Pray remember me most friendly to her and be so kind to tell her that Mrs. Schoenbein is very anxious to make her personal acquaintance. We must therefore go with our wives to the black forest.

In concluding my letter, I beg you to believe me | Your's | most faithfully | C.F. Schoenbein

Bâle Aug. 22, 1842.