Faraday to Hugh Welch Diamond¹   1 March 1844²

Royal Institution, March 1, 1846. [sic]

My Dear Sir,- Your note places me in a multiplication of difficulties, out of which I hardly know how to extricate myself. This arises out of a resolution which I do not remember having yet broken - namely, "never to write an autograph to be given or kept as an autograph." You will wonder why I made such a rule, and will perhaps hardly believe me when I say I can attribute it to nothing but a sort of modesty which still clings by me. However I cannot refrain to lay it down for a moment on the present occasion, both that I may write my name and accept the box, for which I return you very many thanks; and after this, perhaps, the less I say the better for my character in your estimation.

I am, my dear Sir, | Very truthfully yours, | M. Faraday

M. Faraday, formerly an experimentalist, now an idler. - March 1, 1844.