Augusta Ada Lovelace to Faraday   16 October 1844

Ashley Combe | Porlock | Somerset | 16th Octr. 1844

Dear Mr Faraday,

I have never yet thanked you for the little paper you sent me this spring¹. I read it with the deepest attention & interest, & it has suggested to me some very curious (& perhaps important) considerations for my own future use as an Analyst; considerations which fell in with some previous trains of ideas I had been long gradually forming, but which you have called into more tangible existence in my mind.

Perhaps no one has read your paper with such full appreciation as myself of it's practical bearings; or has valued it so justly, both for it's contents, & as presented to me by it's Author, for whom I entertain an esteem little short of reverence.

I must now however proceed to the immediate object I have in view in writing to you. I am going to address you with a frankness & an intimacy, which the mere number of hours we have ever passed together in actual personal presence, could not warrant in ordinary cases.

There are instances (very few however) where the peculiar mutual suitability of character, & of objects in life, justify mind speaking at once to mind, & leaving out of consideration the ordinarily very necessary & useful barriers of external convenances.

You will be kind enough to think of me simply as one of God's children. The mere accidents of my being an inhabitant of this particular planet, of this particular corner of it England, & of my wearing the female form, (with a human coronet to boot stuck at the apex), these constitute only one particular case of the general formula in which God has chosen to create moral beings fitted to hold relations with each other, & with Him.

I have long been vowed to the Temple;- the Temple of Truth, Nature, Science! And every year I take vows more strict, till now I am just entering those portals & those mysteries which cut of[f] all retreat, & bind my very life & soul to unwearied & undivided science at it's altars henceforward. I hope to die the High-Priestess of God's works as manifested on this earth, & to earn a right to bequeath to my posterity the following motto, "Dei Naturaeque Interpres ²".

The initiation however for this, is of the severest & longest description; and may be beyond my powers.

All this is highly metaphysical; but there is some literal truth in it also, in my case. This, if we hold in future more of intercourse together, you will by degrees yourself perceive.

For many years I have desired to be admitted to intercourse & friendship with you; & to become in some respects your disciple. But I determined to with-hold myself from any advances towards such an object, until I should feel I was worthy of the privilege; & until the progress of my own mind should be such that the hours & thoughts bestowed by you on me should be in reality an advancement of your objects as well as mine. I think that time has now arrived. I think that any assistance & intercourse you may consent to honour me with, would pay full interest to yourself & for your own scientific & moral purposes in this world.

Were I not persuaded of this, I assure you I could not be so presumptuous as to expect you would direct your mind one instant on my account from it's main & noble purposes; and I can only be justified in suggesting it, if the attention given me is in fact not a diversion from these.

To be again metaphysical: I have no business to deflect the wave of your existence by the smallest curve even, from it's course. But if my wave can in certain of it's points follow & touch yours; so that in fact they mutually add to each other's force at those points, then all is well.

To come to the practical matter, to which all this is but the prelude. I am anxious to go thro' all your Researches, with the advantage of your showing me the examples & experiments practically, as I study each paper. It would be to me an inestimable advantage, for some of my objects.

Should you decide on bestowing on me so great a favour, I would arrange to be in Town (after my return to Surrey) on certain appointed days, say once a week or a fortnight, or something of the sort. During the intervals I should study the subjects accordingly, & should perhaps sometimes write to you on them. I need not say that my hours would be wholly at your orders, of course.

My own great scientific object (but this is strictly confidential) is the study of the Nervous System, & it's relations with the more occult influences of nature³.

By a masterly union of the highest abstract analysis, with most skilful & varied courses of experimental & practical science, such as I have already sketched out in my mind, I expect to bring the actions of the nervous & vital system within the domain of mathematical science, & possibly to discover some great vital law of molecular action, similar for the universe of life, to gravitation for the sidereal universe. I need not say that this (if it can be accomplished at all), is the work of a life-time. I have a very world of heterogeneous materials & considerations to bring by degrees, thro' years of labour, into one great focus;- all to bear on this (as yet) nebulous beacon of mine, but which I hope to crystallise before my death into a radiant & burning star for the light of mankind.

One reason why I desire to become more intimate with you, is my opinion of your moral & religious feelings.-

Do you agree with me, as I rather expect you do, in the impression that the highest & most penetrating degree of intellect, that species of it which is alone fitted to deal with the more subtle & occult agents of nature, is unattainable excepting thro' a high spiritual & moral development; far higher than it is usual even to aim at. I believe there is a connexion between the two that is not understood or suspected by mankind.

You are the only philosopher I have ever seen, who gave me the impression of feeling this in it's full force.

Am I mistaken? All I can say is that if you & I do think alike on this point, I suspect we are very nearly a singular couple in the scientific world.

I do not know to what particular sect of Christians you belong, or whether to any; nor do I think that much matters.

I am myself a Unitarian Christian; as far as regards some of their views of Christ that is.

But in truth, I cannot be said to be anything but myself. In some points I am Swedenborgian in feelings. Again in others I am slightly Roman Catholic; & I have also my alliance with the older Rosecrucians.

Pray don't exclaim, "What patch-work!" None are wholly right, or wholly wrong; so in fact from all I call a somewhat on others.

I make you no apology for this long & free letter. I feel that none is needed.

I remain | Yours sincerely | Augusta Ada Lovelace