Royal Institution | 18 Jany 1847
My dear Sir
Lady Davy has told me to whom a certain account of my recent researches given in the Quarterly Review is due2. I have so much deference to the Office of the Critic for his independance that I make it a rule not to break through his privacy under any circumstances. But in the present case I am about to break my rule simply to say that however gratifying it may be to me that hundreds or even thousands should read & know your opinion of my researches it is a cause of far deeper & greater pleasure to my mind that you have formed such an opinion. I know your ability to judge & I would rather in any case have the private approbation even of one such judge than the applause of thousands who judge from their imperfect knowledge or from appearance or with the multitude[.]
Your kindness induces me to send you a copy of a little communication I had occasion to make to the philosophical magazine3. I did not think the matter important enough to send copies round to my friends[.]
Ever Yours faithfully | M. Faraday
Dr Holland | &c &c &c
FARADAY, Michael (1846f): “On the Magnetic Affection of Light, and on the Distinction between the Ferromagnetic and Diamagnetic Conditions of Matter”, Phil. Mag., 29: 153-6, 249-58.
Please cite as “Faraday1948,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1948