Letter Faraday to James Nasmyth   29 May 1847

Royal Institution, | 29th May, 1847,

My dear Sir, - That you should both show kindness to the bearer¹ of my letter², and prove that you did so with pleasure by writing me a letter³ in return, was indeed more than I ought or could have expected; but it was very gratifying and pleasant to my mind. I only wish that the circumstances of my life were such as to enable me to take advantage of such good will on your part, and to be more in your company and conversation than is at present possible.

I could imagine great pleasure from such a condition of things; but though our desires, and even our hopes at times, spread out beforehand over a large extent, it is wonderful how, as the future becomes the present, the circumstances that surround us limit the sphere to which our real life is circumscribed. If ever I come your way I hope to see your face; and the hope is pleasant, though the reality may never arrive.

You tell me of the glorious work of your pile-driver, and it must be indeed a great pleasure to witness the result. Is it not Shakespeare⁴ who says, `The pleasure we delight in physics pain'?⁵ In all your fatigue and labour you must have this pleasure in abundance, and a most delightful and healthy enjoyment it is. I shall rejoice to see some day a blow of the driver and a tap of the hammer.

You speak of some experiments on tempering in which we can help you. I hope when you do come to town you will let us have the pleasure of doing so. Our apparatus, such as it is, shall be entirely at your service. I made, a long while ago, a few such experiments on steel wire, but could eliminate no distinct or peculiar results. You will know how to look at things, and at your hand I should expect much.

Here we are just lecturing away⁶, and I am too tired to attempt anything, much less to do anything just now; but the good will of such men as you is a great stimulus, and will, I trust, even with me, produce something else praiseworthy. - Ever, my dear Nasmyth, yours most truly, | M. Faraday.