Faraday to Richard Owen   14 January 18501

Royal Institution | 14 Jany 1849 [sic]

My dear Owen

I have had your letter and am very sorry for the cause; and far more for the Dean of Westminsters2 sake than our own. I had before to give an Evening for him on account of illness and from what I knew then from Mrs. Buckland should never have thought of asking him for one. But when he advertised in the newspapers that he would give a lecture on Artesian wells in this house, I felt that not to accept it would be to insult him; & told Barlow so3. Barlow is out about the matter. Our only plea for the change must be the indisposition of the Dean for otherwise certain wrong interpretations which the Dean himself hinted at to me & which he seemed to fear; are sure to be made by some who think his views not quite correct[.]

What would have happened if we had gone on with another offer which he voluntarily made of giving Six lectures here for some Charity!!!4

Ever yours | M. Faraday

Richard Owen Esq | &c &c &c

1
Dated on the basis of the references given in note 3.
2
William Buckland.
3
The probable arrangements for Friday Evening Discourses RI MS GB 2: 55 noted that Buckland was to give a Discourse on artesian wells on 18 January 1850. Instead William Robert Grove gave a Discourse “On some recent Researches of Foreign Philosophers”. See Athenaeum,26 January 1850, p.106 for an account.
4
For this see RI MM, 3 December 1849, 10: 226 and 11 December 1849, 10: 228.

Please cite as “Faraday2253,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 23 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2253