Charles John Huffam Dickens to Faraday   28 May 1850

Devonshire Terrace | Twenty Eight May, 1850.

Dear Sir

I take the liberty of addressing you as if I knew you personally; trusting that I may venture to assume that you will excuse that freedom.

It has occurred to me that it would be extremely beneficial to a large class of the public, to have some account of your late lectures on the breakfast-table1, and of those you addressed, last year, to children2. I should be exceedingly glad to have some papers in reference to them, published in my new enterprize “Household Words”. May I ask whether it would be agreeable to you, and, if so, whether you would favor me with the loan of your notes of those Lectures for perusal?

I am sensible that you may have reasons of your own, for reserving the subject to yourself. In that case, I beg to assure you that I would on no account approach it.

With great respect and esteem, I | remain Dear Sir | Your faithful Servant | Charles Dickens

Michael Faraday Esquire

1
Faraday’s course of six lectures “Upon some points of domestic chemical philosophy” were delivered on 27 April, 4, 11, 18, 25 May and 1 June 1850. Faraday’s notes are in RI MS F4 J19. These were condensed to “The Mysteries of a Tea-kettle”, Household Words,1850, 2: 176-81.
2
These were Faraday’s Christmas Lectures “On the Chemical History of a Candle”. For the prospectus see RI MS GB 2: 50. These lectures were condensed as “The Chemistry of a Candle”, Household Words,1850, 1: 439-44.

Please cite as “Faraday2291,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2291