Faraday to Christian Friedrich Schoenbein   9 December 1852

Brighton | 9 Decr. 1852

My dear friend

If I do not write to you now I do not know when I shall - and if I write to you now I do not know what I shall say - for I am here sleeping eating & lying fallow that I may have sufficient energy to give half a dozen juvenile Christmas lectures¹. The fact is I have been working very hard - for a long time to no satisfactory end - all the answers I have obtained from nature have been in the negative and though they shew the truth of nature as much as affirmative answers yet they are not so encouraging and so for the present I am quite worn out. I wish I possessed some of your points of character. I will not say which for I do not know where the list might end and you might think me simply absurd and besides that ungrateful to Providence[.]

I had your letter² by Dr. Whewell and I have received also your last of the 17th October³ and the paper⁴ and I hope when I return home to get the latter done into English. It is a very great shame to us that such papers do not appear at once in English but somehow we cannot manage it. Taylor appears to be much embarrassed in respect of the Scientific memoirs[.] I hope now that they have changed their shape & are to appear in two series physical & chemical that they will be more servicable to such as I am[.]

Your letter quite excites me and I trust you will establish undeniably your point. It would be a great thing to trace the state of combined oxygen by the colour of its compound not only because it would shew that the oxygen had a special state which could in the compound produce a special result - but also because it would as you say make the optical effect come within the category of scientific appliances and serve the purpose of a philosophic induction & means of research whereas it is now simply a thing to be looked at. Believing that there is nothing superfluous or deficient or accidental or indifferent in nature I agree with you in believing that colour is essentially connected with the physical condition and nature of the body possessing it and you will be doing a very great service to philosophy if you give us a hint however small it may seem at first in the development or as I may even say in the perception of this connexion.

As I read your letter I wondered whether there was any connexion between your phenomena and those recently investigated by Stokes⁵. I do not mean any immediate likeness but distant connexion. He has been rendering the invisible chemically acting rays visible - that is to say he has been converting them into visible rays. You by giving a given condition to a substance make it when in compounds send one ray to the eye - and then by giving it another condition cause it to send other rays to the eye the body being chemically the same. Both these are phenomena of radiation & both are connected with chemical agencies or forces. If they could be connected what a heap of harvests would spring up between the two. I do not know enough yet of Stokes phenomena to form any thing but a crude idea and I know nothing of yours yet so that you will think me very absurd to write such stuff but then it is only to a friend[.]

You are very amusing with your criticisms on Organic chemistry. I hope that in due time the chemists will justify their proceedings by some large generalisations deduced from the infinity of results which they have collected[.] For me I am left hopelessly behind & I will acknowledge to you that through my bad memory organic chemistry is to me a sealed book. Some of those here Hoffman for instance consider all this however as scaffolding which will disappear when the structure is built. I hope the structure will be worthy of the labour. I should expect a better & a quicker result from the study of the powers of matter but then I have a predilection that way & am probably prejudiced in judgment. My wifes kindest remembrances to you & yours. My earnest wishes for the happiness of you all[.]

Ever | my dear Schoenbein Your Affectionate friend | M. Faraday

Address: Dr. Schoenbein | &c &c &c | University | Basle | on the Rhine | Switzerland