Faraday to Caroline Deacon   23 July 1853

Royal Institution | 23 July 1853

My dear Caroline

Yours to me arrived yesterday and was very pleasant in the midst of the serious circumstances which had come over us and of which you have no doubt heard by this time. I am always cheered by your words & it is well for us to have a remembrance of our hope rebounding from one to another in these latter days¹ when the world is running mad after the strangest imaginations that can enter the human mind. I have been shocked at the flood of impious & irrational matter which has rolled before me in one form or another since I wrote my times letter² and am more than ever glad that as a natural philosopher I have borne my testimony to the cause of common sense & sobriety[.] I have received letters from the most learned & from the highest thanking me for what I did. I cannot help thinking that these delusions of mind & the credulity which makes many think that supernatural works are wrought where all is either fancy or knavery are related to that which is foretold of the latter days & the prevalence of unclean spirits³ - which unclean spirits are waking in the hearts of men & not as they credulously suppose in natural things[.] There is a good hope however which has no relation to these things except by its perfect separation from them in all points & which will not fail those who are kept in it[.]

Poor Mary⁴. But why poor? she is gone in her hope to the rest she was looking for & we may rejoice in her example: as a case of the power of God who keeps those who look to him in simplicity through the faith that is in Christ. But her poor husband⁵ & her many children are deeply to be felt for & you also & her father⁶ we join in deep sympathy with you all. It would be a sad shock to him coming so suddenly upon the cheerful events he had been concerned in at Newcastle. And the Young ones too it must make them grieve. Your Unkle Edward⁷ was here just now & observing how soon all their gaity of appearance & (for the event itself, the fit) bravery would have to disappear in a sober form. I saw Mrs. J. Boyd⁸ this evening & the two elder boys - all are as you might expect. Margery [Ann Reid] was there yesterday & will be there today. Elizabeth⁹ dined with us & was then going to the house. Your Aunt¹⁰ was there yesterday, today she is gone to see her father¹¹ & there I shall be this Evening. Whilst in Wales we were talking about you & settling to have the pleasure of helping you to settle a little in the house & it ended in our putting apart £5 for the purpose. You will receive half of it with our love in the present sheet & the other part I will send in a few days[.]

Do you see how crabbed my handwriting has become? the muscles do not obey as they used to do but trip up or fall short of their intended excursions and so parts of letters are wanting or whole letters left out. You must guess it & I know you have a good will for the purpose. We had not heard of Mr. Paradise’s serious illness - for serious it must have been to keep him at home. Give our love to him earnestly.

And now dear Caroline with kindest remembrances to your husband I must conclude. Not forgetting the Maiden of the house ¹².

Ever Your Affectionate Unkle | M. Faraday