Faraday to John Hope Shaw   19 December 18531

Royal Institution | 19 Decr. 1853

Sir

I deeply regret that I cannot accede to your request: but the progress of time & the state of my head are entirely against it. I have under medical advice been obliged to restrain my exertions for years past to the Royal Institution where I have been for 40 years. I have there lessened my lecturing duty from year to year and though now announced to deliver six at Christmas2, it was up to Yesterday doubtful (& is so still) whether I shall be able because of an attack in the throat to which I am liable accompanied for the first time with extreme deafness.

I am sorry to give you such an answer but it has been accepted as sufficient for several years past by my nearest & highest friends, and it is known that I speak no where out of the Royal Institution: not even at our meetings of the British Association[.]

I have the honor to be | Sir | Your Obedient humble Servant | M. Faraday

Jno Hope Shaw Esq | &c &c &c

1
John Hope Shaw (1792-1864, Taylor, R.V. (1865), 520-3). Leeds solicitor and seven times President of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, including 1854-1855. Clark (1924), 228.
2
Faraday delivered six Christmas lectures on “Voltaic Electricity”. His notes are in RI MS F4 J16.

Bibliography

CLARK, E. Kitson (1924): The History of the 100 Years of Life of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Leeds.

Please cite as “Faraday2764,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2764