Unidentified niece to Caroline Deacon¹   April 1854²

One word more about the lecture, and pray don’t think I am quite carried away about Uncle Faraday, perhaps it is so, but never mind, you are a very good safety valve and will not ridicule it. Well, I was about to say that my first impression (& my last) about the lecture is What an astonishingly consistent man he is! - he is always the same, he does not say one thing at one time, and another at another - and yet never intrude his own opinions. I thought to those who did not know him as well as we do, the lecture was a key to his whole conduct thro life; I mean setting aside religion - a key to the way in which he has educated his mind – Papa³ was irresistibly taken back to the time when they were young men together studying Watts⁴ on the mind⁵.

I had a kind of fear that this lecture being out of his usual class of subjects that he would not appear in his place - or to such advantage - I was quite mistaken - He was perfectly at home in it - and did not step out of his usual character in the least - Margery [Ann Reid] heard some one say What boldness and yet what Humility! - Mr. Babbage said Faraday is a genuine man -

I believe there are some that do not understand him on this subject & think it is “Faraday infatuation” but they are the exception - & I believe that at the time, while under the influence of his voice & the excitement of the scene they held their peace - it is only since that has gone off that we have heard it.

I hope I shall not get into their bad books at Rye Hill for writing to you instead of to them[.]