Berlin: August 9, 1855.
My dear Sir, - Returning from a journey in Silesia, I had yesterday the great pleasure to find, as a present from you, the third volume of the “Experimental Researches.”1 What a wonderful work these researches are in every respect! Incomparable for exhibiting the greatest progresses for which science ever was indebted to the genius of a single philosopher, highly instructive by indicating the means whereby the great results were found.
If Newton, not without reason, has been compared to a man who ascends to the top of a building by the help of a ladder, and cuts away most of the steps after he has done with them, it must be said that you have left to the follower, with scrupulous fidelity, the ladder in the same state as you have made use of it.
Accept my warmest thanks for your great kindness, to have laid in my hands the object of my continual study and admiration.
And believe me, dear Sir, ever to be yours most faithfully, | P. Reiss [sic]
FARADAY, Michael (1855d): Experimental Researches in Electricity, volume 3, London.
Please cite as “Faraday3014,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on