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Faraday what interested the audience, and what failed to interest them. 'A lecturer,' he says, 'should appear easy and collected, undaunted and unconcerned. His thoughts about him, and his mind clear and free for the contemplation and description of his subject. His whole behaviour should evince respect for his audience, and he should in no case forget that he is in their presence.' After laying down the canons of lecturing in this fashion, he obviously feels lifted by the dignity of the lecturer's work. 'Then, and then only,' he exclaims, 'shall we do justice to the subject, please the audience, and satisfy our honour — the honour of a philosopher.' With this 'honour of a philosopher' Faraday was impregnated. By it his whole life was informed and ennobled.

In the autumn of 1813 Davy and his wife went abroad, and Faraday went with them as an amanuensis. Davy had no valet, and it was understood that Faraday was to lend him some aid in this direction. He quitted London on Wednesday, 13 Oct. 1813, and accompanied Davy to France, Switzerland, Italy, and the Tyrol, keeping a journal, from which, in his 'Life and Letters of Faraday,' copious extracts have been made by Dr. Bence Jones. He described the experiments conducted by Davy with the eminent men whom he visited. One of the most interesting of these was the combustion of a diamond in oxygen in the Academy del Cimento, by means of the great lens of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. His letters to his mother are full of affection. At Rome they found Morrichini vainly seeking to magnetise a needle by the solar rays. They visited Naples and Vesuvius, which was in active eruption. On Friday, 17 June 1814. Faraday saw M. Volta, who came to Sir H. Davy, a hale, elderly man, bearing the red ribbon, and very free in conversation.' In July he was at Geneva, from which city he writes very fully to his mother and his friends. Some very charming passages occur in his letters to Abbott. Speaking of the ills and trials of life he compares them to 'clouds, which intervened between me and the sun of prosperity, but which I found were refreshing, reserving to me that tone and vigour of mind which prosperity alone would enervate and ultimately destroy.' Such were the materials out of which the great natural philosopher was formed.

During his stay at Geneva, Davy was the guest of his friend De La Rive, father of the celebrated electrician, and grandfather of the present worthy proprietor of the beautiful country residence at Présinge. Host and guest were sportemen, and they frequently went out shooting. On these occasions Faraday loaded Davy's gun, and for a time he had his meals with the servants. From nature Faraday had received the warp and woof of a gentleman, and this, added to his bright intelligence, soon led De La Rive to the discovery that he was Davy's laboratory assistant, not his servant. Somewhat shocked at the discovery. De La Rive proposed that Faraday should dine with the family, instead of with the domestics, "to this Lady Davy demurred, and De La Rive met the case by sending Faraday's meals to his own room. Davy appears to have treated Faraday with every consideration, He sometimes brushed his own clothes to relieve his assistant of the duty, but Lady Davy was of a different temper. She treated Faraday as a menial, and his fiery spirit so chafed under this treatment, that be was frequently on the point of returning home. After Faraday's death rumours of his relations to Davy were spread abroad, and among them was the circumstantial anecdote that De La Rive, finding Faraday's company at table objected to, gave the young man a banquet all to himself. The anecdote on the face of it was absurd, for Faraday at the time had done nothing to furnish a reason for such an entertainment. In 1869 the brief and true history of the transaction was drawn up for the present writer by Professor De La Rive. There was no banquet of the kind referred to, but Faraday always entertained a grateful remembrance of the kindness and consideration shown him by the elder De La Rive when he was a mere garçon de laboratoire.

In 1815 he returned with Davy to the Royal Institution, and according to stipulation, was re-engaged by the managers on 15 May of that year. His first contribution to science was an analysis of caustic lime from Tuscany. It was published in the 'Quarterly Journal of Science' for 1816. Various notes and short papers followed during the next two years. In 1818 he experimented on 'Sounding Flames,' correcting and completing, with great acuteness, a previous investigation by the elder De La Rive. Then followed various notes and notices, the 'Quarterly Journal' being the storehouse of all these small communications. In 1820 he sent to the Royal Society a paper 'On Two New Compounds of Chlorine and Carbon, and on a New Compound of Iodine, Carbon, and Hydrogen.' This was the first paper of his that was published in the 'Philosophical Transactions.'

At this time he had made the acquaintance and won the esteem, of Miss Sarah Barnard. Their friendship ripened into love, which, on his part, was accompanied by more than the usual oscillations of hope and fear. His