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14
LIFE OF FARADAY.

1812.

Æt. 20-21.

my earnest wish to make that proverb good in two instances. First, you favoured me with a note a short time since, and I hereby return the compliment; and, secondly, I shall call "tit" upon you next Sunday, and hope that you will come and tea "tat" with me the Sunday after. In short, the object of this note is to obtain your company, if agreeable to your convenience and health (which I hope is perfectly recovered long before this), the Sunday after next.

'This early application is made to prevent prior claims; and I propose to call upon you this day week to arrange what little circumstances may require it.

'In hope that your health is as well as ever, and that all other circumstances are agreeable, I subjoin myself, Sir, yours,

'M. Faraday.'

The following are among the few notes which Faraday made of his own life:—

'During my apprenticeship I had the good fortune, through the kindness of Mr. Dance, who was a customer of my master's shop and also a member of the Royal Institution, to hear four of the last lectures of Sir H. Davy in that locality.[1] The dates of these lectures were February 29, March 14, April 8 and 10, 1812. Of these I made notes, and then wrote out the lectures in a fuller form, interspersing them with such drawings as I could make. The desire to be engaged in scientific occupation, even though of the lowest kind, induced me, whilst an apprentice, to write, in my ignorance of the world and simplicity of my mind, to Sir Joseph
  1. He always sat in the gallery over the clock.