(Quoth Professor Phillips), though the instances are few.'
An entry in my journal then I ventured thus to parody,
'I this day dined with Fillips, where I hobbed and nobbed with Pharaday.'"
FARADAY DELIVERING HIS CHRISTMAS JUVENILE LECTURES.
This same year is also notable as being the nineteenth, and last, in which Faraday delivered the Christmas Juvenile Lectures; for ten years in succession he had given them, the four lectures of this, his final course, being those well known and generally appreciated ones upon "The Chemical History of a Candle." An earlier course having been given some years before on the same subject. His failing health and memory made it necessary for him to discontinue much of his work, and in the following year his last experimental work was done, and (on June 20) his last Friday evening lecture delivered. A touching and pathetic interest attaches to the slight notes which he made for this, his last lecture. The notes are brief—but yet how much is there not expressed in them?
"Personal explanation—years of happiness here, but time of retirement; LOSS OF MEMORY and physical endurance of the brain.
"1. Causes—hesitation and uncertainty of the convictions which the speaker has to urge.
"2. Inability to draw upon the mind for the treasures of knowledge it has previously received.