CHAPTER VIII.
As Friend and Lecturer.
"I thought these men will carry hence
Promptings their former life above,
And something of a finer reverence
For beauty, truth, and love."
Lowell.
At various periods of Faraday's life his genial good-nature and kindliness have been brought home to us in different ways. From that early time when he used to take care of his little sister Margaret in Manchester Square, up to the very latest course of Juvenile Lectures which he delivered at the Royal Institution in 1863, he had always the same love for young people; and, as is usual with persons of such a disposition, he was ever a great favourite of the children, whether of those who used to hear his Christmas lectures, or with those happier ones who met him more intimately. Intimate seems perhaps a curious word to use with regard to the relations of young children and an old man; but yet it is the only word that really expresses what is meant; that really indicates that instant bond of sympathy that seems to connect children with men and women who possess the power of attracting and delighting them by becoming from the first as one of themselves. This quality, this delightful quality, belonged to Michael Faraday in an eminent degree.
Fortunate indeed were those children who listened to his Christmas Lectures to Juveniles, and fortunate also were those older people who were present on the same occasions. Many people who enjoyed the pleasure and privilege of hearing him at such a time recorded their impressions, and pleasant reading is the result. Lady Pollock, for instance, wrote: "When he lectured to children he was careful to be perfectly distinct, and never allowed his ideas to outrun their intelligence. He took great delight in talking to them, and easily won their confidence. The vivacity of his manner and of his countenance, his pleasant laugh, the frankness of his whole bearing, attracted them to him. They felt as if he belonged to them; and indeed he sometimes, in his joyous enthusiasm, appeared like an inspired child. He was not at all a man for evening parties; he was nothing of a ladies' man; but he was the true man for the juveniles, and would go to see a domestic charade when the boys acted in it, and suddenly appear behind the scene to offer a little help or suggest a new arrangement; and then, while he was in front, he would laugh and applaud so loudly, that his presence was the best encouragement which the young performers could have. Or he would help the young people to wonder at the feats of a conjuror, or he would join in a round game, and romp quite noisily. But all was done with a natural impulse. There was no assumption of kindness, no air of condescension."
Another writer, who had the rare privilege of meeting the great man socially, said: "Nothing indeed pleased him better than to be a boy again, and to mingle in the sports of the young, especially if they took a turn congenial at all to his own pursuits. He has been known to join a youthful party on a November evening to assist in a display of fireworks. There he might be seen running to and fro in a garden at night, with his pockets crammed with combustibles—now kindling lycopodium or burning potassium—then letting off blue fires, green fires, purple fires—sometimes dropping ignited crackers at the feet of the boys with an air of affected astonishment, or probably chasing the girls in order to streak their cheeks with phosphorus."