Life Stories - Love | Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
What other previous passages between them are hinted at in the letter which he sent her, is unknown ; but on July 5, 1820, he wrote :
— Royal Institution.
You know me as well or better than I do myself. You know my former prejudices, and my present thoughts — you know my weaknesses, my vanity, my whole mind ; you have converted me from one erroneous way, let me hope you will attempt to correct what others are wrong. Again and again I attempt to say what I feel, but I cannot. Let me, however, claim not to be the selfish being that wishes to bend your affections for his own sake only. In whatever way I can best minister to your happiness either by assiduity or by absence, it shall be done. Do not injure me by withdrawing your friendship, or punish me for aiming to be more than a friend by making me less ; and if you cannot grant me more, leave me what I possess, but hear me.
Sarah Barnard showed the letter to her father. She was young, and feared to accept her lover. All her father would say by way of counsel was that love made philosophers say many foolish things. The intensity of Faraday's passion proved for the time a bar to his advance. Fearing lest she should be unable to return it with equal force, Miss Barnard shrank from replying. To postpone an immediate decision, she went away with her sister, Mrs. Keid, to Kamsgate. Faraday followed to press his suit, and after several happy days in her company, varied with country walks and a run over to Dover, he was able to say : "Not a moment's alloy of this evening's happiness occurred. Everything was delightful to the last moment of my stay with my companion, because she was so." Of the many letters that Faraday wrote to his future wife a number have been preserved. They are manly, simple, full of quiet affection, but absolutely free from gush or forced sentiment of any kind. Extracts from several of them are printed by Bence Jones. One of these, written early in 1821, runs as follows :
— I tied up the enclosed key with my books last night, and make haste to return it lest its absence should occasion confusion. If it has, it will perhaps remind you of the disorder I must be in here also for the want of a key— I mean the one to my heart. However, I know where my key is, and hope soon to have it here, and then the Institution will be all right again. Let no one oppose my gaining possession of it when unavoidable obstacles are removed. . Ever, my dear girl, one who is perfectly yours, M. Faraday.
Faraday obtained leave of the managers to bring his wife to live in his rooms at the Institution; and in May, 1821, his position was changed from that of lecture assistant to that of superintendent of the house and laboratory. In these changes Sir Humphry Davy gave him willing assistance. But his salary remained £100 a year. Obstacles being now removed, Faraday and Miss Barnard were married on June 12. Few persons were asked to the wedding, for Faraday wished it to be "just like any other day." " There will," he wrote, " be no bustle, no noise, no hurry. ... it is in the heart that we expect and look for pleasure." His marriage, though childless, was extremely happy. Mrs. Faraday proved to be exactly the true helpmeet for his need ; and he loved her to the end of his life with a chivalrous devotion which has become almost a proverb. Little indications of his attachment crop up in unexpected places in his subsequent career ; but as with his religious views so with his domestic affairs, he never obtruded them upon others, nor yet shrank from mentioning them when there was cause. Tyndall, in after years, made the intensity of Faraday's attachment to his wife the subject of a striking simile : " Never, I believe, existed a manlier, purer, steadier love. Like a burning diamond, it continued to shed, for six and forty years, its white and smokeless glow." In his diploma-book, now in possession of the Royal Society, in which he carefully preserved all the certificates, awards, and honours bestowed upon him by academies and universities, there may be found on a slip inserted in the volume this entry : — 25th January, 1847. Amongst these records and events, I here insert the date of one which, as a source of honour and happiness, far exceeds the rest. We were married on June 12, 1821. M. Faraday.
This text is an excerpt from the book Michael Faraday, his life and work by Thompson, Silvanus Phillips, 1851-1916, published in 1901. Online at archive.org
Spotlight on Sarah Faraday /Royal Institution