name-- his predecessor's name. 'That won't do,' he said, with
good-humoured impatience; 'who was his predecessor?' 'Mr. Riebau,'
she replied, and immediately added, as if suddenly recollecting
herself, 'He, sir, was the master of Sir Charles Faraday.'
'Nonsense!' he responded, 'there is no such person.' Great was her
delight when I told her the name of her visitor; but she assured me
that as soon as she saw him running about the shop, she felt-though
she did not know why--that it must be 'Sir Charles Faraday.'

Faraday did, as you know, accompany Davy to Rome: he was re-engaged
by the managers of the Royal Institution on May 15, 1815. Here he
made rapid progress in chemistry, and after a time was entrusted
with easy analyses by Davy. In those days the Royal Institution
published 'The Quarterly Journal of Science,' the precursor of our
own 'Proceedings.' Faraday's first contribution to science appeared
in that journal in 1816. It was an analysis of some caustic lime
from Tuscany, which had been sent to Davy by the Duchess of Montrose.
Between this period and 1818 various notes and short papers
were published by Faraday. In 1818 he experimented upon
'Sounding Flames.' Professor Auguste De la Rive had investigated
those sounding flames, and had applied to them an explanation which
completely accounted for a class of sounds discovered by himself,
but did not account for those known to his predecessors. By a few
simple and conclusive experiments, Faraday proved the explanation
insufficient. It is an epoch in the life of a young man when he
finds himself correcting a person of eminence, and in Faraday's
case, where its effect was to develop a modest self-trust, such an
event could not fail to act profitably.

From time to time between 1818 and 1820 Faraday published scientific