He was a man of excitable and fiery nature; but through high
self-discipline he had converted the fire into a central glow and
motive power of life, instead of permitting it to waste itself in
useless passion. 'He that is slow to anger,' saith the sage,
'is greater than the mighty, and he that ruleth his own spirit than
he that taketh a city.' Faraday was not slow to anger, but he
completely ruled his own spirit, and thus, though he took no cities,
he captivated all hearts.

As already intimated, Faraday had contributed many of his minor
papers--including his first analysis of caustic lime--to the
'Quarterly Journal of Science.' In 1832, he collected those papers
and others together in a small octavo volume, labelled them, and
prefaced them thus:--

'PAPERS, NOTES, NOTICES, &c., &c.,
published in octavo, up to 1832.
M. Faraday.'

'Papers of mine, published in octavo, in the "Quarterly Journal of
Science," and elsewhere, since the time that Sir H. Davy encouraged
me to write the analysis of caustic lime.

'Some, I think (at this date), are good; others moderate; and some
bad. But I have put all into the volume, because of the utility
they have been of to me--and none more than the bad--in pointing out
to me in future, or rather, after times, the faults it became me to
watch and to avoid.

'As I never looked over one of my papers a year after it was written