What a delight it is to think that you are quietly & philosophically at work in the pursuit of science... rather than fighting amongst the crowd of black passions & motives that seem now a days to urge men every where into action. What incredible scenes every where, what unworthy motives ruled for the moment, under high sounding phrases and at the last what disgusting revolutions.
Michael Faraday, Christian Friedirich Schoenbein (1899). “The letters of Faraday and Schoenbein 1836-1862: With notes, comments and references to contemporary letters”