MICHAEL FARADAY — HIS LIFE AND WORKS. 229 



practical advice to an artisan or examine tlie discovery of a debutant in tlic sci- 

 entific career. Only, as I liave already said, with these exceptions, he made it 

 a rule not to allow himself to be tnnied aside from the labors to wliicli lie bad 

 consecrated his life by occnpations of another kind, or by tliose pretended duties 

 of societ}'^ which waste time, abridge intellectual life, (already so short,) and 

 very often leave nothing behind them but emptiness and regret. It was not 

 that he could not be eminently social)le when necessary, or that he did not 

 allow himself some relaxations when, fatigued with work, he needed some 

 repose. But these were only accidental circumstances in his ijfe, which \\as so 

 exclusively devoted to his laboratory. 



The scientific career of Faraday was ecpiall}' fortuii^ite and complete. Named 

 as early as 1823 a correspondent of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, he \\as 

 called in 1844 by this same academy to occupy one of its eight foreign asso- 

 ciateships, after having been associated sticcessively with all the learned bodi(>s 

 of Eunjpe and America. lie was by no means insensible to these scientific 

 honors, which he accepted with genuine satisfaction, whilst lie constantly refused 

 every other kind of honorary distinction. 



But it is time to commence the moi-e important ])art f)f this n<jtice, that which 

 is to be devoted to the examination of the works of Faraday. Ordy I may, 

 perhaps, be allowed, before speaking of the works themselves, to say a few 

 words of the maimer in which Faraday worked. 



Is it true that the man of science who wisljes to inteiTogate riatm-c must set 

 himself face to face with his apparatus, make them act to derive fticts from 

 them, and wait until these facts have appeared, in (.rder to deduce their conse- 

 quences, and all without any preconceived idea? Most certainly the philoso- 

 pher who could advance such an opinion has never experimented, and in any 

 case tLis method bas never been that of discoverers j it was assmedly not the 

 one adopted I'y Fai'aday. 



There is a second method also which was not his. although it is truly worthy 

 of attention, and often fertile of results. This consists in taking up known 

 jihenomena and studying them with great precision, carefully determining all 

 the elements and numerical data, so as to deduce therefrom the laws which 

 govern them, and often also to show the inexactitude of the laws to which they 

 were supposed to be subjected. This method requires great previous studv, 

 great practical talent in the construction of apparatus, remarkable sagacity in 

 the interpretation of the results furnished by experiment, and, lastly, much per- 

 severance and [tatience. It is true that it leads with certainty to a result ; and 

 this is its good side ; but the difficult conditions which it imposes are so manv 

 obstacles which prevent its being generally followedj except by the highest 

 intellects. 



A tliiid method, very different from the last mentioned, is that which, quitting 

 the beaten track, leads, asif l)y insjtiration, to those great discoveries which open 

 new horizons to science. This method in order to be fertile requires one condi- 

 tion — a condition, it is true, which is but rarely met Avith — namely, genius. 

 Now this condition existed in Faraday. Endowed, as lie himself perceived, with 

 much imagination, he dared to advance where manv others would have recoiled ; 

 his sagacity, joined to an exquisite scientific tact, by furnishing him with a pre- 

 sentiment of the possible, prevented him from wandering into the fantastic. 

 Still always wishing for facts, and accepting theories with difficulty, he was 

 nevertheless more or less directed by preconceived ideas, which, whether tiiie or 

 false, led him into new roads, where most frequently he found what he sought, 

 sometimes, indeed, what he did not seek, but where he constantly met with some 

 miportant discovery. 



Such a method, if indeed it can be called one, although barren and even 

 dangerous with mediocre minds, produced great things in Faraday's hands — 

 thanks, as we have said, to his genius, but thanks, also, to that love of truth 



