THE AGE OF ELECTRICITY. 165 



an Indiau pastor, but science is making unceasing strides forward; 

 questions present themselves under altered forms, new ones come up, 

 and others again unexpectedly command more interest than could have 

 been anticipated. The board of directors of the association is com- 

 posed of recognized savants who will manage such funds as may be 

 intrusted to their care to the best advantage of science and country. 



III. 



Tradition requires that the president of your academy should im. 

 part to you his comments on the advance made in such branch of the 

 sciences as may have received his greatest attention. My duties might 

 perhaps lead me to speak of the weather. It is a toj^ic that is always 

 in order. But electricity has reached so prominent a i^lace in industrial 

 and social matters that you will readily pardon me for endeavoring to 

 retrace some of the features of its history. 



The science of electricity dates from at least as remote a period as 

 classic antiquity, but it did not really come into favor until the course 

 of the eighteenth century. Experiments then began to multiply, in 

 some confusion at first, for most of the important facts were made 

 known at the same time. Order was gradually established. The con- 

 ductibility of various mediums, the two kinds of electricity, and con- 

 densation, were discovered in turn. The transmission of signals to long 

 distances was even conceived, while De Eomas and Franklin ascertained 

 the identity of lightning and electrical sparks. There seemed to be 

 nothing left undone after Coulomb had demonstrated that the reciprocal 

 action of electrified bodies and magnets was the same as that of uni- 

 versal gravitation. The mathematical methods, as i^eTfected by the 

 astronomers, were applied to the new science, and the phenomena, or at 

 least most of them, were to be deduced by mere calculation. 



To be sure Volta made thereupon an unexpected discovery, the voltaic 

 pile, at the effects of which his contemporaries marveled ; but there will 

 always be shortsighted minds entertaining the notion that human 

 progress is drawing near the bounds of its course. 



In a History of Galvanism, published in 1805 and not extensively 

 read in our days (who among us can cherish the hope of being read a 

 century hence?), the author returns a very fit answer to the objection 

 of those who believe that history should not be published until it is 

 absolutely complete; but he i)roceeds thus: 



"Moreover, if fresh material compels us to publish a third part, as 

 it will consist of new matter distinct from that of the first two, it will 

 answer as a sequel to those two, and will perhaps make up the conclu- 

 sion of the History of Galvanism, which may be nearer its end than is 

 generally believed." 



It was an unfortunate prediction, for he was forthwith compelled to 

 add a third and even a fourth part; he would have many more addi- 

 tions to make. The First Consul had better judgment. Four years 



