24 Professor Tyndall on the Electric Light. [Jan. 17, 



regenerators — men of high thoughts and aspirations — who would 

 place the operations of the scientific mind under the control of a 

 hierarchy which should dictate to the man of science the course that 

 he ought to pursue. How this hierarchy is to get its wisdom they do 

 not explain. They decry and denounce scientific theories ; they scorn 

 all reference to aether, and atoms, and molecules, as subjects lying far 

 apart from the world's needs; and yet such ultra-sensible conceptions 

 are often the spur to the greatest discoveries. The source, in fact, 

 from which the true natural philosopher derives inspiration and uni- 

 fying power, is essentially ideal. Faraday lived in this ideal world. 

 Nearly half a century ago, when he first obtained a spark from a 

 magnet, an Oxford don expressed regret that such a discovery should 

 have been made, as it placed a new and facile implement in the hands 

 of the incendiary. To regret, a Comtist hierarchy would have pro- 

 bably added repression, sending Faraday back to his bookbinder's 

 bench as a more dignified and practical sphere of action than peddling 

 with a magnet. And yet it is Faraday's spark which now shines 

 upon our coasts, and promises to illuminate our streets, halls, quays, 

 squares, warehouses, and, perhaps at no distant day, our homes. 



[J. T.] 



