THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



♦ — I — 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



APRIL 1857. 



XXXV, On the Conservation of Force. 

 Bij Professor Faraday, D.C.L., F.R.S.'^ 



VARIOUS circumstances induce me at the present moment 

 to put forth a consideration regarding the conservation of 

 force. I do not suppose that I can utter any truth respecting 

 it that has not already presented itself to the high and piercing 

 intellects which move within the exalted regions of science ; but 

 the course of ray own investigations and views makes me think 

 that the consideration may. be of service to those persevering 

 labourers (amongst whom I endeavour to class myself), who, 

 occupied in the comparison of physical ideas with fundamental 

 principles, and continually sustaining and aiding themselves by 

 experiment and observation, delight to labour for the advance of 

 natural knowledge, and strive to follow it into undiscovered 

 regions. 



There is no question which lies closer to the root of all phy- 

 sical knowledge than that which inquires whether force can be 

 destroyed or not. The progress of the strict science of modern 

 times has tended more and more to produce the conviction that 

 "force can neither be created nor destroyed," and to render 

 daily more manifest the value of the knowledge of that truth in 

 experimental research. To admit, indeed, tliat force may be 

 destructible or can altogether disappear, would be to admit that 

 matter could be uncreated; for we know matter only by its 

 forces : and though one of these is most commonly referred to, 

 namely gravity, to prove its presence, it is not because gravity 

 has any pretension or any exemption amongst the forms of force 



♦ From the Proceedings of the Royal Institution for February 27, 1857. 

 Phil. May. S. 4. Vol. 13. No. 86. April 1857. R 



