CHAPTER XV. 



WHY WAS NOT THIS DISCOVERY SOONER MADE ? 



IT may be asked, why should the discovery 

 of this great source of all the forces, vital and 

 physical, have been delayed to the present 

 time ? Master minds have been engaged 

 for ages in efforts to solve the wonderful 

 problem. 



HERSCHEL, NEWTON, HUMBOLDT, FARADAY, 

 MOSSOTTI, and many others have held the key 

 almost within their control, and the consum- 

 mation has only failed of being" realized at an 

 earlier day by reason of the tenacity with 

 which the minds of men are held by precon- 

 ceived and pre-existing opinions. 



SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL regarded solar 

 and stellar light as the effects of an electro- 

 magnetic process. 



NEWTON recognized all movements of the 

 cosmical bodies to be the result of one and 

 the same force ; u of some higher and still 

 unknown power" but luminiferous ether 



