HENRY DEACON 157 



real vocation of the investigator like Faraday, 

 consists in the incessant marriage of both." 

 Again, "his principal researches are all 

 connected by an undercurrent of speculation. 

 Theoretic ideas were the very sap of his 

 intellect the source from which all his 

 strength as an experimenter was derived. 

 And so it must always be ; the great experi- 

 menter must ever be the habitual theorist, 

 whether or not he gives to his theories formal 

 enunciation." " Faraday was more than a 

 philosopher, he was a prophet, and often 

 wrought by an inspiration to be understood 

 by sympathy alone." 



On the 1 9th January, 1844, Faraday gave 

 a lecture at the Royal Institution, entitled, 

 " A speculation touching electric conduction 

 and the nature of matter," and " this lecture," 

 says Professor Tyndall, " reveals the manner 

 in which Faraday himself habitually deals 

 with his hypotheses. He incessantly 

 employed them to gain experimental ends, 

 but he incessantly took them down, as an 

 architect removes the scaffolding when the 

 edifice is complete." Faraday himself, on the 

 same topic says, " I cannot but doubt that he 

 who as a mere philosopher has the most 

 power of penetrating the secrets of nature, 



