31 g ACTION AT A DISTANCE. 



The formula of Ampere, however, is of extreme complexity, as compared 

 with Newton's law of gravitation, and many attempts have been made to res..l\v 

 it into something of greater apparent simplicity. 



I have no wish to lead you into a discussion of any of these attempts to 

 improve a mathematical formula. Let us turn to the independent inethi 

 investigation employed by Faraday in those researches in electricity and i 



which have made this Institution one of the most venerable shrines of 



No man ever more conscientiously and systematically laboured to inn 

 all his powers of mind than did Faraday from the very beginning of his 

 BCTfrptifif! career. But whereas the general course of scientific method then 

 aisted in the application of the ideas of mathematics and astronomy to each nt-\v 

 investigation in turn, Faraday seems to have had no opportunity of acquiring 

 a technical knowledge of mathematics, and his knowledge of astronomy 

 mainly derived from books. 



Hence, though he had a profound respect for the great discovery of 

 he regarded the attraction of gravitation as a sort of sacred mystery, which, 

 as he was not an astronomer, he had no right to gainsay or to don! it. his 

 duty being to believe it in the exact form in which it was delivered to Li in. 

 Such a dead faith was not likely to lead him to explain new phenomena I>y 

 means of direct attractions. 



Besides this, the treatises of Poisson and Ampere are of so technical a 

 form, that to derive any assistance fi-om them the student must have been 

 thoroughly trained in mathematics, and it is very doubtful if such a training 

 can be begun with advantage in mature years. 



Thus Faraday, with his penetrating intellect, his devotion to science, suul 

 his opportunities for experiments, was debarred from following the course of 

 thought which had led to the achievements of the French philosophers, and 

 was obliged to explain the phenomena to himself by means of a symbolism 

 which he could understand, instead of adopting what had hitherto btvn tin- 

 only tongue of the learned. 



This new symbolism consisted of those lines of force extending thems< 

 in every direction from electrified and magnetic bodies, which Faraday in his 

 mind's eye saw as distinctly as the solid bodies from which they emanated. 



The idea of lines of force and their exhibition by means of iron li! 

 was nothing new. They had been observed repeatedly, and investigated matin 





