340 DISCOURSE ON THE STUDY 



disposition to place itself in the magnetic meridian ; 

 but the essential condition had been omitted, that of 

 allowing the pile to discharge itself freely, a condition 

 which assuredly never would have occurred of itself 

 to any experimenter. Of all the philosophers who 

 had speculated on this subject, none had so pertina- 

 ciously adhered to the idea of a necessary connection 

 between the phenomena as Oersted. Baffled often, 

 he returned to the attack ; and his perseverance was 

 at length rewarded by the complete disclosure of the 

 wonderful phenomena of electro-magnetism. There 

 is something in this which reminds us of the obsti- 

 nate adherence of Columbus to his notion of the 

 necessary existence of the New World ; and the 

 whole history of this beautiful discovery may serve 

 to teach us reliance on those general analogies and 

 parallels between great branches of science by which 

 one strongly reminds us of another, though no direct 

 connection appears ; as an indication not to be neg- 

 lected of a community of origin. 



(377.) It is highly probable that we are still 

 ignorant of many interesting features in electrical 

 science, which the study of the Voltaic circuit will 

 one day disclose. The violent mechanical effects 

 produced by it on mercury, placed under conduct- 

 ing liquids which have been referred by Professor 

 Erman to a modified form of capillary attraction, 

 but which a careful and extended view of the phe- 

 nomena have led others* to regard in a very dif- 

 ferent light, as pointing out a primary action of a 

 dynamical rather than a statical character, deserve, 

 in this point of view, a further investigation ; and 

 See Phil. Trans. 1824. 



