436 FRAGMENTS OP SCIENCE 



the individual rather than on the system, and the mark 

 is missed when Faraday's researches are pointed to as 

 merely illustrative of the power of the inductive philoso- 

 phy. The brain may be filled with that philosophy; but 

 without the energy and insight which this man possessed, 

 and which with him were personal and distinctive, we 

 should never rise to the level of his achievements. His 

 power is that of individual genius, rather than of philo- 

 sophic method; the energy of a strong soul expressing 

 itself after its own fashion, and acknowledging no medi- 

 ator between it and Nature. 



The second volume of the "Life and Letters," like the 

 first, is a historic treasury as regards Faraday's work and 

 character, and his scientific and social relations. It con- 

 tains letters from Humboldt, Herschel, Hachette, De la 

 Rive, Dumas, Liebig, Melloni, Becquerel, Oersted, Pliicker, 

 Du Bois-Reymond, Lord Melbourne, Prince Louis Napo- 

 leon, and many other distinguished men. I notice, with 

 particular pleasure, a letter from Sir John Herschel, in 

 reply to a sealed packet addressed to him by Faraday, 

 but which he had permission to open if he pleased. The 

 packet referred to one of the many unfulfilled hopes which 

 spring up in the minds of fertile investigators: 



"Go on and prosper, 'from strength to strength,' like 

 a victor marching with assured step to further conquests; 

 and be certain that no voice will join more heartily in 

 the peans that already begin to rise, and will speedily 

 swell into a shout of triumph, astounding even to your- 

 self, than that of J. F. W. Herschel." 



Faraday's behavior to Melloni, in 1835, merits a word 

 of notice. The young man was a political exile in Paris. 

 He had newly fashioned and applied the thermo-electric 



