410 FEAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



daring ideas of a similar kind. Magnetism he knew 

 could be evoked by electricity, and he thought that 

 electricity, in its turn, ought to be capable of evolution 

 by magnetism. On August 29, 1831, his experiments 

 on this subject began. He had been fortified by pre- 

 vious trials, which, though failures, had begotten in- 

 stincts directing him towards the truth. He, like 

 every strong worker, might at times miss the outward 

 object,, but he always gained the inner light, education, 

 and expansion. Of this Faraday's life was a constant 

 illustration. By November he had discovered and col- 

 ligated a multitude of the most wonderful and unex- 

 pected phenomena. He had generated currents by 

 currents; currents by magnets, permanent and transi- 

 tory; and he afterwards generated currents by the 

 earth itself. Arago's ' Magnetism of Eotation/ which 

 had for years offered itself as a challenge to the best 

 scientific intellects of Europe, now fell into his hands. 

 It proved to be a beautiful, but still special, illustration 

 of the great principle of Magneto-electric Induction. 

 Nothing equal to this latter, in the way of pure experi- 

 mental enquiry, had previously been achieved. 



Electricities from various sources were next exam- 

 ined, and their differences and resemblances revealed. 

 He thus assured himself of their substantial identity. 

 He then took up Conduction, and gave many striking 

 illustrations of the influence of Fusion on Conducting 

 Power. Eenouncing professional work, from which at 

 this time he might have derived an income of many 

 thousands a year, he poured his whole momentum into 

 his researches. He was long entangled in Electro- 

 chemistry. The light of law was for a time obscured 

 by the thick umbrage of novel facts; but he finally 

 emerged from his researches with the great principle of 

 Definite Electro-chemical Decomposition in his hands. 



