THE WAVE THEORY. 277 



head, or more barbarously exposes, the first.* The re- 

 viewer taunts Young with claiming the inheritance of 

 Newton's queries, ' vainly imagining that he fulfils this 

 destination by ringing changes on these hypotheses, 

 arguing from them as if they were experiments or de- 

 monstrations, twisting them into a partial coincidence 

 with the clumsy imaginations of his own brain, and pom- 

 pously parading what Newton left as hints in a series 

 of propositions with all the affectation of system.' 



To Brougham's coarse invective Young replied in a 

 masterly and exhaustive letter. A single copy, and one 

 only, was sold by its publisher. There were at that 

 time in the ranks of science no minds competent to 

 understand the controversy. The poison worked with- 

 out an antidote, and, for thirteen years, Young and his 

 researches on light had no place in public thought. 

 His discoveries remained absolutely unnoticed until their 

 re-discovery by Fresnel lifted the pall which for so long 

 a time had been thrown over this splendid genius. 



Young lectured for two years at the Royal Institu- 

 tion, and he afterwards threw the lectures into a perma- 

 nent form in a quarto volume of 750 pages, with 40 

 plates, and nearly 600 figures and maps. He also pro- 

 duced at the same time a second volume of the same 

 magnitude, embracing his optical and other meiroirs, 

 and a most elaborate classed catalogue of works and 

 papers, accompanied by notes, extracts, and calcula- 

 tions. For this colossal work Young was to receive 

 1,000. His publisher however became bankrupt, and 

 he never touched the money. His lectures constitute a 

 monument of Young's power almost equal to that of 

 his original memoirs. They are replete with profound 

 reflections and suggestions. In his eighth lecture, on 

 * Collision,' the term energy, now in such constant use, 





