410 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



Faraday's mind. It had been fostered by his discovery 

 of Magnetic Rotations, and it planted in him more 

 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 

 previous trials, which, though failures, had begotten 

 instincts 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 un- 

 expected 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 Rotation,' 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 exa- 

 mined, 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. Renouncing professional work, from which at 

 ihis 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 



