414 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



research. The value of a discovery is to be measured 

 by the intellectual action it calls forth ; and it wag 

 Faraday's good fortune to strike such lodes of scientific 

 truth as give occupation to some of the best intellects 

 of our age. 



The salient quality of Faraday's scientific character 

 reveals itself from beginning to end of these volumes ; 

 a union of ardour and patience the one prompting 

 the attack, the other holding him on to it, till defeat 

 was final or victory assured. Certainty in one sense or 

 the other was necessary to his peace of mind. The 

 right method of investigation is perhaps incommuni- 

 cable ; it depends on the individual rather than on the 

 system, and the mark is missed when Faraday's re- 

 searches are pointed to as merely illustrative of the 

 power of the inductive philosophy. 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 philosophic method ; 

 the energy of a strong soul expressing itself after its 

 own fashion, and acknowledging no mediator 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 rela- 

 tions. It contains letters from Humboklt, Herschel, 

 Hachette, De la Rive, Dumas, Liebig, Melloni, Bec- 

 querel, Oersted, Pliicker, Du Bois Reymond, Lord 

 Melbourne, Prince Louis Napoleon, 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 



