THOUGHTS ON OUR CONCEPTIONS OF PHYSICAL LAW. 7 



the action of the wind, *' which sweeps some rain out of all gauges, and most, 

 .11 of those which are highest, and therefore most exposed." 



Lavoisier's idea that all acids were compounds of oxygen, received a com- 

 pete refutation when the constitution of prussic and muriatic acids became 

 tiown. In fact, the errors of scientific men are well nigh innumerable, not be- 

 luse they are men of science, but because they are men^ and we are probably 

 istified in saying quite in general, that if the man who never committed a mental 

 [under be found, we shall also find a man who never conceived a vigorous 

 lought. The fact that the results of scientific men can usually be checked by 

 bservation and experiment, perhaps diminishes their fiability to err and enables 

 lem to discover multitudes of errors that would otherwise escape their attention, 

 'his does not tend to make the results of their investigations less weighty than 

 ssults which have been reached by other processes, more purely mental. If 

 len of science, with their severe methods of research, their habits of testing their 

 onclusions by observation and experiment, are nevertheless led into wrong con- 

 usions, what does it prove ? Simply that the human mind, even under the 

 lost favorable circumstances, is fallible ! Is there a class of men less liable to 

 lake mistakes ? It is precisely this experience which causes many to place a 

 nail value upon the unsupported assertions and speculations of any man, bow- 

 lder honest, earnest, or able he may be. 



On this point, one of the most admirable of experimenters, Faraday, has 

 eautifully said : "The world little knows how many of the thoughts and 

 leories which have passed through the mind of the scientific investigator, have 

 een crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse 

 xamination ; that in the most successful instances, not a tenth of the suggestions, 

 16 hopes, the wishes, the preliminary conclusions, have been realized." 



In the 24th series of his "Experimental Researches," Faraday describes 

 lany tedious and intricate experiments, in which he tried to connect gravitation 

 nd electricity. ' ' He labored with characteristic energy for days, on the clock 

 )wer of the Houses of Parliament and in the shot-tower of Southwark, raising 

 id lowering heavy weights, connected with wire coils. Many times his great 

 till as an experimenter prevented him from being deceived by results which 

 thers would have regarded as conclusive proofs of his idea, and when the whole 

 as done, there remained absolutely no result." For although the results were 

 holly negative, Faraday could never accept them as conclusive against his idea, 

 ) which he had been led by his experiments on the relations between electricity 

 nd magnetism. His mental condition after this work was done, is best described 

 1 his own words. "Occasionally, and frequently, the exercise of the judgment 

 ught to end in absolute reservation. It may be very distasteful, and great fatigue 

 > suspend a conclusion; but as we are not infallible, so we ought to be cautious. " 



It is a matter of common observation, that men who, like Faraday, have done 

 mch to widen the boundaries of our knowledge, are precisely the ones who are 

 lost frequendy in a state of doubt, while those who have received all their 



Jevons, xnPhil, Mag. Dec. 1861. 



