34 THE PROGRESS AND SPIRIT OF 



as the little needle which man makes his index of this mys- 

 terious force. 



From these vast and remote actions in space around us y 

 we come to those affecting the matter, whether inorganic or 

 living, of the earth on which we dwell. The same great 

 physical forces are still in unceasing action here ; with more 

 diversity of effect from the differences of the material acted 

 upon, and from the reflected influence of organic life upon 

 the matter out of which it is engendered. We have already 

 spoken of the impossibility of giving more than a glance over 

 this wide field;, but even such cursory view will suffice to 

 show the magnitude of the objects attained in each science, 

 and the energy which is ever active to forward the work : 

 ra rjplspya h rs\o$ s^spyd^scdai. On one subject, indeed, that 

 of Electricity, though beyond any other prolific of great dis- 

 coveries, we need say little here, having in a recent review of 

 M. De la Rive's work described its progress, and the wonder- 

 ful results thence obtained, as well for pure science as for the 

 practical uses of man. Yet even amidst these marvels of 

 human attainment, it must needs be avowed that on certain 

 points we are still in the very alphabet of Electrical science. 

 The terms of positive and negative, though required for prac- 

 tical use and illustration, are little better than barren phrases 

 as regards any perfect theory of the two polarities ; while the 

 whole subject of induction and conduction is still awaiting 

 more certain and complete conclusions than have yet been 

 obtained. That induction is really a certain form of con- 

 duction, we have every reason from Faraday's researches to 

 believe. But we have yet to learn what are the states of 

 the molecules of matter which minister to these inconceiv- 

 ably rapid propagations of force ? what the circumstances 

 which render some bodies scarcely capable of this conduc- 

 tion ? what, further, the material conditions which give 



