20 



HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY. 



occurred while the general notions and laws of the 

 phenomena were becoming, and were not yet be- 

 come, fixed and clear. At such a period, a large 

 and popular circle of spectators and amateurs feel 

 themselves nearly upon a level, in the value of 

 their trials and speculations, with more profound 

 thinkers : at a later period, when the subject is 

 become a science, that is. a study in which all must 

 be left far behind who do not come to it with disci- 

 plined, informed, and logical minds, the cultivators 

 are far more few, and the shout of applause less 

 tumultuous and less loud. We may add, too, that 

 the experiments, which are the most striking to the 

 senses, lose much of their impressiveness with their 

 novelty. Electricity, to be now studied rightly, 

 must be reasoned upon mathematically; how slowly 

 such a mode of study makes its way, we shall see in 

 the progress of the theory, which we must now pro- 

 ceed to narrate (B). 



