MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH. 15 



in aid of research. Henry was then a private tutor 

 in a distinguished family at Albany ; studying 

 mathematics in hours when his duties to his 

 pupils had ceased, and when other young men 

 might have thought they had earned the right to 

 relaxation and enjoyment. 



In 1824, before Henry ever had in his hands 

 any instruments for research in electricity, Fara- 

 day, thus trained and equipped, began his attack 

 upon the problem of magneto- electricity and 

 failed ; and in 1830 it was not yet solved. 



The discoveries of deductive science need no ap- 

 paratus. They are made and matured in the 

 brain ; and to record them is the only physical 

 incident to their existence or development. 

 Plato would have looked with disgust and 

 contempt upon a laboratory ; and would have 

 scorned the suggestion that time, or place, or 

 physical surroundings, could affect the workings 

 of his mind, or influence his deductions. But the 

 new philosophy, which has changed the face of the 

 world, is of no such ethereal nature. It is born in 

 observation of physical things; it is nurtured upon 

 experiments that cost money, and time, and labor; 

 its maturity is in perfected arts, and in things 

 to be seen, and handled, and enjoyed by the 

 senses; its end is to subordinate the blind forces of 

 nature to the uses of man to mitigate the ills, and 

 multiply the joys of life. They who are the ser- 



