76 THE HIGHEST TRIBUTE. 



for the time novel, and apparently heterodox, but that the 

 very terms in which these facts are expressed, which have 

 become familiar as part of our language, were at 

 that time, of necessity, only to be understood after the 

 significance of the facts had been appreciated. It is one 

 thing to feel satisfied with the cogency of an argument after 

 it has the authority of general acceptance, and quite another 

 so to appreciate this cogency for oneself as to give one 

 confidence to avow acceptance with it in the face of general 

 opinion. 



At the time of which we are writing there were a band 

 of physicists in this country, alone, who, by the advances 

 they made in the various branches of physics, have rendered 

 the era remarkable. Faraday, then engaged in completing, 

 his experimental researches in electricity ; Daniell and 

 Grove, whose work contributed directly to Joule's results ; 

 and besides these, Graham, then in the midst of his researches 

 on the diffusion of gases ; Miller, Wheatstone, Whewell, 

 Herschel, Forbes, Airy, Apjohn, Henry, Herapath, and others. 

 The now classical works of these men, fundamental as they 

 were to the various branches of science, place them 

 in the very highest position for honesty of purpose and 

 enthusiasm in scientific advancement ; and remove them as 

 far above the suspicion of prejudice or neglect as is possible 

 for any human being. Those who were subsequently the 

 first to follow Joule belonged to another generation. Of 

 these Thomson (Sir William) and Stokes (Sir Gabriel) were 

 still at Cambridge, Stokes having taken his degree 

 of B.A. the year before, and Thomson being only in 

 his third year, Rankine was still preparing for the career of 

 an engineer, being 22 years of age, while Tate and Maxwell 

 were still at school. 



