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State of the Physical Sciences. 301 
was secure in the hands of gravitation, if only space should be 
kept open, and the dust and cobwebs which Newton had swept 
from the skies should not reappear. Prophetic eyes contemplated 
the possibility of an untimely end to the revolution of planets, if 
their ever-expanding atmospheres should rush in to fill the room 
vacated by the maelstroms of Descartes. When it was stated 
that the medium would be too attenuated to produce a sensible 
check in the headway of planets, and when, in more recent times, 
splendors of analysis dimmed the eyes of science to the intrinsic 
difficulties of Newton’s theory, and familiarity with the language 
of attraction concealed the mystery that was lurking beneath it. 
the force of gravitation, were sown by a contemporary o ew- 
great stir in science at the time. The world did not awake to its 
full significance until the perplexing problem of ocean telegraphs 
. id e P 
tific advisers of the cable companies were the first to do justice to 
Faraday. This is one of the many returns made to theoretical 
electricity for the support it gave to the most magnificent com- 
ial enterprise. 
