196 Faraday as a Discoverer. 
perplexed and bewildered him. In his attempts to get rida 
is perplexity he was often iously rebelling against the 
limitations of the intellect itself. He loved to quote Newton 
upon this point: over and over again he introduces his mem- 
orable words, “That gravity should be innate, inherent, and 
essential to matter, so that one body may act upon anotherat 
a distance through vacuwm and without the mediation of any- 
thing else, by and through which this action and force may le 
conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity 
_ that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters acom- 
petent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it. Gravity must 
be caused by an agent acting constantly according te certain — 
laws ; but whether this agent be material or immaterial L have 
left to the consideration of my readers,”* : 
Faraday does not see the same difficulty in his contiguous 
particles, And yet by transferring the conception from mast" 
to particles we simply lessen size and distance, but we do 0 
alter the quality of the conception. Whatever difficulty te 
mind experiences in conceiving of action at sensible distancts, 
besets it also when it attempts to conceive of action at insens: 
ble distances, Still the investigation of the point whether 
electric and magnetic effects were wrought out thro the 
intervention of contiguous particles or not, had 4 P ly. 
straight lines. Gravity, he knows, will not turn @ cornet, Wi 
exerts its pull along a right line ; hence his aim and | gene 
place in sae ha 
the ee | . 
carried on by means of a medium surrounding hee this 
Faraday ples with the subject experimentally. By simple 1 
intuition he & te dista exert 
shadow of a body which soreened it from direct edges : 
pictured the lines of electric force bending round BY: he prow! 
the screen, and reuniting on the other side of it; a0 etree 
that in many cases the augmentation of the Race Jessel 
ing, increased the charge of the sphere. This pat dita : 
behind the screen, sit receive : 
Faraday’s theoretic views on this subject have nt, andes 
general acceptance, but they drove him to yc guitable 
periment with him was always prolific of results. 
* Newton's third letter to Bentley. 
