ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR LOVERING. 651 
without any mediation, the effect would be instantaneous, and we 
are at a loss to discover the physical meaning which he attaches 
to his velocity. Gauss abandoned his researches in electromag- 
hetism because he could not satisfy his mind in regard to the 
propagation of its influence in time. Other mathematicians have 
Worked for a solution, but have lost themselves in a cloud of mathe- 
_ Matical abstraction. The two theories of light have exhausted all 
imaginable ways in which force can be gradually transmitted 
without increase or loss of energy. Maxwell cut the Gordian 
knot when he selected the luminiferous ether itself as the arena 
on which to marshal the electromagnetic forces under the symbols 
of his mathematics, and made light a variety of electromagnetic 
— Action. His analysis gave a velocity essentially the same as that 
_ Of Weber, with the advantage of being a physical reality and not 
= à mere ratio. Of the two volumes of Mr. Maxwell, freighted 
with the richest and heaviest cargo, the reviewer says: ‘* Their 
author has, as it were, flown at everything: and, with immense 
spread of wing and power of beak, he has hunted down his vic- 
tims in all quarters, and from each has extracted something new 
and interesting for the intellectual nourishment of his readers.” 
Gear physical views must precede the application of mathematics 
to any subject. Maxwell and Thomson are liberal in their ac- 
Knowledgments to Faraday. Mr. Thomson says: “Faraday, 
Without mathematics, divined the result of the mathematical inves- 
tigation; and, what has proved of infinite value to the mathema- 
ticians themselves, he has given them an articulate language in 
_ Which to express their results. Indeed, the whole language of the 
magnetic field and lines of force is Faraday’s. It must be said 
for the mathematicians that they greedily accepted it, and have 
ever since been most zealous in using it to the best advantage.” 
It is not expected that the new views of physics will be gen- 
erally accepted without vigorous opposition. A large amount of 
a ts, and it disenthralls the theories of science from many 
_ Metaphysical difficulties which weigh heavily on some minds. On 
_ ‘Me other hand, the style of mathematics which the innovation 
ces is novel and complex; and good ‘mathematicians may 
Mar necessary to go to school again before they can read and 
_ ‘mderstand the strange analysis. It is feared that with many who 
