Experimental Researches in Electricity. 5 



throughout them, several related, yet at the same time dis- 

 tinct, trains of investigation, that have an interest and a 

 beauty peculiarly their own. These we shall not fail to no- 

 tice as we progress in our review ; and we may remark that 

 the general principles which Faraday has so successfully 

 established, are not merely extensions of pre-existing know- 

 ledge, but they are essentially new laws of nature — new pro- 

 vinces added to the domains of science, inviting to extended 

 enquiry, and promising rich returns. 



The first and second series of the experimental research- 

 es, to which we purpose confining the present article, are 

 devoted to the investigation of certain new and important 

 points in the science of electro-magnetism. They presup- 

 pose, on the part of their readers, a somewhat extensive ac- 

 quaintance with the doctrines of this science ; but still there 

 is nothing in them that may not readily be understood, and we 

 shall endeavour, as far as we can, to make an exposition of 

 them clear and explicit. This object is materially facilita- 

 ted by the lucid style in which the researches are narrated, 

 since that vividness of conception, and steadiness of thought, 

 at all times so characteristic of truly original minds, are, in 

 Faraday's case, accompanied by a corresponding facility of 

 exposition, and command of language, so that his results are 

 invariably presented to the reader in the simplest and most 

 appropriate terms, and illustrated in the most effective, and 

 often engaging manner. He appears to repudiate entirely 

 that mystic style in which many love so suspiciously to 

 clothe their thoughts, and in the purest spirit of philosophy, 

 his sole aim seems to be first to discover, then to expound, 

 the simple and unadorned truth. 



So early as the year 1825 Faraday had experimented, but 

 without success, on the induction of electrical currents : from 

 that time forward his mind appears to have been keenly 

 alive to the detection of phenomena relating to this branch 

 of the subject, and a conviction seems to have been ever pre- 



