The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 11, 1846.

private one, consequently no extra saluting or ceremony has
been observed.

LITERATURE.
WESTMINSTER RE VIE TV. No. LXXXIX.
Our great living philosopher, Professor Faraday,
whose researches upon the most primitive elements of
the physical sciences have acquired for him a more than
European celebrity, receives in this number of the
Westminster Review an instalment of that approbation
to which his genius and his labours have entitled him,
caond which,ntell if denied
poraries,willbeby h
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tniniggglyaradNliyarsdptidrithyof
his
terity. Unlike many of his predecessors, Faraday has
abstained almost entirely from theorising; an hypothesis,
however specious, or however feasible, has possessed no
charms to him in comparison with those appertaining to
the acquisition of novel data. Acting upon the largest
principles of inductive philosophy, he has tested the ac-
curacy of his suppositions before admitting them into
truththanthebrilliancyoftheadvances
admirablethescientific
Pro-
fessor
re
admitted.
Rejecting that impatience with which the immortal
Kepler endeavoured to hurry an effect to some suppo-
sititious cause, Faraday has nevertheless partaken in
some measure of the capacity for suggesting schemes as
skeletons for first discoveries which so particularly cha-
racterised that most wonderful man ; in this manner
I both philosophers possessed a hypothetical imagination.
As we have just intimated, however, the imagination of
our English experimentalist is in a great measure suc-
cumbed, or rather modulated by the interposition of a
stern and inflexible prudence. Circumspect in the ac-
knowledgment of a conjecture, he has invariably given
that conjecture some degree of form, and solidity and
character by the most industrious analysis before he has
even dreamed of venturing upon its publication. And
from these very circumstances, from his captious treat-
ment of mere theories, from his repugnance to pro-
nounce upon any unfamiliar phase in natural philosophy,
before it has been elaborately tested and scrutinised in
all its bearings, an announcement from him, however
startling, or however contrary to all previous experi-
ence, comes upon us with peculiar weight. Incredulity
is seared away by a consciousness of the announcer's
reverence for mathematical precision, and his intimate
acquaintance with the rules of logic, as well as with the
laws of matter. On these accounts our sentiments were
restricted altogether to those of astonishment on the
declaration of Professor Faraday, which started before
the scientific and the general world towards the close of
1845, that a hitherto unknown affinity existed been
light and electricity—that if those two great forces were
not absolutely identical, they possessed a subtle correl-
lation with each other, and in proof thereof, he (Pro-
fessor Faraday) had succeeded in magnetizing and elec-
trifying a ray of light, and in illuminating a magnetic
line of force ! Wonderful and prodigious as was the
nature of this professed discovery, we were neverthe
less fully impressed with the actuality of the truth,
not from any blind credulity in the progression
of science, but from a recollection of that cha-
racter for accuracy in the elucidation of philosophical
fact which our illustrious countryman had acquired.
For many long and arduous years of experiment and in-
vestigation, Dr. Faraday has been pursuing in silence his
inquiries as to the nature of the analogy between these
two marvellous departments of nature ; for years he had
maintained silence; and not until a few years since, when
the matter was throughout proven by experiments as
simple and beautiful as the fact which they tended to
demonstrate, did the discoverer divulge the nature of his
discoveries. This we conceive to be a pattern to al

A superintendent of the metropolitan police and as-
sistants are in attendance upon the Prince during his so-
journ here.. _

The yacht built for the Emperor of Russia by Mr. Joseph
White; of East Cowes, a splendid schooner, was to be
launched this morning, named, by her Majesty's especial
permission, " Queen Victoria." His Highness the Grand
Duke and a brilliant party were expected to have been pre-
sent, but they were not.

who would aid in macadamizing the road Co knowledge,
to all those who have the real interests of science at
heart, to all those who would expound even the smallest
of those unnumbered mysteries with which we are sur-
rounded in creation, and the subtlety of which have as
yet baffled the research of the most astute intellects.
To these important events, the first paper in the TVest-

minster Review is devoted, and the history of the disco-
veries which preceded, and relate in some measure to
those of Professor Faraday, is given with singular per-
spicuity, while the manner of the writer evinces his
hearty relish for the theme. With the intention of in-
troducing his commentaries upon the recent assertions
of Faraday, the author prefaces them with a rather
microscopic narrative of the progress previously effected
in this division of science. From the time of Pytha-
goras and Pliny the loadstone has attracted, not only
fragments of iron, but the attention of every successive
philosopher ; nevertheless, it was not until 1200 that,
according to Di Vitri, we find this strange phe-
nomenon applied to the purposes of navigation,
through the medium of its polarity. Again, it was not
until as recently as 1590, that a surgeon of Rimini, am-
bitiously christened Julius Caesar, detected the fact that
all ferruginous substances contained a certain amount of
magnetic power. That the magnetic fluid, or power
contained in these bodies was composed of particles re-
pellant to each other, " inversely as the squares of the
distance ;" and that the particles of this fluid and the
principles of iron possessed a reciprocal attraction each
to each was an hypothesis reserved for the ingenious
mind of Epinus, in 1759. No further advances whatever
towards the development of magnetism appear to have
been made until 1800, when Coulomb defined, with the
assistance of the torsion balance, " the correct law of
magnetic attraction and repulsion ;" he proved that the
magnetism of iron was merely superficial, and so forth.
In 1820 tErsted discovered the connecting link between
electricity and magnetism. Such are the broad outlines
of that preliminary history to which we have referred,
and from a perception of the somewhat narrow boundaries
which had been overleaped in the organisation of data upon
so wonderful a field in science, the advantages which
must ultimately accrue from such discoveries as those of
Dr. Faraday, are obvious. Having demonstrated " the
magnetisation of light., and the illumination of magnetic
lines of force," philosophy will not tarry long upon the
mere threshold of one amongst her noblest structures ;
she will advance boldly to its still hidden mysteries,
cheered on by the success with which her votaries have
been already crowned, and yearning for the practical
employment of her revealed secrets, as a motor in some
definitive manner. With the asserted discoveries of
Baron Richenbach, to the effect that magnetic patients
have beheld in darkened rooms " a luminosity like a
moving flame at the poles of an electric battery, and
around powerful magnets," we must acknowledge we have
but a comparatively feeble sympathy ; and, but that
the translation of these " Researches" bears the sanction
of Dr. Gregory's signature, we should have rejected them
as altogether fictitious. The paper under notice should
be perused very generally ; it is teeming with informa-
tion, and is penned in a
.generous and popular strain.
" The Tendency of Puseyism" is a copious retrospect of
the tractarian movement, but the dogmatism of many
sentiments in the disquisition we conceive to be rather
clumsy and inadmissable. "The Lost Senses" is a
charming review of a publication, written by Dr. Kitto,
upon the most melancholy calamities of body to which
humanity is subjected. With all deference to the
amiable Doctor, we regard the comparative wretched-
ness resulting rom blindness or deafness as peculiarly
afflicting, according to the idiosyncracy of the patient,
not from any inherent preponderence in the one or the
other. Deafness to Beethoven must have been a more
horrible privation to that musical Titan than possibly
the loss of all his other senses combined ; whereas blind-
ness to Milton, who had loved the glorious phases of
creation through his visual organ, must have possessed a
proportionate intensity. The argument, however, in
either instance is solemn, and of ineffable melancholy.
" The Oregon Question," with " Railways and Metro-
politan Improvements," are singularly elaborate and in-
structive articles : in both the writers are intimately
versed in their different subjects, so that to all who are
ignorant of the merits of our American squabble, the
former will prove a most comprehensive informant, while
to those doubtful as to the influence of railway specula-
tions upon our large towns, but especially upon our
vast metropolis, the latter will enable them to form a
definite opinion. .Number eighty-nine, though not quite
so glorious as the ninety-eight of the Corn Bill majo-
rity, will be welcomed as of a kindred spirit.

THE ROBBER. By G. P. R. James.
" The Robber" forms the eighth volume of Mr. James's
works. This series, every volume of which is orna-
mented with an engraving, is wanting in some of the
necessary adjuncts of good paper, type, printing, and
" getting up." It will be very acceptable to the author's
admirers, who will be able to procure all his works in a
compact form, and when we consider his prolific power,
it must certainly be an advantage to have them in one
volume instead of three.

THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS.

By Albert Smith. Standard Novels.
The history of the celebrated " poisoner of the seven-
teenth century," which for many months interested and
appalled the readers of the Miscellany, now appears in
the neat and attractive form of a standard novel. The
name of the author will be a sufficient passport to many
who are acquainted with his more genial and attractive
compositions; and the title itself will charm, and the
contents will not disappoint, the lovers of the horrible,
from which class, however, we beg to be excepted.