It looked like a spirit strong in faith and steadfast in the midst
of the storm of passions sweeping across it, and though it might
fade and revive, still it held on to the rock as in hope and giving
hope. And the very drops, which in the whirlwind of their fury
seemed as if they would carry all away, were made to revive it and
give it greater beauty.'
Footnote to Chapter 9
[1] See note, p. 77.
Chapter 10.
Magnetization of light.
But we must quit the man and go on to the discoverer: we shall
return for a brief space to his company by-and-by. Carry your
thoughts back to his last experiments, and see him endeavouring to
prove that induction is due to the action of contiguous particles.
He knew that polarized light was a most subtle and delicate
investigator of molecular condition. He used it in 1834 in
exploring his electrolytes, and he tried it in 1838 upon his
dielectrics. At that time he coated two opposite faces of a glass
cube with tinfoil, connected one coating with his powerful electric
machine and the other with the earth, and examined by polarized
light the condition of the glass when thus subjected to strong
electric influence. He failed to obtain any effect; still he was
persuaded an action existed, and required only suitable means to
call it forth.
After his return from Switzerland he was beset by these thoughts;
they were more inspired than logical: but he resorted to magnets and
proved his inspiration true.
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