Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/328

314 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 electro-magnetic forces under the symbols of his mathematics, and made light a variety of electro-magnetic action. His analysis gave a velocity essentially the same as that of Weber, with the advantage of being a physical reality and not a 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 every thing: and, with immense spread of wing and power of beak, he has hunted down his victims in all quarters, and from each has extracted something new and interesting for the intellectual nourishment of his readers." Clear physical views must precede the application of mathematics to any subject. Maxwell and Thomson are liberal in their acknowledgments to Faraday. Mr. Thomson says: "Faraday, without mathematics, divined the result of the mathematical investigation; and, what has proved of infinite value to the mathematicians 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 generally accepted without vigorous opposition. A large amount of intellectual capital has been honestly invested in the fortunes of the other side. The change is recommended by powerful physical arguments, and it disenthralls the theories of science from many metaphysical difficulties which weigh heavily on some minds. On the other hand, the style of mathematics which the innovation introduces is novel and complex; and good mathematicians may find it necessary to go to school again before they can read and understand the strange analysis. It is feared that, with many who are not easily deflected from the old ruts, the intricacies of the new mathematics will outweigh the superiority of the new physics.

The old question, in regard to the nature of gravitation, was never settled: it was simply dropped. Now it is revived with as much earnestness as ever, and with more intelligence. Astronomy cast in its own mould the original theories of electrical and magnetic action. The revolution in electricity and magnetism must necessarily react upon astronomy. It was proved by Laplace, from data which would now, probably, require a numerical correction, that the velocity of the force of gravitation could not be less than eight million times the velocity of light; in fact, that it was infinite. Those who believe in action at a distance cannot properly speak of the transmission of gravitation. Force can be transmitted only by matter: either with