Page:Various Forces of Matter.djvu/8

iv We say tranquil, and yet the word is almost without meaning in the Cosmos;—where do we find tranquillity? The sea, the seat of animal, vegetable, and mineral changes, is at war with the earth, and the air lends itself to the strife. The globe, the scene of perpetual intestine change, is as a mass, acting on, and acted on, by the other planets of our system, and the very system itself is changing its place in space, under the influence of a known force springing from an unknown centre.

For many years past the English public have had the privilege of listening to the discourses and speculations of Professor Faraday, at the Royal Institution, on Matter and Forces, and it is not too much to say that no lecturer on Physical Science since the time of Sir Humphry Davy has been listened to with more delight. The pleasure which all derive from the expositions of Faraday is of a somewhat different kind to that produced by any other philosopher whose lectures we have ever