I Am No Poet, But If You

Nature Is Our Kindest Friend And Best Critic In Experimental Science If We Only Allow Her Intimations To Fall Unbiased On Our Minds.

I Will Simply Express My Strong Belief, That That Point Of Self-education Which Consists In Teaching The Mind To Resist Its Desires And Inclinations, Until They Are Proved To Be Right, Is The Most Important Of All, Not Only In Things Of Natural Philosophy, But In Every Department Of Dally Life.

Magnetic Lines Of Force Convey A Far Better And Purer Idea Than The Phrase Magnetic Current Or Magnetic Flood: It Avoids The Assumption Of A Current Or Of Two Currents And Also Of Fluids Or A Fluid, Yet Conveys A Full And Useful Pictorial Idea To The Mind.

Who Would Not Have Been Laughed At If He Had Said In 1800 That Metals Could Be Extracted From Their Ores By Electricity Or That Portraits Could Be Drawn By Chemistry.

But I Must Confess I Am Jealous Of The Term Atom; For Though It Is Very Easy To Talk Of Atoms, It Is Very Difficult To Form A Clear Idea Of Their Nature, Especially When Compounded Bodies Are Under Consideration.