The Mills. Ashby de la Zouch. | March 13th 1857
To Dr Faraday.
Since I received your last communication, I have been reading in the 3d vol of your exp. Researches2 and notwithstanding the indifference you entertain towards Swedenborgs3 theory I must say (though I fear to give offence) that the views you profess of the nature of force &c are essentially the same.
Swedenborg shows rationally & geometrically the relation existing between the forces gravitation and magnetism. He says of the magnetic element that it is “the first in which elementary nature presents herself as visible to the eye. Here it is that she begins to emerge out of her hiding place and from darkness to issue forth into light.”4
In fact he makes the magnet a stand point a key with which he unlocks the mysteries of the universe. Shows that the milky way is under the same care, is the axis of a mighty helix.
Reading your papers on lines of force5 I am perpetually reminded of something I have met with before and in him and what is singular the figures he has used to illustrate are many of them like yours6.
I am sure experiment is leading slowly and surely to his Principia. No doubt at the time it was written it appeared dark and obscure, but every fresh advance in physical knowledge has but served to illustrate and confirm its reasonings. I am astounded at the general negligence of it either it is truth or falsity. It has not been proved erroneous but it is scouted and accepted and acknowledged a truth it cannot be till more attention has been paid to it than hitherto.
I trust you will pardon my again obtruding the subject on your notice after what you have said. But I am so impressed with the way in which your thoughts tend to look for the resolution of forms of force that I cannot but think a perusal of the book would give you pleasure.
Do not let any prejudgment interfere but read it and I am sure you will agree it ought to be more generally known.
It is no dream but strict rational reasoning brought down at every fresh step to accord with geometry and known truths.
As an earnest of what I have said I will if you will accept it send you the 1st vol7.
I am Your Humble Servant W. Adcock
FARADAY, Michael (1852b): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Twenty-eighth Series. On Lines of Magnetic Force; their definite character; and their distribution within a Magnet and through Space”, Phil. Trans., 142: 25-56.
FARADAY, Michael (1855c): Experimental Researches in Electricity, volume 3, London.
SWEDENBORG, Emanuel (1846): The Principia; or, the First Principles of natural things, being new attempts toward a philosophical explanation of the elementary world, 2 volumes, London.
Please cite as “Faraday3250,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 23 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday3250