When strange metals like potassium and sodium
were isolated by an entirely new method, the astonishment must have
been on a par with that caused in our time by the magnificent
discovery of radium. The polarization of light is a phenomenon as
undoubtedly singular as the existence of the X rays; and the upheaval
produced in natural philosophy by the theories of the disintegration
of matter and the ideas concerning electrons is probably not more
considerable than that produced in the theories of light and heat by
the works of Young and Rumford.
If we now disentangle ourselves from contingencies, it will be
understood that in reality physical science progresses by evolution
rather than by revolution. Its march is continuous. The facts which
our theories enable us to discover, subsist and are linked together
long after these theories have disappeared. Out of the materials of
former edifices overthrown, new dwellings are constantly being
reconstructed.
The labour of our forerunners never wholly perishes. The ideas of
yesterday prepare for those of to-morrow; they contain them, so to
speak, _in potentia_.
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