ments which he felt convinced would produce a new era in that branch of science, he seemed perfectly indifferent as to their publicity or fate. They were detailed in a series of letters to an individual who was left at liberty to dispose of them as he might think fit, and were ultimately given to the world without his revisal or knowledge, in a manner purely accidental.

As a man of science his reputation rests not alone on his skill in accurate observation, or the fertility of his invention in the line of experiments, but also upon his power of induction and the discovery of general principles. Although the proof of the identity of electricity and lightning was that which perhaps gave him most eclat in the eyes of the public, yet the general principles which he has expressed in his theory are of much more importance to the cause of science. They give in the compass of a few sentences, not an account of one fact, but the expression of laws of action from which when the conditions are known, thousands of facts may be deduced. It should never be forgotten that the object of science is not the accumulation of mere facts, but the discovery of principles or laws, and that these laws are rendered available in scientific generalization by being briefly expressed in the form of a theory.

It was at one time supposed that the rival theory of Du Faye of two fluids was more susceptible of a mathematical form, but this is not the case. All the results of the mathematical labors which have been bestowed on the theory of Du Faye, are as readily deducible from that of Franklin's, while the physical conception of the latter is much more simple and distinct. It will be recollected that according to this theory

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all the phenomena of electricity are produced by the disturbance of the natural state of the equilibrium of one electrical fluid which pervades all bodies; that the atoms of this fluid repel each other and attract the atoms of ordinary matter; that when a body has so much of the fluid that the repulsion and attraction balance each other, the body is said to be in its natural state; that when more than this quantity it is said to be positively electrified; and when less, negatively; and that when in either of these conditions the natural attractions and repulsions do not neutralize each other, and hence result the various phenomena denominated electrical.

This theory is enabled to account for all the appearances of electricity, and in consequence has received the approbation of most, if not all, modern electricians. Indeed up to this time we do not think there are any well established facts directly at variance with it; though in the progress of science a few new postules are required in the way of extending it, so as to embrace some of the discoveries made since his time in galvanism and electro-magnetism. It is true, that the theory as left by Franklin required an amendment, in order to render it logically consistent with all the facts known in his time, but with this amendment, which was made by Cavendish and Epinus, it is capable of a mathematical expression from which all the facts belonging to statical electricity can be readily deduced in form and in quantity.

REV. JONATHAN EDWARDS.

THE loftiest triumph of Rousseau's genius is said to reside in the manner in which in his "Confessions" he is enabled to make the most disgusting and polluted scenes appear attractive and fascinating, by means of the wonderfully graphic and magic power of his language, and it may of EDWARDS with no less truth be affirmed, that with a style so utterly destitute of beauty as to appear hedious and deformed, he so completely triumphed over the ordinary powers of language by means of the enormous strength of his mind, as to compel the attention of his most polished readers, for the depth of his reasoning alone. If it is true that Rousseau's triumph is the greatest ever won by diction," it is no less true that that of Edward's is the most splendid ever achieved by the force of reasoning unaided by any of the blandishments of language. He was the only son of the Rev. Timothy Edwards, a clergyman of the Puritan sect. His mother, whose name was Stoddard, was likewise the daughter of a clergyman of the same persuasion, and is represented as a woman of remarkable intellectual capacity. He had ten sisters, five of whom were older and five younger than himself, from whom many of the most respectable families in the New England states, date their ancestry. He was born on the 5th of October, 1703, in the secluded village of Windsor, on the banks of the Connecticut river. His father was the clergymen of the little

band who sought this lonely hamlet in the midst of an immense wilderness, to free themselves from the religious turmoils which were agitating their native country, and it is not a matter of surprise that his early thoughts should have been highly colored by religious influences. The description he has left in his own hand-writing of the manner in which his tenderest years were spent, and of the devotional musings which formed a part of his youthful existence, seems almost incredible, even for that age of intense religious enthusiasm, and among that people, who treated all levity as an illusion of the evil one, and mingled prayer and religious conversations with their daily avocations.

His father, who appears to have been possessed of superior attainments, gave his personal attention to his preliminary education, in common with that of his elder sisters. He commenced the study of Latin at home when but six years of age, and made such proficiency in it, as well as the Greek, that when he entered Yale College, in 1716, before he had reached his thirteenth year, he was considered as very far advanced in those studies.

Yale College which has for so long a period maintained an elevated position among the classical institutions of America, and claims as its graduates so many distinguished men, was at the time when Edwards became its pupil, a prey to a variety of untoward events, which retarded its progress for years and

threatened its final extinction as an institution of learning. One of the principal subjects of discord was its permanent location, several of the New England towns stoutly maintaining their right to it. Among the most prominent of these were Saybrook, Wethersfield, Hartford and New Haven, at

which latter place it was finally located, through the instrumentality of a liberal donation made to it by Mr. Yale, whose name it now bears. The trustees of the college, in accepting this gift, passed a resolution in compliance with the wishes of the donor, fixing upon New Haven as its seat; this was further confirmed by a vote of the colonial legislature about the year 1717. Although its locality was thus established among the waving elms of what has since grown to be the beautiful town of New Haven, it did not recover from the effects of the distractions growing out of this source of animosity, for a number of years afterwards. At the time Edwards commenced his collegiate studies, the students were about equally divided between the towns of New Haven and Wethersfield, thirteen residing in the former and fourteen in the latter place, while its rector, Rev. Mr. Andrews, resided at Milford, of which parish he was pastor. Edwards was among the number who lived at New Haven, but in the year 1717, owing to the unpopularity of the instructors, he joined, together with the entire New Haven class, his fellow students at Wethersfield. In that year eight students of the senior class returned to New Haven to receive their degrees, while five procured them from Wethersfield.

In a letter addressed to his sister in March, 1719, from Wethersfield, he thus alludes to the circumstance of his leaving New Haven: "I suppose you are all fully acquainted with our coming away from New Haven, and the circumstances of it. Since then, we have been in a more prosperous condition, as I think, than ever. But the council and trustees having lately had a meeting at New Haven concerning it, have removed that which was the cause of our coming away, viz: