| <Saturday Review 16 February 1856: Lewes>
| <A Genevese Professor>
| Augustus de la Rive belongs to the aristocracy of Geneve, 
| and is one of the wealthiest of Genevese. This does not 
| prevent him from having, until quite recently, filled the post 
| of Professor to the University, just like any other less 
| favoured mortal, whose professorship would be a 
| livelihood; nor does it prevent him from annually giving a 
| course of lectures on his favourite science, at which the 
| Genevese gentry attend, with great pleasure and profit, the 
| payment being just enough to defray all the expenses. The 
| lecture-room is, or was, M. de la Rive’s own premises, and 
| no stranger would ever suspect that the Professor had any 
| other mode of <p> “making his way” </p> than this of 
| lecturing ~~ an art which he practises in so masterly a style 
| that no auditor finds it difficult to follow him. Imagine our 
| Bedfords, Devonshires, Sutherlands, and Buccleuchs <p> 
| “doing duty” </p> at the London University, receiving 
| salaries, and being subject to a senate, like their brother 
| professors! It is true that some of our nobility have lately 
| taken to lecturing on literature and other easy topics, and it 
| is certain that some of our nobility are better versed in 
| science than many a professional man; but a professor 
| with a coronet has not yet made his appearance in our 
| lecture halls. This is not said invidiously of England, for 
| although France may occasionally present the spectacle of 
| professional peers, a <hi> pair de France </hi> is not a 
| nobleman; and Germany is quite as deficient in titled 
| professors as England.
| The secret of the Genevese Professor is very simple. It is 
| not avarice which makes him take a small office for the 
| sake of a salary. It is tat, in Geneva, <p> “to be nothing” 
| </p> ~~ which is with us popularly supposed to represent 
| the status of a gentleman ~~ is dishonourable.  
| <reg orig=“Every one”> Everyone </reg> must be employed. 
| Every man is a citizen of the republic, and must fill some 
| office. Augustus de la Rive, who, since 1824, has been 
| known to Europe as one of the distinguished names in 
| science, has made the study of electricity the object of his 
| ambition, and the popular exposition of electrical science 
| the office of his citizenship. He has not been a <hi> 
| dilettante, </hi> filling the aching void of weary hours, but a 
| passionate worker, eager to attain results, and ever ready 
| to promulgate them.
| From such a life we are entitle to expect noble results ~~ 
| from such a man we anticipate masterly works; and 
| masterly, indeed, is the <hi> Treatise </hi> now lying 
| before us, in which is expounded the whole of what 
| European zeal and genius have discovered up to the 
| present time in the vast and difficult science of electricity. It 
| was his original intention to complete the work in two 
| volumes; but although this second volume contains 
| upwards of nine hundred compact pages, a third has been 
| found necessary to complete his design. Nor will  
| <reg orig=“any one”> anyone </reg> who cares two pins about 
| the book regret this extension; for here we have a work 
| which is extensive, not because the writer is diffuse, but 
| because his knowledge is exhaustive ~~ not because he ill 
| understands the art of exposition, but because he is a 
| master of exposition and his matter is abundant. The 
| pages are as <p> “full of matter as an egg is full of meat” 
| </p> ~~ they are not padded out with slack verbiage, 
| irrelevant digressions, or unnecessary details. M. de la 
| Rive seeks to convey, with something of the indispensable 
| fulness of detail, all the leading principles and facts, with 
| their accompanying hypotheses and theories, which 
| constitute what may be fairly considered the present state 
| of electrical science. In all departments of knowledge, there 
| are two distinct classes of books ~~ there are first the <hi> 
| pandects, </hi> and next the <hi> summaries. </hi> What 
| Haller did for physiology in his immortal work, De la Rive 
| has done for electricity in this treatise. If fuller details be 
| required, the student must seek them in the various 
| monographs carefully cited in these volumes. Or if a brief 
| statement of principles, unaccompanied by the evidence 
| on which they rest and the experiments by which they may 
| be tested, be what the student needs, let him seek one of 
| the numerous summaries that are published ~~ De la Rive 
| has not addressed him. The very greatness of the scale on 
| which this work is planned will at once suggest that we can 
| do no more than indicate its nature and value. Any attempt 
| at <p> “reviewing” </p> would be hopeless as it would be 
| needless. Those among our readers, and they must be 
| many, to whom such a work will be very welcome, only 
| require to be made aware of the fact that it exists; while 
| others will not in the least concern themselves with it, be it 
| never so attractive.
| This second volume treats of the propagation of electricity 
| ~~ its calorific and luminous effects, its chemical and its 
| physiological effects. It then considers the <hi> sources 
| </hi> of electricity ~~ i.e., heat, mechanical action, and 
| chemical action. All these delicate problems are set before 
| us in a style singularly clear and unpretending, reminding 
| us somewhat of Faraday’s mode of lecturing. The 
| experiments are narrated with great precision, full yet brief, 
| and profusely illustrated by diagrams. The point where 
| theory ends and hypothesis begins, is always marked with 
| care by the Professor, who shows at once a rigid 
| independence and a generous recognition in his criticisms 
| of his brother savants. Altogether, we can name no work 
| so eminently adapted to the wants of the student, and to 
| the instruction of the amateur.