possible if it is done so as to satisfy the principle of least action.
Next, Maxwell asks: Can this choice and that of the two energies T and U be made so that electric phenomena will satisfy this principle? Experiment shows us that the energy of an electro-magnetic field decomposes into electro-static and electro-dynamic energy. Maxwell recognised that if we regard the former as the potential energy U, and the latter as the kinetic energy T, and that if on the other hand we take the electro-static charges of the conductors as the parameters q, and the intensity of the currents as derivatives of other parameters q—under these conditions, Maxwell has recognised that electric phenomena satisfies the principle of least action. He was then certain of a mechanical explanation. If he had expounded this theory at the beginning of his first volume, instead of relegating it to a corner of the second, it would not have escaped the attention of most readers. If therefore a phenomenon allows of a complete mechanical explanation, it allows of an unlimited number of others, which will equally take into account all the particulars revealed by experiment. And this is confirmed by the history of every branch of physics. In Optics, for instance, Fresnel believed vibration to be perpendicular to the plane of polarisation; Neumann holds that it is parallel to that plane. For a long time an experimentum crucis was sought for, which would enable us to decide between these two theories, but in
