On the Importance of Experiments in relation to the Mechanical Theory of Gravitation

(...)"Faraday, rising above the prejudices of his time, put this question under the test of experiment, and by his discovery of a " specific inductive capacity," demonstrated the supposition thus formed to be false. Yet so great was the strength of preconceived opinion, that notoriously Faraday's discovery was not fully accepted until years afterwards, when its practical application to telegraph-cables forced it on the attention of electricians.
So now in the present day, in spite of the continual demolition of spiritualistic views (i. e. views of action without the intervention of matter) by advancing science, the modus operandi of gravitation remains the one outstanding subject for doubt ; and it appears to be assumed by many (much in analogy with the former question of "specific inductive(...)".