114 ANALYSIS OF THE GALVANIC PILE. 



limental philosopher would take it up and follow it ; which 

 has not been the case. 

 Chemical In 1807, I saw in Part I of the Phil. Transactions a 



efecu' it Bakerian lecture of Mr. Humph. Davy, on some chemical 



agencies cf electricity, which revived my attention to this 

 subject. • he very ingenious and interesting experiments 

 which d^tinguish that paper are well known, and my praises 

 would add nothing to those, which it has deservedly re- 

 ceived : but a theory was there introduced, which I consi- 

 dered as involving the electric phenomena in the thickest 

 veil, and this was my motive for resuming the above expe- 

 Mr. Davy's riments. Mr. Davy supposes a positive and a negative 

 theory. energy, as belonging to distinct substances, constituting a 



class of general causes ; and in p. 39, after having specified 

 some of the bodies to which he attributes these different 

 ageiicies, he concludes thus : " In the present state of our 

 " knowledge it would be useless to attempt to speculate on 

 *' the remote cause of the electrical energy, or the reason 

 " why different bodies, after being brought into contact, 

 *' should be found differently electrified; its relation to che- 

 " mical effects is however sufficiently evident : may it not 

 • c be identical with it, and an essential property of matter?" 

 Occult quali- Tutored in Bacon's school, I have found in the long 

 tM ' course of my study of natural phenomena the profound 



wisdom of the following passage, in his immortal work 

 De Augmentis Scientiarum, lib. Ill, cap. V. Speak- 

 ing there de occultis & specificis proprietatibus, which he 

 considers as belonging to a sort of magia, the offspring of 

 false metaphysics, he says : " Primum enim intellectum 

 * humanum in soporem conjicit, canendo proprictates spe- 

 Mt cificas & virtutes occnltas, & tanquam ccelitus demissas, & 

 " per traditionum susurros solummodo perdiscendas: unde 

 •* homines ad veras causas eruendas non amplius excitantur 

 '* & evigilant, sed in hujusmodi otiosis & credulis opinioni- 

 g « bus acquiescunt; deinde vero innumera commenta, & 

 *« qualia quis optaret raaxime, instar sorauiorum, iusinu- 



"ant*." 



There 



* " First it throws the human understanding into sleep, lulling it 



with sounds of specific qualities and occult virtues, as if they canoe down 



• , from 



