328 On the,Virgul(L Divjnatoria* 



account of the mode in which thefe corpufcules or minute 

 impenetrable and divifible particles of matter act through the 

 medium of the human body or nerves, or by the afiiftancc of 

 the animal fpirits, upon the divining rod. " The corpufcules, 

 it is faid, that rife from the minerals, entering the rod, de- 

 termine it to bow down, in order to vender it parallel to 

 the vertical lines which the effluvia defcribe in their r<fe. 

 In effect, the mineralogical particles feem to be emitted from 

 the earth : now the virgula, being of a light porous wood, 

 gives an eafy paffage to thofe particles, which are very fine 

 and fubtle: the effluvia, then, driven forwards by thofe that 

 follow them, and preffed at the fame time by the atmofphere 

 incumbent on them, are forced to enter the little interfaces 

 between the fibres of the wood, and by that effort they oblige 

 it to incline or dip down perpendicularly, to become parallel 

 to thofe little columns which the vapours form in their rife." 

 If this jargon, this fabric of unintelligible conclufions, raifed 

 upon the flender foundation of pre-jnppojition, be not fuffi- 

 ciently abfurd, T beg leave to refer to page 114 of Pryce's 

 work, where he attempts an elucidation of the corpufcular 

 theory. 



If an advocate for this theory, as applied for folving the 

 caufe of the operation of the divining rod, were to be alked 

 why hazel rods, and branches of other trees faid to be at- 

 tracted by metals, are not a. traded by them in their natural 

 growth ; and why, consequently, they do not grow with their 

 top declining towards the earth, I feel at a lofs to conceive 

 •what would be the anfwer. Would he fay that the vis 

 inertia: of matter is not fufficiently powerful to overcome the 

 living principle of the tree? or would he not fay that the 

 human body is an excellent conductor of thofe minute par- 

 ticles or corpufcules, which, according to Hartley, are per- 

 petually flying off from all bodies, for ever feeking new com- 

 feinations, and of the fame catholic matter forming an infi- 

 nite variety of modifications throughout the univerfe ? Some 

 conclusion, equally fatisfaftory and philosophical, might be 

 expecled from the hypothetical advocates of this theory; and 

 as, in all probability, this theory cannot be eftablifhed by 

 ocular demon Miration, or by any means be made manifefl to 

 our fenfes, it feems as if it were better to acknowledge, if 

 really there be any virtue in the rod, that, as in the inftances 

 of the magnetical influence and the electric fluid, it is one 

 of thofe mvfterious effe6ts of the myfterious laws by which 

 nature is governed, infcrutable to human wit, and indefinable 

 by human inveftigation, 



LIII. Mefrs. 



