188 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



any one of these results if we left any of the others unregarded ? That there 

 should be a power of gravitation existing by itself, having no relation to the 

 other natural powers, and no respect to the laiv of the conservation of force, is as 

 little likely as that there should be a principle of levity as well as of gravity. 

 Gravity may be only the residual part of the other forces of nature, as Mos- 

 siti has tried to show; but that it should fall out from the law of all other 

 force, and should be outside the reach either of further experiment or philo- 

 sophical conclusions, is not probable. So we must strive to learn more of 

 this outstanding power, and endeavor to avoid any definition of it which is 

 incompatible with the principles of force generally, for all the phenomena of 

 nature lead us to believe that the great and governing law is one. I would 

 much rather incline to believe that bodies affecting each other by gravitation 

 act by lines of force of definite amount (somewhat in the manner of magnetic 

 or electric induction, though with polarity), or by an ether pervading all 

 parts of space, than admit that the conservation of force could be dispensed 

 with. 



It may be supposed, that one who has little or no mathematical knowl- 

 edge should hardly assume a right to judge of the generality and force of a 

 principle such as that which forms the subject of these remarks. My apol- 

 ogy is this : I do not perceive that a mathematical mind, simply as such, has 

 any advantage over an equally acute mind not mathematical, in perceiving 

 the nature and power of a natural principle of action. It cannot of itself 

 introduce the knowledge of any new principle. Dealing with any and every 

 amount of static electricity, the mathematical mind has balanced and ad- 

 justed them with wonderful advantage, and has foretold results which the 

 experimentalist can do no more than verify. But it could not discover dy- 

 namic-electricity, nor electro-magnetism, nor magneto-electricity, or even 

 suggest them ; though when once discovered by the experimentalist, it can 

 take them up with extreme facility. 



So in respect of the force of gravitation, it has calculated the results of the 

 power in such a wonderful manner as to trace the known planets through 

 their courses and perturbations, and in so doing has discovered a planet 

 before unknown ; but there may be results of the gravitating force of other 

 kinds than attractio'n inversely as the square of the distance, of which it 

 knows nothing, can discover nothing, and can neither assert nor deny their 

 possibility or occurrence. Under these circumstances, a principle which may 

 be accepted as equally strict with mathematical knowledge, comprehensible 

 without it, applicable by all in their philosophical logic, whatever form that 

 may take, and above all, suggestive, encouraging, and instructive to the 

 mind of the experimentalist, should be the more earnestly employed and the 

 more frequently resorted to when we arc laboring either to discover new 

 regions of science, or to map out and develop those which are known into 

 one harmonious whole ; and if in such strivings, we, whilst applying the 

 principle of conservation, see but imperfectly, still we should endeavor to 

 see, for even an obscure and distorted vision is better than none. Let us, if 

 we can, discover a new thing in any shape ; the true appearance and charac- 

 ter will be easily developed afterwards. 



