348 Dr. Faraday's Thought* on Ray-vibrations. 



through space like the lines of gravitating force. For my own 

 part, I incline to believe that when there are intervening par- 

 ticles of matter (being themselves only centres of force), they 

 take part in carrying on the force through the line, but that 

 when there are none, the line proceeds through space*. 

 Whatever the view adopted respecting them may be, we can, 

 at all events, affect these lines of force in a manner which may 

 be conceived as partaking of the nature of a shake or lateral 

 vibration. For suppose two bodies, A B, distant from each 

 other and under mutual action, and therefore connected by 

 lines of force, and let us fix our attention upon one resultant 

 of force having an invariable direction as regards space ; if 

 one of the bodies move in the least degree right or left, or if 

 its power be shifted for a moment within the mass (neither of 

 these cases being difficult to realize if A and B be either elec- 

 tric or magnetic bodies), then an effect equivalent to a lateral 

 disturbance will take place in the resultant upon which we are 

 fixing our attention ; for, either it will increase in force whilst 

 the neighbouring resultants are diminishing, or it will fall in 

 force as they are increasing. 



It may be asked, what lines of force are there in nature 

 which are fitted to convey such an action and supply for the 

 vibrating theory the place of the aether? I do not pretend to 

 answer this question with any confidence; all I can say is, 

 that I do not perceive in any part of space, whether (to use 

 the common phrase) vacant or rilled with matter, anything but 

 forces and the lines in which they are exerted. The lines of 

 weight or gravitating force are, certainly, extensive enough to 

 answer in this respect any demand made upon them by ra- 

 diant phaenomena ; and so, probably, are the lines of magnetic 

 force : and then who can forget that Mossotti has shown that 

 gravitation, aggregation, electric force, and electro-chemical 

 action may all have one common connexion or origin ; and so, 

 in their actions at a distance, may have in common that infi- 

 nite scope which some of these actions are known to possess ? 



The view which I am so bold as to put forth considers, 

 therefore, radiation as a high species of vibration in the lines 

 of force which are known to connect particles and also masses 

 of matter together. It endeavours to dismiss the aether, but 

 not the vibrations. The kind of vibration which, I believe, 

 can alone account for the wonderful, varied, and beautiful 

 phaenomena of polarization, is not the same as that which oc- 

 curs on the surface of disturbed water, or the waves of sound 

 in gases or liquids, for the vibrations in these cases are direct, 



• Experimental Researches in Electricity, pars. 1161, 1613, 1663, 1710, 

 1729, 1735, 2443. 



