MAGNETISM, THE LIFE OF THE WORLD—DEWAR. 595 
structive principle among all materials. This principle must be 
guided by some law. If then we can find a law which controls 
any of the earth’s materials, and which in its action would ex- 
plain the crystalization of others, we think we would be justified 
in accepting it, instead of searching out some entirely new law. 
Such a law is that of Polarity, viz.: Every atom has two poles 
which, for the sake of illustration, may be called positive and 
negative. When at rest, as in a block of stone or metal, the. 
positive pole of each atom has hold of the negative pole above it, 
and the negative pole a hold of the positive below it. It is this 
regularity which causes many materials to scale so easily. 
In solution, similar poles of similar material repel and scatter 
one another, while opposite poles attract and accumulate. 
The Law of Polarity, generally stated, is, that similar poles of 
similar material coming together in solution or in fire, repel, 
scatter, reduce, dissolve and destroy one another, while opposite 
poles in solution, attract, increase, reform and rebuild. 
Every permanent production of the earth has been formed 
either in or by water, or by fire; and, generally speaking, every 
natural production has been formed by water, while every arti- 
ficial one is by fire. 
From these two laws, the attraction and repulsion of matter, 
and the law of polarity, we have deduced the law of Atomagnet- 
ism, which we have announced as the law governing the. 
universe. In connection with this enunciation, it must be borne 
in mind that the law is not given to supplant another, but to fill 
a void in physical science which has never yet been filled. 
Going deeper than gravitation into the constitution and force of 
matter, it also absorbs it and widens itself to an indefinite ex- 
tent beyond it. 
The law of atomagnetisin is as follows: The materials of the 
earth are all divided into two great classes, mineral and vegetable, 
or hydrogen and oxygen. Each class ‘has innumerable distinct 
component parts, forming the different minerals or varicties of 
vegetation and animal life. By these two classes and their in- 
teraction or connection, according to the above given laws of 
Matter and Polarity, everything in the world is either formed. 
and built up, or dissolved and destroyed. 
