112 ESSAYS anp OBSERVATIONS 
fame end being made to attract, fometimes 
one pole and fometimes another, by only 
changing the pofition of the rod, or invert- 
ing it upfide down ; and much more by ftri- 
king upon it with a hammer, or beating it a~ 
gainft the ground. Electricity is another 
more palpable inftance of the fame fort. That 
a fluid is concerned in producing the apparent 
attractions and repulfions, and other more a- 
ftonifhing effects of the electric globe, can 
hardly be doubted, however difficult it may 
{till be to defcribe the laws to which it is fub- 
jected in its operations. Why then fhould it 
be accounted ‘ whimfical” or unphilofopi- 
eal to demand acaufe for the attractive power 
of gravity ? Tho’ all the mechanical accounts, 
hitherto given of the caufe of gravity, fhould 
be found unfatisfa@ory ; may it not ftill be 
owing to fome unknown mechanifm, or the 
intervention of matter, moving other mat- 
ter? Or, tho’ it were fhown to be impracti- 
cable by any mechanifm whatever, as is not 
improbably the cafe; why may we not attri- 
bute it to the immediate agency of an intel- 
ligent active being? 
Ir may be urged further by way of ob- 
jection, “ That a power of beginning vifible 
“* motion 
