156 On the Ether suggested ly Sir Isaac Kcwfon 



ciple, which, from the name of the first studying observer, 

 has been called galvanism. 



Whilst thus following the phcenomcna as exhibited in 

 the experiments of these philosophers, bv which this sup- 

 posed newly-discovered agent acti^ and operates impulsively 

 and chemically in, on, and by various substances, metals, 

 semimetals, minerals, mineralic and other solutions ; on 

 water, glass, resins, animal motion and senses, fimgic and 

 vegetable substances ; I \\as rather disappointed to find, 

 (under the present advanced state of science) that these ex- 

 perimentalists were at first so disposed to imagine, or so 

 willing to have it imagined, that they had severally made 

 discoveries of some hitherto secret principles in nature, or 

 that thev referred to iinkno\^n causes operating thereby. 

 On further more scientific investigation, ho^-ever, bv such 

 accurate philosophers as Volta, Dumas, and especially Dr. 

 WoUaslon, they simplified the results of their experi- 

 ments, and have in general agreed to refer all the pha'no- 

 mcna of this supposed newlv discovered principle, to an 

 agent long known bv the name of elcctricitv. Yet I cannot 

 but wish that philosophv had not stopped here : for I own 

 that I cannot conceive this electric agent to be a prime 

 principle siii generis, but only a species of operation, 

 classing with all the rest under a more simple and general 

 principle, becoming, bv its various modes of cooperation, 

 tinder various circumstances, a. formal or perhaps an effi- 

 cient cause common to all. Instead, therefore, of being led 

 ,to a plurality of principles and causes, as superficial theolo- 

 gists have been^ by the various operations of divine agency, 

 to a plurality of gods, where they ou2;ht to have found the true 

 OXE, I keep an eye fixed on a one general principle, which 

 I have been used to acknowledge, as investigated and an- 

 nounced by Sir Isaac Newton, so far as to substantiate its 

 existence. The principle I mean, as known to exist really, 

 but which requires further investigation to ascertain, by its 

 nature and operation, how far it may be a general efficient 

 cause, is that elastic active medium which Newton named 

 ether — '' iste aether (id eniin ei nomen quid ni imponam, 

 quid sit non derinio) quoddam medium longe lonaeque 

 rarius et subtilius quam aer vel lumen, longeque etiam ma- 

 gis elasticum et actuosum" — " quod corpora omnia faeil- 

 hme pcrmcat, perque coelos univereos vi sua elastica diflu- 

 sum est." The existence of this principle may be taken as 

 a datum, as a known fact ; and so far as concerns the 

 phaenomena of its operations. Sir Isaac Newton states, 



that 



