Bee aN ex 
a 
= 
employ that term to»exprefs the caufe of a general pheno- 5 
midnomd bib 193 evr yc f omnis. on 
The geometer calculates the effects of thole forces which 
figns infiead of numbers ; 
to:fimplify ‘his operations; but if he »wifhes afterwards. to~ 
he employs, as he dees algebraic 
obtain refults, he mut give to thefe fiens their real values. 
In the liké manner; if he wifhes to have a-phyfical, refult, 
he muft affign a value to the word force which he employs. + 
The philofopher endeavours to difcover the caufes of thefe * 
forces; but he is fo often deceived, and gives fo many falfe. 
explanations, that we are always inclined to-confider as bad“ 
thofe which he afligzns. We muft not, however, fall into 
the oppofite excefs, and afcribe to the word force an accep~ 
tation which’ it ought not to have. Let us: imitate the 
wifdom of Newton: “ All bodies, fays he, have a tendencys 
towards each other; that tendency I call attraétion, attrac=* 
tive force; but it may be the effect of an impulfion, ‘or of 
fome other caufe which is unknown to us.” He fays. the 
fame thing of repulfive force. Let,us apply this. to all the, 
forces before mentioned. The fonorous force, for example;)- 
has certainly as its caufe fome agitation in the fonorous body, 
and the atmofpheric air by which it is furrounded. -This is, 
a certain fact, though we cannot yet explain all the pheno- 
mena exhibited by fonorous bodies. The. cafe.is. the, fame 
with the luminous, electric, magnetic, caloric, and, galyanic- 
forces. The phenomena of heat, light, eleétr city; magnets 
 ifm,.galvanifm, have as caufes the movements. of particular 
fluids ; and, though we are not yet able to determine the na~' 
ture of all the movements of thefe fluids, we know that their. 
aétion:is in the inverfe ratio of the fquares of the diftantes, 
‘Reil ‘has {hewn that the »7/xs formativus of Blumenbach 
ought to be conjidered, as I have faid, as “a real force oft 
eryftallization. | In general the formation of organifedsbo-) 
dies, their increment, theit nutrition, is nothing but: this 
force of cryftallization,| It has: formed all minerals;. the. 
globe itfelf; and the whole univerfe, It is alfo the confoli- 
dating 
On the Sytem of Forces. a8. | 
4 
2 
‘ 
