On Cliemical Pliilo<iophy . 121 



loric and light is constantly remarked. Even since some apparent 

 differences have been more distinctly marked, not only has this 

 union been remarked, but also of both with electricity, " in a 

 way," says a celebrated author, " that indicates there is more 

 in this than we yet understand, or shall perhaps be ever able to 

 comprehend." If then the essence of attraction — of attraction 

 in the abstract — is placed beyond the reach of human sagacity, so 

 perhaps the most accurate conception we shall ever obtain of the 

 phcenomena of electricity, caloric, and light, &c. may be incom- 

 plete; yet I conceive that we may approach very near to that of 

 accurate conceptions upon them. I say so; not without being 

 aware of this grand and dangerous error ; that whenever we at- 

 tempt, on any subject, more than we ought, it only leads us into 

 fruitless controversy and confusion, so dangerous and so fatal to 

 man on every subject. Though there remains much of science 

 to be discovered, there are limits we cannot pass; and nothing is 

 more important than to know the limits which are assigned to 

 each of us. 



The name attractive agencies appears to me, however, more 

 applicable to those changes of which, all must allow, they are 

 eitlier the cause which produces them, or inseparably connected 

 with that which does produce them, and therefore more descrip- 

 tive of the nature of their powers than any thing thai we can 

 say upon them. 



Our acquaintance with the gases, and our means of exciting 

 the grand power of nature in the varied forms of electricity and 

 galvanism, may be considered as the most astonishing proof of the 

 highly advanced stage and state of the world. To become fami- 

 liar and conversant with things not palpable to any of our senses 

 in their ordinary state of existence, could never have entered 

 into the cold calculations of reason ; nor can reason, proud as 

 she is, calculate the number or measure the extent of those dis- 

 coveries and improvements that may yet meet u^^s we advance 

 in our future progress — it is more than her province to say. Here 

 you may hope, but there you shall despair. 



We come now to the third division of our subject, to which 

 I have given the nameof Passivk Substances, which arc those 

 things or constituents of matter acted upon by ATXRACTrox or 

 ATTRACTIVK AGENCiJiS ; and I divide them into solids, fluids, 

 and GASES. I place passive substances in this situation in 

 this arrangement, and give them this appellation, because I con- 

 ceive they owe their subdivisions solely to this power, and the 

 effects which it produces. Without such a power and the 

 agencies it exerts in the creation, where would be our world, or 

 any other ? Where would be the grand scenes that creation now 



presents 



