A letter to Prof. Faraday. 9 
kind entertain with more firmness than that of the existence of 
matter in that ponderable form, in which it is instinctively recog- 
nized by people of common sense. Not perceiving that this con- 
viction can only be supported as a theoretic deduction from our 
perception of the properties; there is a reluctance to admit the. 
existence of other matter, which has not in its favor the same — 
instinctive conception, although theoretically similar reasoning 
would apply. But if one kind of matter be admitted to exist 
_ because we perceive properties, the existence of which cannot 
be otherwise explained, are we not warranted, if we notice more 
“properties than can reasonably be assigned to one kind of mat- 
ter, to assume the existence of another kind of matter? 
Independently of the considerations which have heretofore led 
some philosophers to suppose that we are surrounded by an 
ocean of electric matter, which by its redundancy or deficiency 
‘is capable of producing the phenomena of mechanical electricity, 
it has appeared to me inconceivable that the phenomena of gal- 
vanism and electro-magnetism, latterly brought into view, can be 
satisfactorily explained without supposing the agency of an inter- 
vening imponderable medium by whose subserviency the induc- 
tive influence of currents or magnets is propagated. If in that 
wonderful reciprocal reaction between masses and particles, to 
which I have alluded, the polarization of condensed or accumu- 
lated portions of intervening imponderable matter, can be brought 
in as a link to connect the otherwise imperfect chain of causes; it 
would appear to me a most important instrument in lifting the 
curtain which at present hides from our intellectual vision, this 
highly important mechanism of nature. 
Having devised so many ingenious experiments tending to 
show that the received ideas of electrical induction are inadequate 
to explain the phenomena without supposing a modifying influ- 
ence in intervening ponderable matter, should there prove to be 
cases in which the results cannot be satisfactorily explained by 
ascribing them to ponderable particles, [ hope that you may be 
| induced to review the whole ground, in order to determine 
| whether the part to be assigned to contiguous ponderable parti- 
cles, be not secondary to that performed by the imponderable 
ae. Tageiples by which they are surrounded. 
Fe ut if galvanic phenomena be due to ponderable matter, evi- 
dently that matter must be in a state of combination. To 
2 on xxxviu, No. 1.—Oct.—Dec. 1839. 2 
ar eas i . fag Fits 
