Prof. Faraday on the Comervation of Force. 229 



condition so small and simple^ as to fail in leading the least-in- 

 structed mind to think that it can be a sufficient cause : — we 

 should admit a result which would equal the highest act our 

 minds can appreciate of the working of infinite power upon 

 matter ; we should let loose the highest law in physical science 

 which our faculties permit us to perceive^ namely the conserva- 

 tion of force. Suppose the two particles A and B removed back 

 to the greater distance of 10^ then the force of attraction would 

 be only a hundi'cdth part of that they previously possessed ; this, 

 according to the statement that the force varies inversely as the 

 square of the distance, would double the strangeness of the above 

 results ; it would be an annihilation of force ; an effect equal in 

 its infinity and its consequences with creation, and only within 

 the power of Him who has created. 



\\'e have a right to view gravitation under every form that 

 cither its definition or its eflects can suggest to the mind ; it is 

 our privilege to do so with every force in nature ; and it is only 

 by so doing that we have succeeded to a large extent in i-elating 

 the various forms of power, so as to derive one from another, 

 and thereby obtain confirmatory evidence of the great principle 

 of the conservation of force. Then let us consider the two par- 

 ticles A and B as attracting each other by the force of gravita- 

 tion under another view. According to the definition, the force 

 depends upon both particles ; and if the particle A or B were by 

 itself it could not gravitate, i. c. it could have no attraction, no 

 force of gravity. Supposing A to exist in that isolated state and 

 without gravitating force, and then B placed in relation to it, 

 gravitation comes on, as is supposed, on the part of both. Now, 

 without trying to imagine how B, which had no gravitating force, 

 can raise up gravitating force in A ; and how A, equally with- 

 out force beforehand, can raise up force in B, still, to imagine 

 it as a fact done, is to admit a creation of force in both particles, 

 and so to bring oursels'cs within the impossible consequences 

 which have already been referred to. 



It may be said we cannot have an idea of one particle by itself, 

 and so the reasoning fails. For my part I can comprehend a 

 ])article by itself just as easily as many particles; and though I 

 cannot conceive the relation of a lone particle to gi'avitation, 

 according to the limited view which is at present taken of that 

 force, I can conceive its relation to something which causes gra- 

 vitation, and with which, whether the particle is alone, or one of 

 a universe of other particles, it is always related. But the rea- 

 soning upon a lone particle docs not fail ; for as the particles 

 can be separated, we can easily eonceis'e of tlie particle B being 

 removed to an infinite distance from A, and then the power in 

 A will be infinitely diminished. Such removal of B will be as if 



