Answer to Dr. Hare's Letter. 109 
fectly ; and I have a hope, that when more clearly stated, my 
views may gain your approbation. I feel that many of the words 
in the language of electrical science possess much meaning, and 
yet their interpretation by different philosophers often varies more 
or less, so that they do not convey exactly the same idea to the 
minds of different men; this often renders it difficult, when such 
words force themselves into use, to express with brevity as much 
as, and no more than, one really wishes to say. 
li. My theory of induction (as set forth in series xi, xii, and 
xiii,) makes no assertion as to the nature of electricity, or at all 
questions any of the theories respecting that subject (1667.) It 
does not even include the origination of the developed or excited 
state of the power or powers; but taking that as it is given by 
experiment and observation, it concerns itself only with the ar- 
rangement of the force in its communication to a distance in that 
particular yet very general: phenomenon called static induction 
(1668.) Itis neither the nature nor the amount of the force’ 
which it decides upon, but solely its mode of distribution. 
ili. Bodies, whether conductors or non-conductors, can be char-- 
ged. The word charge is equivocal; sometimes. it means that 
state which a glass tube acquires when rubbed by silk, or which 
the prime conductor of a machine acquires when the latter is in 
action ; at other times it means the state of a Leyden jar or sim- 
ilar inductive arrangement when it is said to be charged. In the 
first case the word means only the peculiar condition of an elec- 
trified mass of matter considered by itself ; in the second it means 
the whole of the relations of two such masses charged in opposite 
states and most intimately connected by inductive action. — tre 
iv. Let three insulated metallic spheres A, B, and C, be placed 
ina line and not in contact ; let A be electrified positively, and 
then C uninsulated ; besides the general action of the whole sys- 
tem on all surrounding matter there will occur a case of inductive 
action amongst the three balls, which may be considered apart as 
the type and illustration of the whole of my theory: A will be 
charged positively, B will acquire the negative state at the surface 
towards A and the positive state at the surface farthest from it, 
_ and C will be charged negatively. ' 
~v. The ball B will be in what is often called a polarized con- 
dition ; i.e. opposite parts will exhibit the opposite electrical states 
and the two sums of these opposite states will be exactly equal to 
