NOMOS. 107 



which causes the magnet to revolve around the elec- 

 trical conductor ? After what has been said before, 

 these suppositions occur naturally as a means of sur- 

 mounting the difficulty in question; but they have 

 nothing to do with the Newtonian scheme of motion. 

 They have nothing to do with this scheme, and yet 

 they seem to offer the only means by which the 

 difficulty is to be surmounted. 



Now these very suppositions, which have nothing 

 to do with the Newtonian scheme, but which appear 

 to be necessary to explain the actual movement of 

 the heavenly bodies, if space be not that incor- 

 poreal void which it is assumed to be, are the 

 very suppositions which may be entertained if the 

 law of which we have already had a glimpse be the 

 true law of nature; and for this additional reason, 

 therefore, we will presume to apply this law to the 

 explanation of what appears to be still unexplained 

 in the movement of the heavenly bodies.* 



* Since the manuscript of this book was in the hands of the pub- 

 lisher, the attention of the author has been directed to a work by 

 Dr. George Friedrick Pohl, Professor of Physics in the University 

 of Breslau (" Der Electromagnetismus und die Bewegung der Him- 

 melskorper in ihre gegenseitigen Beziehung dargelegt," Breslau, 

 1846), in which an attempt is made to explain the movements of 

 the heavenly bodies upon the same principles as those which account 

 for the rotation of the magnet around a conductor. Dr. Pohl adopts 

 the ordinarily received views by which this rotation is referred to the 

 joint operation of a repellent and attractive force, and he neglects 

 to take into consideration several circumstances which are essential 

 to the interpretation of the movement, so that he cannot be said to 

 succeed in his demonstration ; but he is unquestionably a man of a 

 most accomplished and philosophical mind, and he deserves all the 

 praise which belongs to him who takes a first step in the right 

 direction. 



