CHAPTER XIV, 



ELECTRICITY. 



All light is Electricity. Greatest Scientific delusion of the day. Mag- 

 netism and Electricity essentially different. Quotations to show 

 how little is known about either. Dr. Thomson. Parker's School 

 Book of Philosophy. Sir Wm. Thomson on Electricity flowing. 

 Prof. Tyndall also confesses ignorance. Prof. Grove. Prescott's 

 History. Electric spark, what composed of. No combustion with- 

 out a mixture of the two classes of matter. The cause of 

 lightning. 



FOLLOWING up our chapters on light, we come to Electricity. 

 In fact it ought to form part of the chapter on light, for all 

 light is Electricity. The greatest scientific delusion of the day, 

 is the supposition that electricity has anything whatever to do 

 with telegraphing, except, that under certain necessary condi- 

 tions, the magnetic force in the wires ofttimes exhibits it. 



Magnetism and Electricity are essentially two different- 

 things, but they have been so interchanged by writers, for 

 several generations, that the public mind is uncertain where the 

 boundary line lies. 



We hope however by a few facts, and illustrations, to be able 

 to show clearly what each phenomenon is, and the difference 

 between them. 



In the first place, to show bow little is really known about 



