266 POLAR CONDITION OF MATTER. 



The great difficulty is not, however, got rid of by 

 this speculation; the cause by which the earth's ^ mag- 

 netism is induced is only removed further off. 



jecture gains probability from the preceding remarks on the 

 daily oscillations of the needle. Upon this principle the sun 

 may be conceived as possessing one or more magnetic axes, 

 which, by distributing the force, occasion a magnetic difference 

 in the earth, in the moon, and all those planets whose 

 internal structure admits of such a difference. Yet, allowing 

 all this, the main difficulty seems not to be overcome, but 

 merely removed from the eyes to a greater distance; for the 

 question may still be asked, with equal justice, whence, did 

 the sun acquire its magnetic force? And 'if from the sun we 

 have recourse to a central sun, and from that again to a general 

 magnetic direction throughout the universe, having the Milky 

 Way for its equator, we but lengthen an unrestricted chain. 

 every link of which hangs on the preceding link, no one of 

 them on a point of support. All things considered, the follow- 

 ing mode of representing the subject appears to me most 

 plausible. If a single globe were left to move alone freely in the 

 immensity of space, the opposite forces existing in its material 

 structure would soon arrive at an equilibrium conformable to their 

 nature, if they were not so at first, and all activity would soon 

 come to an end. But if we imagine another globe to be introduced, 

 a mutual relation will arise between the two ; and one of its 

 results will be a reciprocal tendency to unite, which is designated 

 and sometimes thought to be explained by the merely descriptive 

 word Attraction. Now would this tendency be the only conse- 

 quence of this relation ? Is it not more likely that the fundamental 

 forces, being drawn from their state of indifference or rest, 

 would exhibit their energy in all possible directions, giving rise to 

 all kinds of contrary action ? The electric force is excited, not by 

 friction alone, but also by contact, and probably also, though in 

 smaller degrees, by the mutual action of two bodies at a distance ; 

 for contact is nothing but the smallest possible distance, and that, 

 moreover, only for a few small particles. Is it riot conceivable 

 that magnetic force may likewise originate in a similar manner? 

 When the natural philosopher and the mathematician pay regard 

 to no other effect of the reciprocal relation between two bodies at 

 a distance, except the tendency to unite, they proceed logically, if 

 their investigations require nothing more than a moving power; 

 but should it be maintained that no other energy can be developed 



