CH. XXL] ELECTRICITY AND MATTER 203 



as yet observed free. Some think it cannot exist in 

 a free state, that it is in fact the rest of the atom of 

 matter from which a negative unit charge has been 

 removed ; or, to put it crudely that " electricity " 

 repels "electricity," and "matter" repels "matter," 

 but that Electricity and Matter in combination form 

 a neutral substance which is the atom of matter as we 

 know it. Such a statement is an extraordinary and 

 striking return to the views expressed by that great 

 genius, Benjamin Franklin. On any hypothesis those 

 views of his are of exceeding interest, and show once 

 more the kind of prophetic insight which we have 

 had occasion to notice in discoverers before (Appendix 

 H and Chap. IV.). Undoubtedly we are at the \ 

 present time nearer to the view of Benjamin 

 Franklin than men have been at any intervening 

 period between his time and ours. 



The view that an atom is composed of an equal 

 number of interleaved or inter-revolving positive and 

 negative electrons that view is not Franklin's ; nor 

 is it as yet anything but a guess. To make it more, 

 work must be done upon the nature and properties of 

 the positive charge ; and the positive electron, if it 

 exists, must be dragged experimentally to light. 



Especially must the inner ethereal meaning both of 

 positive and negative charges be explained : whether 

 on the notion of a right-and-left-handed self-locked 

 intrinsic wrench-strain in a Kelvin gyrostatically- 

 stable ether, elaborated by Larmor,* or on some 

 hitherto un imagined plan. And this will entail a 

 quantity of exploring mathematical work of the 

 highest order. 



*See Ether and Matter, p. 326 ; or Phil. Trans. 1894, pp. 810, 811, 

 and 1897, pp. 209-212. 



