Q) 



434 TH E INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



the earth which controls the moon and all sublunary bodies; 

 third, the electric which controls all light objects; and 

 fourth, the magnet which controls iron or steel. The vat- 

 traction between sun and earth, or earth and moon, is suf- 

 ficiently accounted for to most people of the time as a 

 creative act. The fall of a stone to the ground, our stu- 

 dent might consider to be the return of a part to its origin, 

 source or reservoir. But electrics and the lodestone he 

 knows to be physical outlaws. True, there is a choice of 

 several theories wherefrom to select, but on the whole, no 

 law seems exactly to reach them, and one is quite safe in 

 holding that they act for the same reason that the dogs in 

 good Dr. Watts' verse (if it had then been written), de- 

 light to bark and bite; u for 'tis their nature to." But 

 what is actually seen to be true, concerning either lode- 

 stone and iron or electric and its objects? This; that when 

 the two bodies (as stone and iron) are placed one in prox- 

 imity to the other, although separated by a considerable 

 interval, not only will the stone influence the iron, but 

 the iron will influence the stone. Gilbert had already 

 described what he called the mutual concourse of lode- 

 stone and iron, and Boyle had as plainly seen the swing- 

 ing amber, in its turn, attracted by the rubbing cloth. 

 Thus both had observed, and others were now observing, 

 the two ends, so to speak, of what happened, the inherent 

 attractive power of the magnet or electric at one extremity 

 and the movement of the attracted body at the other. 



Still another fact is also perceived, namely, that around 

 the electric there is a certain space or field in which light 

 bodies are either attracted or repelled, and similarly that 

 around the magnet there is also a certain space or field 

 within which iron is attracted, like effects not appearing 

 upon bodies located outside of these fields. That the 

 power of magnet and electric is inherent to and resides in 

 the substance of each, is commonly believed. How that 

 power became exerted was, as we have seen, the subject 

 of many speculations, all of which, generically considered, 





