3 8 RISEN B Y FERSE VE RANGE. 



In the one case he regarded the body as negatively^ in the 

 other as positively, electrified. In the one case it had less, in 

 the other more, than its natural quantity of electricity ; in 

 either, therefore, supposing it to be composed of electricity 

 and common matter, the usual equilibrium or balance between 

 its two constituent ingredients was, for the time, upset or 

 destroyed. 



But how should this produce the different effects which are 

 observed to result from the action of electrified bodies ? How 

 is the mere circumstance of the overthrow of the customary 

 equilibrium, between the electricity and the matter of a body, 

 to be made to account for its attraction and repulsion of other 

 bodies, and for the extraordinary phenomena presented by the 

 Leyden phial? The Franklinian theory answers these ques 

 tions with great ease and completeness. 



The fundamental law of the electric fluid, according to this 

 theory, is that its particles attract matter, and repel one 

 another. To this we must add a similar law with regard to 

 the particles of matter, namely, that they repel each other, as 

 well as attract electricity. This latter consideration was some- 

 what unaccountably overlooked by Franklin, but was after- 

 wards introduced by Mr. -^pinus, of St. Petersburg, and our 

 celebrated countryman, the late Mr. Cavendish, in their more 

 elaborate expositions of his theory of the electrical action. 

 Let us now apply these two simple principles to the explana- 

 tion of the facts we have already mentioned. 



In the first place, when two bodies are in their ordinary or 

 natural state, the quantity of matter is an exact balance for 

 the quantity of electricity in each, and there is accordingly 

 no tendency of the fluid to escape ; no spark will take place 

 between two such bodies when they are brought into contact 



