66 THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



electric flow, in naturally formed electrical containers, 

 that may be termed reservoirs or cells. 



The envelope may be of air, or other * matter, 

 or of other matter within air or mixed with air. 

 Electrical engineers insert linings within their in- 

 sulating covers, and Nature often does the same. 

 They may have one cell, or many cells grouped in 

 innumerable ways, that is also Nature's method. 

 At their best they only feebly follow her. 



[Here we approach what is very suggestive with 

 regard to wireless telegraphy. It appears probable 

 that the motion connected with this phenomenon is 

 electricity until it leaves the antenna, and that then 

 it is transformed into mere material motion, in the 

 form of wave motion of the ether, unless we make 

 our definition of electricity too loose for practical 

 purposes. When we look out into the infinity of 

 Nature we see the difficulty of a precise definition; 

 heat (which is material motion) appears to shade off 

 imperceptibly into electricity (which is material 

 motion in a certain condition of stress), and back 

 again from electricity to heat. This is Nature's way 

 to solve by imperceptible gradations (although she 

 can act in cataclysms), we see it not only in this 

 case, but in so many, in the gradations from non- 

 living to living, of vegetable and animal, etc. Nature 

 does not in order to oblige us continually work by 

 creations (unless the word be used figuratively, to 

 cover much), but by evolutions, and by impercep- 

 tible gradations to great effects. Adumbrations and 

 gradual blendings onward to the completed picture, 



* The Ether is matter. 



