188 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



We have now to remark that electrification would 

 seem to be a similar case of unstable molecular equi- 

 librium in this far: that it is found to be a special 

 molecular condition, which very few kinds of matter 

 will retain during any at all extended portion of 

 time. The evanescent character of electric disturbance, 

 too, is, when considered in connection with the Prince 

 Rupert's drop, confirmatory of the usual statement of 

 physicists that such disturbance is confined to the 

 superficial portions of the electrified bodies. 



It is only when the disturbance penetrates through 

 the entire mass that it assumes a relatively perma- 

 nent character ; and then the electrified body becomes 

 a "magnet." In confirmation of this, it is scarcely 

 necessary to do more than refer to the beautiful exper- 

 iments with the solenoid, by which a current of elec- 

 tricity is shown to possess all the essential properties 

 of a magnet. 



It is interesting to note, too, that a bar of iron 

 resting within the solenoid while a current of elec- 

 tricity passes through it, becomes a temporary magnet, 

 while a steel bar, under like conditions, becomes a 

 "permanent" magnet. And this, too, has its impor- 

 tant suggestion. For steel is simply a more dense 

 state of iron. That is, relatively to steel, iron is 

 "soft," or fluid. The attraction between particle and 

 particle is less intense. The relation between parti- 

 cle and particle is less rigid. The relation between 

 particle and particle in steel, then, is less easily dis- 

 turbed. Hence, when a new relation is established, 

 it tends, in its turn, to persist. And this is especially 

 the case when the new relation' between particle and 



