PHYSICAL PARADOXES. 



on one end of its axis and yet not falling to 

 the ground. 



Electricity, then, though it offers plenty of 

 wonders, will not provide us with any popular 

 paradoxes at all. But magnetism, in its one 

 popular manifestation, offers a paradox which, 

 if the phenomenon were not so familiar, would 

 rival the gyroscope in its astonishing nature, 

 and surpass it in the difficulty of solving the 

 puzzle. 



Pulling without any Cord. 



In " the simple life/ 1 that of animals and 

 savages, action at a distance is always of the 

 nature of repulsion. If a stick or stone be 

 thrown, if an arrow or bullet be fired, its first 

 effect upon the object struck is to repel it. 

 The effect is that of an indirect push. We push 

 the stone, and the stone at the end of its flight 

 pushes something else. Indirect pushing, or 

 pushing at a distance, the simplest of us can 

 understand. It is understood by some of the 

 animals. Monkeys have learnt the art of 

 throwing. 



But pulling at a distance is outside the 

 experience of any creatures except cultivated 

 man. To pull fruit down we use a hooked stick. 

 To pull the landing we use a boat-hook. To 

 pull the boat we use a rope. To pull up the 

 coal we use a wire ; and to pull up the bucket 

 from the well we use a chain. In all these cases 



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