MAGNETIC ATTRACTION. 



the adjacent particles of ether. Light influ- 

 ence is transmitted in undulatory vibrations, 

 exercising a repulsion-push whose force has 

 recently been measured with exactness by 

 Lebedew and others. Sound is transmitted 

 from a vibrating body by means of the repulsion- 

 blows which it delivers upon other bodies in 

 contact with it or upon the surrounding air. 

 Analogy would lead us to expect that the minute 

 details of electric and magnetic action are of a 

 similar nature, and that though the gross effects 

 in some cases may be of the kind that we call 

 pulling, these are only the results of disguised, 

 indirect, or circuitous influences of repulsion. 



Lastly, it is possible to conceive the exist- 

 ence of pushing mechanism by which magnetic 

 vibrations can cause distant bodies to approach, 

 while no mechanism for pulling influences is con- 

 ceivable. 



Now, a thing is not necessarily real because 

 we can conceive of its existence, or unreal be- 

 cause we cannot imagine it. But when, of 

 two opposite explanations of phenomena, one is 

 in accordance with principles realisable by the 

 mental faculties which have been developed 

 in some degree of harmony with the outward 

 experiences of ages, while the other contradicts 

 those principles, the former explanation has a 

 right to the preference as a working hypothesis 

 until further knowledge is obtained. 



It remains to show that it is possible to 

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