THE ELECTRIC ELEMENT. 83 



describe, or even conceive, the phenomena apart from 

 this relation to a material cause. 



I cannot hesitate in believing the latter view to be 

 that best warranted by our present knowledge. The 

 methods by which we elicit, accumulate, and conduct 

 electricity, whatever theoretic difficulties they involve, 

 are far better understood under the hypothesis of a 

 special material agent, than as proceeding solely from 

 atomic actions of the bodies electrically affected. To 

 speak of polar states, or chemical changes in the atoms 

 of matter, as constituting electricity, is but to hide the 

 real difficulty, leaving unsolved the cause whence 

 these conditions are intrinsically derived. The pheno- 

 mena attending the transmission of electricity through 

 wires bear cogently on the question. The differences 

 of effect produced by the varying material, length, and 

 thickness of the conductor can hardly be reconciled 

 with other views than that of a specific agent acting in 

 a certain ratio to its quantity and concentration, and 

 capable of being estimated under these relations. These 

 terms of quantity, intensity, and concentration within 

 determinate spaces especially characterise electricity, 

 and associate it intimately with those actions and condi- 

 tions by which material elements are designated to our 

 knowledge. 



If the individuality of the electric element be ad- 

 mitted as distinct from the matter through which it 

 acts, the question at once arises, can we identify it 

 with any other known element in the natural world ? 

 As postulates in the enquiry we need, first, some agent 

 cosmical in character, since our actual knowledge of 



G 2 



