90 THE ELECTRIC ELEMENT. 



To suppose some agent other than the ether of space 

 fulfilling these conditions, is simply to invent a new 

 name, giving no new or deeper insight into the pro- 

 found problems which this part of science involves. 



And here I may state my belief that any advance- 

 ment of our knowledge in this matter will probably 

 come from experiment on these inter-relations of elec- 

 tricity and magnetism such researches, in fact, as have 

 already engaged the genius of Faraday, De la Eive, 

 Tyndall, Weber, Pliicker, &c. The polarities of mag- 

 netism, the positive and negative electricity, and the 

 relations of these severally to the kinds and forms of 

 matter in which they are embodied, and to the light 

 and heat so variously present in these phenomena, 

 offer still a wide field to the experimental philosopher. 

 Happy he who, working amidst this intricate network 

 of curious but insulated facts, shall discover the clue 

 connecting and giving unity to the whole ! 



As respects the relations of ether to such eventual 

 discovery, though it be impossible, perhaps, to bring 

 the element, so termed, within the scope of direct ex- 

 periment, yet its admitted and even necessary proper- 

 ties of exquisite tenuity and elasticity eminently fit it, 

 as far as we can see, for undergoing those changes of 

 form and force and direction which are known to us in 

 electric phenomena. Newton, in his discourse on light 

 and colours, explicitly denotes his belief that ether is 

 altered in density and other properties when brought 

 into penetration of grosser matter. And Faraday, con- 

 jecturing that it may be the medium of transmitting 

 the magnetic force, adds that, if there be an ether, ' it 

 is likely to have other uses than simply the conveyance 



