Secondary Laws. 91 



perties ; hence, this supposition does not illustrate an 

 indiscriminate, but a discriminate attraction. 2nd. In 

 a void with neither top nor bottom and no other 

 bodies to induce energy of any kind, two drops of 

 water (with their constituent atoms possessing their 

 present forces) would necessarily fall to one another, 

 because no other things existed to distract them. 

 Each would be the bottom of the universe to the 

 other. The proposition could be more accurately put 

 as follows : — Would a drop of water attract another 

 drop of water with equal or greater intensity to a 

 drop of oil or mercury, supposing a dozen drops of 

 each existed ? The question, apparently a difficult 

 one, is practically answered by the fact that an iron 

 magnet will not attract particles of wood, stone, or 

 glass with equal intensity to a particle of iron. Each 

 would preferably attract its like, for all bodies, as 

 already stated, indicate that attraction and cohesion 

 are more intense between substances of like kind. 



Lastly, if atoms are magnets, and if all bodies are 

 (through their atomic composition) necessarily polaric, 

 their additional endowment with such an insignificant 

 force as gravitation would be supererogatory. Par- 

 ticularly would this be the case when, as Sir R. S. 

 Ball assures us, " the attraction of gravitation is not 

 a millionth part of the intensity of magnetic attrac- 

 tion."* Far, therefore, from numerous observations 

 and experiments being available to affirm a law of 

 gravitation, they are conspicuous by their absence. 

 * " Gravitation," Ency. Brit. 



