PREFACE. 1X 



and, at another time, that all the more im- 

 portant electrical phenomena may be resolved 

 into polarization of the particles of ponderable 

 matter, or what has been called atomic polarity. 

 But he does not explain what he means by 

 the axis of power, and electric polarity ; nor 

 how chemical affinity and magnetism, which 

 are merely effects or modes of action, can 

 be identical with their cause; nor does he 

 inform us what causes the aether to vibrate. 

 Such have been the difficulties of this important 

 department of physical science, that its most 

 distinguished votaries have hitherto failed to 

 present us with a consistent theory of electrical 

 phenomena. But I hope to make it appear 

 that most of these perplexities have arisen 

 more from defective methods of inquiry, than 

 from any inherent obscurity of the subject. 



Among the physical speculations of Oken, 

 light, heat, and weight, are represented as a 

 trinity of powers, to which all the phenomena 

 of nature may be referred : while it was main- 

 tained by Coleridge, that electricity, galvanism, 

 and magnetism, are the three fundamental prin- 

 ciples of action in nature, and identical with 

 the three primary dimensions of space length, 

 breadth, and depth. Yet, he observes, that 



