ELECTRICITY. 283 



ter, diffused throughout nature ; others, that it is 

 a compound of two fluids, each of which repels 

 its own particles, and is attracted by the other ; 

 while a third party maintains that it is neither, 

 but a mere effect or property of ponderable 

 matter. 



Such differences of opinion are alone suffi- 

 cient to show how vaguely and imperfectly it is 

 understood. Since the time of Franklin, many 

 thousand experiments have been repeated, with- 

 out affording any precise or satisfactory informa- 

 tion in regard to its origin, or the mode of its 

 operation in the work of the universe. The 

 discoveries of Galvani, Volta, Davy, Oerstedt, 

 and Faraday, have opened to us an immense 

 store of new facts ; but where is the general 

 principle which connects them with the theory 

 of cohesion, capillary attraction, chemical solu- 

 tion, vaporization, and the elastic force of gases ? 

 What the present state of the science requires, 

 is not the repetition of experiments that have 

 been performed a thousand times, but a more 

 comprehensive and profound investigation of 

 those properties which connect electricity with 

 the laws of heat and light, and with the general 

 phenomena of nature. 



If ever we shall be enabled to lift the veil 

 which nature has spread over the first principles 

 of things, and behold the secret spring of her 

 simple and sublime mechanism, we must first 



