430 THEORETICAL VIEWS OF 



Until this is done, it cannot be said that even 

 the foundation of physical science has been laid 

 on a durable basis. 



In a strict and philosophical sense, it must be 

 admitted, that the words heat, caloric, igneous 

 fluid, electricity, &c. convey extremely limited 

 and imperfect ideas of that all-pervading prin- 

 ciple of action which preserves this universal 

 frame of things in a state of perpetual motion 

 and transformation. According to general ac- 

 ception, the term heat or caloric points to some 

 very general and important phenomena, such as 

 the sensation of warmth, or rather temperature, 

 liquefaction, vaporization, combustion, expan- 

 sion, &c. But these are transitory and occasional 

 effects, that are produced by its union with pon- 

 derable matter in certain proportions, and by no 

 means universal under all circumstances. 



The term electricity is still farther from con- 

 veying an adequate idea of an universal agent, 

 than caloric. If we admit the existence of an 

 electric fluid, sui generis, which darts through 

 conducting bodies with immeasurable velocity, 

 and communicates a shock to the living frame, 

 it will not account for the phenomena of climate. 

 It is not in the form of electricity that it warms 

 in the solar beams. We cannot trace to its ac- 

 tion the melting of winter snows and polar ice- 

 bergs, the evaporation of water from the ocean, 

 and the elastic force of the atmosphere, the 



