432 THEORETICAL VIEWS OF 



action, and that without caloric there could be 

 no chemical action, from which it also follows, 

 that all the electrical phenomena of the battery 

 are modified and subordinate effects of the om- 

 nipresent igneous principle. 



The term tether is yet more vague and inde- 

 finite than caloric or electricity, as it does not 

 very clearly indicate any of the foregoing pro- 

 perties, unless it be extreme subtilty. It is true 

 that the Greek philosophers regarded it as an 

 igneous principle, and as the source of power; 

 but without explaining the manner in which it 

 operates. We have also seen that Sir I. Newton 

 referred cohesion, capillary attraction, solution, 

 and even universal gravity to its agency ; but 

 without recognizing the law by which it pro- 

 duces the opposite effects of attraction and re- 

 pulsion ; or the mode in which it exhibits the 

 various phenomena of heat and electricity. 



This much is certain, that whatever form the 

 spirit of matter assumes, or by whatever name 

 we designate it, it is under all circumstances an 

 aethereal essence, capable of uniting and sepa- 

 rating the elements of nature, and of communi- 

 cating to organized beings the sensation of heat. 

 There cannot, therefore, be any serious objection 

 to the use of caloric as a generic term, while we 

 keep in mind, that it is an universal source of 

 physical power, and the first of second causes. 

 I have shown that nearly all the most distin- 



