The Cause of Life and Motion 27 



their energy or amplitude in a proportionate de- 

 gree in their passage through and exit from it. 

 Here then we have the condition at all exterior 

 points of the magnet, as in all bodies, of one set 

 of forces acting towards it and another set acting 

 away from it. The former forces in a magnet 

 act with by far the greatest energy, except at 

 neutral points, where their natural action is not 

 greatly impeded by the magnet's molecular ar- 

 rangement. 



We will now suppose that we have two bar 

 magnets before us on a table lying with their re- 

 spective north and south poles in contact, so as 

 to form together a direct line, and with their 

 north poles pointing to the right hand. For the 

 sake of a clear understanding, let the supposed 

 magnets be two pieces of white paper. As a 

 crude representation of the molecular structure, 

 we will mark on the longitudinal axis of these 

 attached pseudo magnets, a single regular sys- 

 tem of cones with their axes coincident with 

 the axis of the magnets, and with their apexes 

 throughout pointing say to the south or left 

 hand. We will now imagine that the vibrations 

 of the forces coming from each direction, follow 

 the contour of the cones, or that they pro- 

 ceed as if they were following the toothed edge 

 of a saw. In this vibratory action derived from 

 the assumed molecular structure of the magnets, 



