MECHANISM OF NATURE 



known law is known only through the material 

 with which it is associated. 



And in electricity, as well as in every other field 

 of investigation, the divorce of matter and force 

 in philosophy, has led to the grossest materialism, 

 on one side, while on the other side imagination 

 has ran riot. Electricity cannot be primary when 

 it consists of two kinds. Electricity is not life, 

 but the result of life. And the only expression 

 of mind a sane human can understand is ever con- 

 veyed through material. 



All advance in electrical science has been the 

 direct result of observing the actions of electricity 

 on material. And evidently any real advance in 

 theoretical knowledge of electricity must come 

 through a closer acquaintance with material forms, 

 and the mechanical changes their particles un- 

 dergo. 



As a proposition for solution by logical reason- 

 ing, electricity offers the same opportunities and 

 the same difficulties that heat and light and mag- 

 netism do. 



For clearly electricity is transmitted. It can be 

 transmitted through matter only. That matter 

 must be taken on one side and deposited on the 

 other side. Yet there is no perceptible increase 

 or decrease of either Mass or bulk. 



That both propositions are true is uncontrovert- 

 ible, and equally true that they are, to all appear- 

 ance, contradictory one of the other. 



The water wheel may not drive the mill unless 

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