370 Thoughts on Ray-vibrations. [1846. 



view adopted respecting them may be, we can, at all events, 

 affect these lines of force in a manner which may be conceived 

 as partaking of the nature of a shake or lateral vibration. For 

 suppose two bodies, A B, distant from each other and under 

 mutual action, and therefore connected by lines of force, and 

 let us fix our attention upon one resultant of force having an 

 invariable direction as regards space ; if one of the bodies move 

 in the least degree right or left, or if its power be shifted for a 

 moment within the mass (neither of these cases being difficult 

 to realize if A and B be either electric or magnetic bodies), 

 then an effect equivalent to a lateral disturbance will take place 

 in the resultant upon which we are fixing our attention ; for, 

 either it will increase in force whilst the neighbouring resultants 

 are diminishing, or it will fall in force as they are increasing. 



It may be asked, what lines of force are there in nature, 

 which are fitted to convey such an action, and supply for the 

 vibrating theory the place of the ether ? I do not pretend to 

 answer this question with any confidence ; all I can say is, that 

 I do not perceive in any part of space, whether (to use the 

 common phrase) vacant or filled with matter, anything but forces 

 and the lines in which they are exerted. The lines of weight 

 or gravitating force are, certainly, extensive enough to answer in 

 this respect any demand made upon them by radiant phenomena; 

 and so, probably, are the lines of magnetic force : and then, who 

 can forget that Mossotti has shown that gravitation, aggregation, 

 electric force, and electro-chemical action may all have one 

 common connexion or origin; and so, in their actions at a 

 distance, may have in common that infinite scope which some 

 of these actions are known to possess ? 



The view which I am so bold as to put forth considers, 

 therefore, radiation as a high species of vibration in the lines 

 of force which are known to connect particles and also masses 

 of matter together. It endeavours to dismiss the ether, but 

 not the vibrations. The kind of vibration which, I believe, can 

 alone account for the wonderful, varied, and beautiful phe- 

 nomena of polarization, is not the same as that which occurs 

 on the surface of disturbed water, or the waves of sound in 

 gases or liquids, for the vibrations in these cases are direct, or 

 to and from the centre of action, whereas the former are lateral. 

 It seems to me, that the resultant of two or more lines of force 



