1'2'i PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [anNO 1750. 



tion, as to that point. All this, and what was observed from Northampton, of 

 the motion being thought by some to be upward and downward, by others, 

 rather horizontal or lateral, the counting the pulses, and the like, only points 

 out to us the prodigious celerity, and the vibratory species of the motion of an 

 earthquake , but far, very far, is this from being owing to the tumultuous ebul- 

 lition, the irregular hurry of subterraneous explosions. 



12. How the atmosphere and earth are put into that electric and vibratory 

 state, which prepares them to give or receive the snap, and the shock, which we 

 call an earthquake, what it is that immediately produces it, we cannot say; any 

 more than we can define what is the cause of magnetism, or of gravitation, or 

 how muscular motion is performed, or a thousand other secrets in nature. 



We seem to know, that the Author of Nature has disseminated ethereal fire, 

 through all matter ; by which these great operations are brought about. This isi 

 the subtil fluid of Sir Isaac Newton, pervading all things ; the occult fire dif- 

 fused through the universe, according to Marcilius Ficinus, the Platonic philo- 

 sopher, in the Timaeus of his master. And the Platonists insist on an occult 

 fire passing through and agitating all substance by its vigorous and expansive 

 motion. 



Before them, Hippocrates writes in the same sense, 1. de victus ratione, that 

 this fire moves all in all. This ethereal fire is one of the 4 elements of the an- 

 cients : it lies latent, and dispersed through all the other 3, and quiescent ; till 

 collected in a quantity, that overbalances the circumjacent ; like the air crouded 

 into a tempest ; or till it is excited by any proper motion. 



This fire gives elasticity, and elasticity, or vibration, is the mother of elec- 

 tricity. This fire is in water, and betrays itself to our senses in salt water. 

 Many a time, when I have passed the Lincolnshire washes in the night-time, 

 the horse has seemed to tread in liquid flames. The same appearance is often at 

 tlie keel of a ship. 



•k. The operation of the ethereal fire is various, nay infinite, according to itft 

 quantity, and degree of incitement, progress, hindrance, or furtherance. One 

 degree keeps water fluid, says the learned bishop of Cloyne : another turns it 

 into elastic air : and air itself seems nothing else but vapours and exhalations ren- 

 dered elastic by this fire. 



This same fire permeates and dwells in all bodies, even diamond, flint, and 

 steel. Its particles attract with the greatest force, when approximated. Again, 

 when united, they fly asunder with the greatest celerity. All this is according to 

 the laws prescribed by the Sovereign Architect. This is the life and soul of 

 action and re-action, in the universe. Thus has the Great Author provided 

 against the native sluggishness of matter ! light, or fire, in animals, is what we 



