38 RESTORATION EQUAL TO CONSUMPTION. 



provided for, by restoration of an equal quantity of matter from 

 the fixed to the radiant state, from the emanating points of 

 matter in visible combination, together with that which may 

 combine invisibly through solid, fluid, or gaseous media ; in 

 other words, occult light of electrical generation. 



The composition and decomposition of matter is solely effected 

 by the principles or elements of light, invisibly by the galvanic 

 action, or that continuous course of union which takes place 

 between the principles of light, and visibly by the combination 

 of bodies, whether solid, fluid, or gaseous, reverting in part 

 from \hefxed to the radiant state. 



As the system of transition from one state to the other is 

 continuous, and the reversion equally so, it would appear that 

 when fixed bodies absorb electively one constituent, for in- 

 stance, oxygen, the red ray, the compensating portions of the 

 yellow nitrogen and Hue hydrogen rays ARE FREE, and at 

 large in the state of negative electricity ; while on the other 

 hand, when the hydrogen blue ray and the nitrogen yellow ray 

 are absorbed, and chemically combined with bodies of fixed 

 matter, the oxygen red ray is set at liberty to act independently 

 the pail of positive electricity, and that such alternations of 

 elective absorption and chemical combination, occasion those 

 currents of the opposite electricities pervading the earth, and 

 all bodies of fixed matter, including the surrounding atmo- 

 sphere. 



It would appear that in addition to the compound molecules 

 of light possessing the three original elements of constitution, 

 in their usual inert or passive state, when not formed into the 

 radiating lines emanating from a projecting point of combus- 

 tion, and pervading our globe and its atmosphere, that there 

 are those other separated portions of the constituents of light, 

 also filling space both above and below the surface of the earth, 

 awaiting their accumulation to a sufficient extent, to require 

 their junction with the opposite constituents, to form LIGHT or 

 electricity, and restore the required equilibrium. 



