H3TT/1* ONE SPECIES OF MATTER. 



79 



the common laws of attraction, and by prismatic refraction 

 the difference of their actions is determined ; and it seems 

 probable, that the relations of the different particles to the 

 crystalline arrangements of matter, will be found connected 

 with those powers which they possess, analogous to electrical 

 qualities. 



If that sublime idea of the antient philosophers, which has 

 been sanctioned by the approbation of Newton, should be true, 

 namely, that there is only one species of matter, the different 

 chemical, as well as mechanical forms of which, are owing to 

 the different arrangement of its particles, then a method of 

 analysing those forms, may probably be found in their relations 

 to radiant matter. Newton supposed that the luminous parti- 

 cles at the violet end of the spectrum were smallest in size, 

 and those at the red end largest in size ; and those producing 

 the intermediate colors of a size proportional. On this idea 

 the calorific invisible particles would be the largest in the 

 solar beam, and the calorific particles emitted by terrestrial 

 bodies may be imagined of still greater size, so as to be inca- 

 pable of passing through the pores of dense transparent 

 media. 



The rays at the red end of the spectrum tend to burn bodies, 

 or to combine them with oxygen ; those at the OPPOSITE END 

 tend to restore inflammability to bodies ; and negative elec- 

 tricity, which exercises the same functions, produces hydrogen 

 gas from water ; and this is the lightest chemical element in 

 nature, and may be conceived to be composed on the corpus- 

 cular hypothesis of the smallest particles. 



The latter investigations of light teach us that there is still 

 much to learn, with respect to the affections and motions of 

 radiant matter ; and this subject, when fully investigated, pro- 

 mises to connect together chemical and mechanical science, and 

 to offer new and more comprehensive views of the corpuscular 

 arrangement of matter. See ' Elements of Chemical Philo- 

 sophy,' 222. 



