Dr. Hare, on a recent " speculation''^ hy Faraday. 249 



" The vieio now stated of the constitution of matter, would seem 

 to involve necessarily the conclusion that matter f Us all space, or 

 at least the space to which gravitation extends, including the sun 

 and its system, for gravitation is a property of matter, dependent 

 on a certain force, and it is this force which co?istitutes matter. ^^ 



Literally this paragraph seems to convey the impression, that 

 agreeably to the new idea of matter, the sun and his planets are 

 not distinct bodies, but consist of certain material powers recip- 

 rocally penetrating each other, and pervading a space larger than 

 that comprised within the orbit of Uranns. We do not live upon, 

 but within the matter of which the earth is constituted, or rather 

 within a mixture of all the solar and planetary matter belonging 

 to our solar system. I cannot conceive that the sagacious author 

 seriously intended to sanction any notion involving these conse- 

 quences. I shall assume, therefore, that, excepting the case of 

 gravitation, his new idea of matter was intended to be restricted 

 to those powers which display themselves within masses at in- 

 sensible distances, and shall proceed to state the objections which 

 seem to exist against the new idea as associated with those 

 powers. 



Evidently the arguments of Faraday against the existence, in 

 potassium and other masses of matter, of impenetrable atoms en- 

 dowed with cohesion, chemical affinity, momentum, and gravita- 

 tion, rest upon the inference that in metals there is nothing to 

 perform the part of an electrical conductor besides continuous 

 empty space. This illustrious philosopher has heretofore ap- 

 peared to be disinclined to admit the existence of any matter de- 

 void of ponderability. The main object of certain letters which 

 I addressed to him, was to prove that the phenomena of induc- 

 tion could not, as he had represented, be an " action'" of ponder- 

 able atoms, but, on the contrary, must be considered as an affec- 

 tion of them consequent to the intervention of an imponderable 

 matter, without which the phenomena of electricity would be 

 inexplicable. This disinclination to the admission of an impon- 

 derable electrical cause, has been the more remarkable, as his 

 researches have not only proved the existence of prodigious elec- 

 trical power in metals, but likewise, that it is evolved during 

 chemico-electric reaction, in equivalent proportion to the quan- 

 tity of ponderable matter decomposed or combined. 



