THE FORCES OF INORGANIC NATURE. 227 



At this point I reviewed the discussion of physicists on the nature of heat. 

 The old emission theory, though crude, and in some respects faulty, was, I thought, 

 too readily abandoned. Count Rumford's cannon-boring experiment had undue 

 influence. While it covered a very little, it was allowed to. determine a great 

 deal. It showed that the heat that came from the friction in boring did not come 

 out of the iron chips, or in any way deprive them of former capacity as to heat. 

 But did it prove anything more ? It simply established a negation ; a negation 

 of narrow limits. And yet it is paraded as having cleared the way for an entire 

 new departure; and as conclusive against what had been the received theory. If 

 heat is a constituent of electricity, if electricity pervaded and enshrouded the 

 cannon that was being bored, and every part of the machinery used in the boring, 

 and if it is possible under certain conditions to have electricity surrender its heat, 

 we may claim Count Rumford's experiment as confirming the theory here ad- 

 vanced. His experiment suits no man's theory, or purpose, better than mine. 



I followed on through all the recorded experiments, and they all seemed to 

 illustrate and confirm my position. 



Convinced that the heat of friction is from electricity, and that heat is not 

 motion, but that it is an entity, a substance, I found it in harmony with true 

 philosophy to speak of immaterial substances, A substance is that which under- 

 lies attributes, or manifestations. Any being with relations so discerned as to 

 distinguish it from other beings is a substance. Throughout the centuries it has 

 been agreed among the learned, that there are corporeal substances and also 

 spiritual substances. The best intellects of the world to-day recognize both of 

 these. Finding that there was nothing absurd in the idea of an immaterial sub- 

 stance, I was ready to place heat under this category. Are there then in nature 

 substances corporeal, and substances incorporeal? Under the first do we have 

 matter, and under the second heat ? 



Allowing this as a hypothesis, we determine farther, that the one substance, 

 matter, is inert, powerless, destitute of all known properties. The other substance, 

 heat, is active. It is self-repellent, and this self-repellence is one of the mighty 

 forces of nature. From this self-repellence comes repulsion in all its forms. 

 These two substances have an affinity for each other, and this is the other of the 

 mighty forces of nature. . In this affinity, attraction in all its forms, and in all its 

 degrees, has its origin. Repulsion is co-extensive with attraction, and these two 

 are so related that they are ever in conflict, the one tending to bring things to- 

 gether and to keep them together; the other tending to put them apart and keep 

 them apart. The above are both imperishable forces; constant forces, always the 

 same when conditions are the same; their manifestations changing as the condi- 

 tions change, so that the direct of the one is the reverse of the other. 



If the above propositions are established, we have in them the key that un- 

 locks all the mysteries, and explains all the phenomena in connection with inor- 

 ganic nature. Here we learn what gravitation is, what its origin, and we get 

 more correct knowledge of its laws. 



