186 JReply to Mr. Main^s Question 



of light ever is or shall be ever lost ! Comets have, by some, 

 been supposed to regulate the electrical relations betv^^een the 

 sun and his planets ; and, by others, to supply the loss which 

 the sun sustains by emitting rays of light and heat. I am 

 inclined to believe that the agency of induction and attraction 

 is universal and complete ; that a reciprocal and harmonious 

 interchange is for ever going on between the sun and the 

 planets ; and that the sun itself is the one sole " ' great prin- 

 ciple ' which operates and connects together all the pheno- 

 mena of the material world.' " 



I have not hesitated to introduce, in the foregoing paper, 

 several passages from the early sections of the Domestic Gar- 

 dener's Manual, with trifling modifications : this the reader 

 who is in possession of that work will scarcely fail to dis- 

 cover. By thus borrowing, as it were, from myself, I have 

 been enabled, without incurring the charge of plagiarism, to 

 embody most of the facts which constitute the basis and sub- 

 stance of the electrical theory that is impressed forcibly upon 

 my mind, as being alone capable of elucidating all the great 

 natural phenomena. There is much of the hypothetical, I 

 admit, in the view I have taken of the predominating agency 

 of absorbed solar light ; but, wherever doubt exists at all, and 

 mysterious effects are observed, the actuating machinery of 

 which cannot be brought within the power of human percep- 

 tion, theory must be allowed ; unless, indeed, it be required 

 that the powers of the mind remain dormant. The case 

 admits of no other alternative. 



He, however, who, while he endeavours modestly to exhibit 

 the ideas which are forcibly impressed upon his mind, in the 

 hopes of stimulating to scientific research, neither asserts 

 dogmatically, nor claims authoiity to dictate to the faith of 

 others, cannot justly be accused of presumption. " The 

 germs of discovery are often found in rational speculations ; " 

 and that hypothesis which is presented to the test of philo- 

 sophic investigation may, without arrogant assumption, be 

 deemed the pioneer of science. 



Jan. 21. 1833. G. J. T. 



Art. VI. A Reply to Mr. Maijis Question to the Aiithor of the 

 " Domestic Gardener s Manual." By the Author of the " Do- 

 mestic Gardener's Manual." 



Sir, 

 I OBSERVE, in Vol. VIIL p. 652., that there is a paper 

 addressing, not one but two distinct questions to me, on 



