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confusion attending them, observations are often made, which 

 are marvellousllj ill adapted to promote the development of 

 truth. 



Thug our daily journals inform ns that in South Abington, 

 during the year 1856, the lightning struck a pine, shivered an 

 oak, and removed from the two extremes of a worthy citizen, his 

 hat and a stocking; in a neighboring city, it cleared the break- 

 fast table of every thing but a dish of boiled eggs ; now had 

 the eggs been removed and the dishes left, it might have been 

 set down as an ordinary domestic calamity, but the reverse of 

 this perplexes the mind of the electrician. In another town, a 

 pan full of milk was lifted from a table where it stood in its 

 proper place with others, and was placed onthe top of the other 

 pans, without spilling the milk. Now it is possible that the 

 domestic in the last two cases forgot to mention that she was a 

 little confused under the excitement incident to the electric 

 visit, and might not have recollected all that she herself did on 

 the occasion. 



It cannot be denied that in recent times electricity has had 

 the credit of performing still greater miracles, and it becomes 

 not us to deny its dormant capacities ; we patiently await their 

 full development. 



But it is not to make large draughts on the faith or the fancy 

 that electricity should be studied. Not as philosophical amuse- 

 ments, but as the oracles of nature in its usual astion, should 

 the phenomena of the laboratory of the chemist be observed. 

 The Leyden jar must typify the earth and its surroundings' — • 

 the thermo-electric bars of Bismuth and Antimony — the solid 

 ribs of the earth — the attraction and repulsion of electricity — 

 the changes in universal nature. 



To a certain extent, this analogy has been shewai ; the electric 

 spark has been proved to be of a nature identical with that of 

 the atmospheric discharge ; — the galvanic current through the 

 insulated wire coil — has produced polarities analogous to those 

 of the earth. One by one the extraordinary manifestations, 

 seeming exceptions to its normal action, are reduced to general 

 laws. 



This is the extent of our investigations. To succeed in this 

 affords us gratification. But when we attempt to scan more 

 deeply the mysteries of nature, to discover the cause, the 

 primmn mobile of the universe, we are reminded, by our fail- 

 ure, of the limits of our capacity. 



It is not for mortal mind to pursue the investigation of any 

 subject to a perfectly successful issue. The triumphant declar- 



