LECTURE I. 41 



those atoms of matter, which form the 

 masses that are cognizable to our senses ; 

 and that it enters into the composition 

 of every thing inanimate or animate. If 

 then it be electricity that produces all the 

 chemical changes, we so constantly ob- 

 serve, in surrounding inanimate objects, 

 analogy induces us to believe that it is 

 electricity which also performs all the 

 chemical operations in living bodies ; that 

 the universal chemist resides in them, 

 and exercises in some degree peculiar 

 powers because it possesses a peculiar 

 apparatus. 



Sir Humphrey Davy's experiments also 

 lead us to believe, that it is electricity, 

 extricated and accumulated in ways not 

 clearly understood, which causes those sud- 

 den and powerful motions in masses of 

 inert matter, which we occasionally wit- 

 ness with wonder and dismay ; that it is 

 electricity which causes the whirlwind, and 

 the water-spout, and which " with its sharp 

 and sulphurous bolt splits the unwedgeable 

 and gnarled oak," and destroys our most 

 stabile edifices ; that it is electricity which, 



