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4< that which Is not; I avow, that this idea, if It wa's 
“ well fupported, would give me a great deal of 
u pleafure ; and, in fupport of it, how many fpe • 
tc cious reafons prefent themfelves to a man, whcr 
“ is well acquainted with electricity ! The univer- 
<c fality of the electric matter, the readinefs of its 
“ action, its inflammability, and its activity in giv- 
{t ing fire to other bodies; its property in firiking 
“ bodies externally and internally, even to their 
“ fmallefl: parts; tlie remarkable example we have 
<c of this effect in the experiment of Leyden ; the 
t( idea, which we might truly adopt in fuppofing a 
“ greater degree of electric power, &c. all thefe 
“ points of analogy, which I have been home time 
“ meditating, begin to make me believe, that one 
<c might, by taking electricity for the model, form 
{l to one's felf, in relation to thunder and lightning, 
“ more perfect and more probable ideas, than what 
“ have been offer'd hitherto, &c.” 
To demonffrate, that glafs is not abfolutely imper- 
meable to the electric fluid, I offer the following. 
> ty 
experiment : 
Let the neck of a fmall thin phial A (fee the 
Fig.) be placed in that of the receiver B j and lute 
it in fuch a manner, as that the air cannot pafs 
through their joining. Exhaufl: the receiver, and 
pour the little phial three parts full of water, and 
conduct the electricity therein, by means of an iron 
wire, fufpendcd to the conductor. Make the expe- 
riment in a dark place, and, for the greater lurety, 
fix the receiver to the plate of the air-pump, not 
with wet leathers, as nfual, but with foft cement. 
You will fee the electric matter pafs, as through a 
fieve, through the fmall puial into the receiver, and 
