1 88 3 .] 
Recent Progress of Electricity. 
467 
munerative. In one room alone at the London Post-Office 
there are a thousand female clerks, whose active brains and 
fingers are constantly at work ; and from this instance we 
may judge of the vast army of women employed in the 
service of Electron throughout the world. 
The movements of a spirit such as Electron are essen- 
tially of a different nature from those of material things 
which are aCted upon by the laws of gravitation, and of other 
forces which are readily recognised by our senses, and which 
can be intelligibly comprehended, measured, and practically 
formulated. Spirits, being destitute of weight, cannot, un- 
less in a slight and indirect way, be influenced by gravitation. 
Their inconceivably rapid motion is entirely unlike that of 
gravitation, being more of the nature of mental emotion, or 
of vibration, than of a bodily change of place. The eleCtric 
spirit, in so far as it enters into the constitution of material 
things, and functionally permeates or envelopes them, will 
accompany the world in all its movements ; but in other 
respeCts it will not accompany it, or participate either in its 
rotation or its orbital motion. 
It will thus be understood that the Earth in its diurnal 
motion brushes through and athwart the portion of this spirit 
that lies nearest to it at the rate of 17 miles per minute at 
the Equator, and at a gradually diminishing rate towards 
the Poles. Or, it comes to the same thing to say that the 
Geni traverses the surface of the Earth at this rate along 
the parallels of latitude from west to east. One result of 
this is that the whole army of magnetic imps throughout the 
world, that have from their size and constitution the requi- 
site freedom of movement, must continually assume the 
rectangular or military position towards their great chief. 
In other words, they will point in the direction of the ter- 
restrial poles, — a permanent and invaluable phenomenon, 
which, in the guise of the mariner’s compass, constitutes 
one of the greatest blessings to mankind. 
As a curious presumptive corroboration of the truth of 
this idea, a well-known experiment may be called to remem- 
brance : — If a rod of soft iron be suspended at right angles 
to the eleCtric or magnetic current, — that is to say, nearly 
north and south, with a considerable dip to the north, — and 
smartly struck several times, so as to put its particles into a 
state of vibration, these particles will assume the deferential 
or military attitude, and retain it permanently , along with the 
magnetic power which it confers, thus converting the rod 
into a magnet. 
This powerful Geni does not disdain to aCt the part of a 
