468 Recent Progress of Electricity . [August, 
most useful and obedient servant or slave. Without his 
spontaneous assistance as the fermentative agent, the pro- 
cesses of baking and brewing could not be successfully 
carried on ; and by a little skilful management he can be made 
to work sewing and other domestic machines, to ring bells of 
warning at any distance that may be required, — to transmit 
messages to any distance with accuracy, and with a prompti- 
tude that no human messenger could equal, — to aCt the 
part of a watchman, and give instant warning of the approach 
of burglars or thieves ; he can give warning of the escape 
and anticipate the movements of criminals, so as to lead to 
their apprehension, and thus prove himself a powerful aid 
to law and to good government. He will even dete( 5 t the 
first outbreak of fire, and give timely warning of it. He 
transmits true time, and keeps our clocks in harmony in all 
parts of the kingdom. He gilds and plates our spoons and 
metallic goods ; he reproduces our medals and works of art 
in metal, including the most valuable artistic engraving 
plates. He can, at a safe distance, detonate the charges 
used in quarrying and mining, and can explode submarine 
, torpedoes and other explosive contrivances, whether used for 
warlike or peaceful purposes. 
These are only a few of the numberless benefits for which 
we are indebted to Electron. But there is one department, 
of public and domestic importance, where his services are 
available, and where they are destined-— probably at no dis- 
tant date — to contribute in a high degree to the welfare and 
the happiness of the world. He can be made to assume 
the character of an angel of light, or, as some might prefer 
to say, of the demon Lucifer. But in whichever of these 
aspects you may choose to regard him, it is quite true that 
he can be made to give out light in almost any amount, and 
of a beauty and quality, and freedom from noxious effluvia, 
surpassing any artificial light that has yet been attained. 
There are various ways in which the Magi and their 
operative assistants have been able to effeCt this transform- 
ation, but the usual and the most efficient is by making use 
of the intervention of another Geni whom scientists have 
much more completely under their command. This spirit, 
though belonging to a much lower order of created beings, 
has within the last hundred years been found to possess 
capacities — and has had them practically employed — for the 
promotion of the power, civilisation, and happiness of man- 
kind, to an extent that is apt to deceive the ignorant into a 
belief that he is equal, if not superior, to Electron himself. 
He may be described as a hybrid, generated by the impreg- 
