1884*1 On Electricity and its Present Applications . 465 
admit that the latter plays a most important part in the use 
and the functions of the powers and attributes of all living 
beings. But without these postulates, and the conditions 
necessary for their existence, Electron would be but a blind 
and reckless, however powerful and all-pervading, a spirit. 
In the case of any planet, or say that of our own moon, for 
instance, which is believed to be so destitute of water that 
whatever portion of this it may contain is drawn by gravi- 
tation, and retained in the interior, so that it cannot appear 
upon the surface ; and the absence of this indispensable 
element of animal and vegetable life would account for the 
arid, dismal, and death-like appearance which our pale-faced 
satellite, without any indication of a change of seasons, 
exhibits when viewed through the most powerful telescopes. 
Which she at present presents, I say, because if the hypothesis 
suggested be true it is possible that in the course of ages a 
sufficiency of water may be moleculated and attracted by 
the moon’s own power of gravitation, to supply her with 
enough of this vital element to enable her, by the will or 
fiat of God, and through means of Electron, to become at 
last adapted for and endowed with such a variety of the 
tribes of animal and vegetable life as that which now 
enriches and adorns her suzerain, if not also her parent, the 
Earth. 
The Darwinian doCtrine does not necessarily lead to 
Atheism, and it is after all only a theory, admirable, inge- 
nious, and suggestive in its way, but far from being so reli- 
ably and in every point true as to have the right to supersede 
and stamp out the old and universal beliefs which have 
hitherto governed mankind. 
In conclusion, it may be said that Electricity as a science 
has now passed its stage of infancy and childhood, and is 
entering upon that of youth and adolescence. Long the 
plaything and pet of philosophers and medical men, for 
whose nursing and education it has hitherto brought them 
but scanty return, it has now grown into importance in a 
social, industrial, financial, sanitary, legislative, and legal 
point of view, and has consequently fallen under the pro- 
tection of the State, and the control of financiers, lawyers, 
inventors, mechanicians, and speculators, and is expected 
by many to prove an el Dorado to those who have the skill 
and the Spirit to take possession of the hidden treasures 
which Electron, like Aladdin’s Genie of the Lamp, has in 
his keeping. But it is quite possible, if not indeed probable, 
that if the noble Genie be overdriven and hounded on by a 
band of mercenary and unscrupulous men, he may, like 
