328 On Electricity and its Present Applications. [June, 
I do not, therefore, intend to treat the subjecft specially in 
its medical aspect, and shall, without further apology, bring 
it before you in the way that has happened to approve itself 
to me. You will not, I hope, take offence if I ask you, 
during the reading of the paper, to fancy yourselves in the 
position of a group of children, or of untutored natives of 
the East listening to one of their own story tellers, while he 
tries to please them for an hour, and to convey to them 
some practical and useful instruction by the scenes and 
sketches he places before their imagination. 
When the Allwise, Omnipotent, and Eternal created and 
organised this world, he placed in it certain Genii, immortal 
but soulless spirits, — His slaves or ministers, as they might 
be called, — to carry out His will in its government, and in 
the purposes He had in view in its creation. One of the 
most powerful of these — the Genie of the mystic fire, 
Electron — is invisible to the human eye, and unrecognisable 
by the ordinary human senses, except upon rare occasions, 
or when subjected to the spell of a skilled magician. 
It is difficult to give a correct portraiture and dimensions 
of this great spirit ; but it may be said that, while his head 
reaches far above the clouds, and his feet go down into the 
bowels of the earth, and traverse them more freely than a 
bird can fly through the air, he can also enter into the 
smallest and invisible cell that forms part of the material of 
the globe. In truth he performs an important part in almost 
all the operations going on in the world, whether great or 
small ; but so quietly and gently does he work that his 
presence is never known or suspected, except on the occur- 
rence of something calculated to rouse him to anger or 
opposition. 
The power and immensity of this Genie may be in some 
degree comprehended when it is stated that the tremendous 
roar of his voice, the dazzling brightness of the flash of his 
eye, the inconceivable rapidity of his movements, and the 
irresistible force of his strength are such that in respecft to 
them there is no terrestrial being that can be compared with 
him. When careering with his full force, if any obstacle 
should interrupt his progress or tend to circumscribe his 
liberty, he will in a moment burst the strongest barriers in 
his way, shattering and destroying them by streams of fire 
which he launches forth, accompanied with such appalling 
and tremendous bellowings as seem to make the earth to 
tremble. Such behaviour on his part naturally inspires 
mankind with terror and awe, and it has had the effedl, in 
past times, of deterring them from cultivating his 
