XXV 
the weakefit Natural or Artificial EleSlricity . 
almofi: to nothing, the electricity will pafs to the inferior plane 
exceedingly {lowly. 
46. But the cafe will not be the fame if, in performing this 
experiment, the electrified metal plate be made to touch the 
inferior plane edgewifie ; for then its intenfity being greater 
than when laid flat, as appears by the electrometer, the elec- 
tricity eafily overcomes the fmall refiftance, and paflfes to the 
inferior plane, even acrols a thin ftratum * ; becaufe the elec- 
tricity ot one plane is balanced by that of the other, only in 
proportion to the quantity of lurface which they oppofe to 
each other within a given diftance : whereby when the metal 
plate touches the other plane in flat and ample contact its elec- 
tricity is not diflipated. This apparent paradox is clearly ex- 
plained by the theory of eleCtric atmofpheres. 
47. What looks more like a paradox is, that neither will 
the touching the metal plate with a finger, or with a piece of 
metal, deprive it of all its eleClricity, whilft {landing upon 
the proper plane ; lb that it generally leaves it fo far electrified 
that, when it is afterwards leparated from that plane, it will 
{fill afford a fpark. Indeed this phenomenon could not be ex- 
plained upon the fuppofition that the finger or the metals were 
perfeCf conductors. But fince we do not know of any perfect 
conductor, the metals or the finger, oppofe a refiftance fuffi- 
cient to retard the immediate diffipation of the eleCtricity of the 
* This explanation, properly applied, renders evident the ndions of points in 
general. Properly fpeaking, a pointed candudor, not infulated, when prefenred 
to an eledrified body, has not in itfelf any particular virtue of attrading elec- 
tricity. It adds only like a condudor not infulated, which does not oppofe any 
refiftance to the paffage of the electric fluid. If the fame condudor, inflead of 
being pointed, was to preient a globular or flat furface to the electrified body, 
neither would it in that cal'e oppofe a greater refiftance to the paffage of the 
eledricity. But the realon why the electricity will not pafs nearly fo eafily from 
the eledrified body to the condudor when if is flat or globular, as when if is pointed, 
is becaufe in the former cafe the intenfity of the eledricity in the eledrified body is 
weakened by the oppoled fiat furface, which, acquiring the contrary electricity, 
compenfates the diminifhed intenfity incomparably more than a point can. It 
appears, therefore, that it is not the particular property of a point or of a flat 
furface, but the different ftate of the eledrified body, that makes it part with its 
eledricity eafier, and from a greater diftance, when a pointed concluding iub- 
ftance, than when a flat or globular one is prefented to it. 
plate, 
