I 
420 ON CHEMISTRY. 
becomes extinguished and lost. That any portion of light should be 
so extinguished is in direct opposition to all analogy ; for, every well 
investigated phenomenon affords evidence that one eternal routine 
prevails, that the decomposition of one substance is the formation of 
another,-—that an apparent change, or even destruction, is but a step 
towards some important completion, and in one word that not one 
iota of created matter ever was or can be lost. 
Now, if the sun’s beams have been absorbed, they must lie masked 
or concealed till they be excited by some powerful stimulus, and 
when so actuated, they produce the most stupendous phenomena. 
I assert then, as the basis of my theory,—of all that I conceive of 
vegetable, vital action, that Light is universally diffused, that its 
source is the sun, and its effects , the revealment of electricity , mag¬ 
netism , heat, chemical attraction and repulsion, —and finally of 
gravitation, acting on the laws of electric induction. For as all bo¬ 
dies when electrified, produce an opposite state in other bodies, when 
within the range of their influence, so the Sun, being the grand 
fountain of pure etherial light, and electrising all bodies within the 
range of its beams, produces a condition in such bodies (primary 
and secondary) which lead them to attract each other and to be at¬ 
tracted themselves, by him, in their turn. How these miracles are 
effected, the human, limited mind can never be able to discover. 
I admit also that our machinery may never embrace, or confine 
the minute particles of those essences which are ever in active, 
ceaseless interchange ; but we want not minutiae : we see the Sun ; 
we feel his agency, we behold the mighty effects of his radiance. 
The Gardener above all is tbe honoured being, who has, through¬ 
out his whole experience, one undeviating routine of proof upon 
proof. Gladly should I hail the detection, by machinery, of de¬ 
finite proportions of light, that had previously lain masked in bodies 
under experiment; and verily the phenomena of voltaic electricity, 
and the discovery of Dr. Faraday, have not left us without a pro¬ 
mise of “ the great hereafter,”—but if we be not permitted to 
withdraw the veil, how much more of substance, of reality do we 
possess than are to be found in the wild undefinable visions of 
latent heat. The very term is a contradiction,— Heat that is not 
manifested is not heat—if it be manifested, or measurable, it is no 
longer Latent. I know that the same thing may be said of light, 
and I admit that while it remains absorbed, it is not visible ; but we 
have a mighty first cause to go to, which the caloricians have no 
trace of, or claim upon ; their s is “ a deed without a name” —unless 
it be a wrong one—an effect without a cause, unless it be inapprecia- 
