The Third Objection is, That so large a Quantity of Iron, as I have supposed to be electrify’d, will not give greater Force, when touch’d by a Person unelectrify’d, than a smaller one will.
In Answer to the First Objection; I cannot think, that the Term Electric per se is suited to any Material whatever; unless some One was found out which would attract to it, of its own accord, any other Material; as we find a Loadstone will do, when placed near any thing in its Reach: but, if you lay even Amber unrubb’d in Contact with Straws, or any other Things, they will not be attracted to it. So that Friction, it is plain, collects this Power to the Amber.
The Term Electric per se seems to me to be used by these Gentlemen for the same Purposes as the old Term of Occult Quality was.
As the Word Electricity arises from Amber, I need not instance in any other Material; nor need I give again my Reasons, why certain Things are non-electricable. But, for clearing One Point, in which I am not rightly apprehended; I have said, That if Fire be the Cause of Life and Increase in any thing which stands in a State of Nature, then, whatever ceases to be in a State of Life or Increase, must have its Fire withdrawn, and it becomes a Caput Mortuum.—I have been told, This is not true; for a dead Animal will be electrify’d.
This I complain of, as not having been understood concerning it. This Animal, though kill’d, had once its animal Increase from Fire. Boards, when dry, have Fire in them; because the Fire, which invigorated the Tree they were saw’d out of, must naturally remain in them. The like may be said of a dead Animal; but Wax, Pitch, Resin, and the Tribe of Non-electricables, never had their Existence from Nature only; and therefore they are quite of a different Tribe. For what I say is, That whatever had once Fire in it is capable of being electrify’d. Those called Electrics per se, having no Fire in them, when, by Friction, Fire is collected on their Surfaces, it is either driven from thence into the Air, or into some Electricable, and so it joins with that Fire which naturally belongs to it.
Sealing-wax is compounded of Non-electricables, and, if you rub it, will attract Things to it as Amber will: And I believe all other Things, which will not imbibe the Fire into them, when by Friction it is collected on their Surfaces, will dispose of it thence to their next Neighbour. Resin and Pitch, from their Tenacity, may difficultly be made to do it, and, yet have the Nature in them I am supposing them to have.
There may be such artful Tricks play’d with this Power, as, to an undiscerning Eye, may make it seem to be changed; for Instance, If you wet a silk Cord (Water being electricable) it passes on the Water through the Cord, by the Cord’s only retaining the Water. Some Dye, with which Silk is dyed, if it be of a vegetable Nature, will convey this Power through the Silk, by the Contiguity of the Dye-Stuff: So that you see there may be no End of Experiments.
I think it is a great Pity that the Word Electricity should ever have been given to so wonderful Phænomenon, which might properly be consider’d as the First Principle in Nature. Perhaps the Word Vivacity might not have been an improper one; but it is now too late to think of changing a Name it has so long obtain’d.
As I am going to answer the Second Objection, I own I have not employ’d myself in making Experiments in Electricity, chusing rather, if I could, to account for those which have been found out by others, than to spend much Time in making them myself: Though I pay great Respect to those, who, for Improvement of Knowlege, have been employ’d in them. As to those who get Money by shewing these Experiments, I do not pay so high a Regard to their Performances; because all, who shew any Arts to new Customers, for Profit, are bound to try all Means to gain Applause. I would endeavour to ascertain the Laws or Principle by which they are perform’d; which when done, a Thousand Tricks like Legerdemain may be performed by it, by him whose Time is little worth.
In the Second Objection it is said, I am mistaken, when I advance, that the Apparatus is not the Cause of Electricity, but that it is produced by the Air. To shew this, I am told, That if a Person is placed, and also the Apparatus, on Wax or Resin (which are non-electricable), no Fire or Force is produced from them: But if the Person employ’d in doing it touches the Wainscot or the Floor with a Walking-Stick, or the like, the Electricity flows as freely as if he stood on the Floor. From whence some Conjecture this Power comes from the Earth only; than which I think nothing can be more absurd: For, if you fetch it out of the Wainscot, or the Boards of the Floor, it must first be in them, and the Air could only be the Carrier of it to them. So that here the main Things, which I at first only conjectur’d, I think are fully proved; which are, That Electricity was not generated by the Apparatus, but only collected by it out of the Air.