From the experiments of Mr. Bennet (an English gentleman who has made several discoveries in electricity) it appears, that we can neither brush a piece of chalk, open or shut a book, or do several of the most trifling actions, without agitating this subtile fluid in a perceptible manner. It is well known that in some cases we cannot stroke a cat’s back without making the electric matter visible, and in some positions, by putting our fingers near the ears of the animal, very pungent sparks will be received. If then we can neither open or shut a book, if we cannot stroke a cat’s back, or approach a finger to her ear, without agitating the electric fluid, is it reasonably to think we could burn a book, or kill a cat, without doing the same? Certainly it is not. If we cannot burn a book or kill a cat without affecting this fluid, it cannot be supposed that we can burn a house or kill a man without producing a still greater commotion; and in proportion to the extent of our devastations, and the multitude of our massacres, the invisible agitation of this element must become still greater and greater. In all these transactions it must be remembered that the fluid is forced out of its natural mode of action; for electric matter is made for the preservation, not the destruction, of life: but if, by long continued and extensive application of its power to a contrary purpose, we in some measure pervert its action, no wonder that we then feel the consequences of our own proceedings by its partly turning its power against the human race altogether.