Here is another illustration,--I have hung a piece of gold-leaf in the upper part of this long glass vessel, and I have the means, by a little arrangement at the top, of letting the gold-leaf loose. Before we let it loose we will remove the air by means of an air pump, and while that is being done, let me shew you another experiment of the same kind. Take a penny-piece, or a half-crown, and a round piece of paper a trifle smaller in diameter than the coin, and try them, side by side, to see whether they fall at the same time [dropping them]. You see they do not--the penny-piece goes down first. But, now place this paper flat on the top of the coin, so that it shall not meet with any resistance from the air, and upon _then_ dropping them you see they _do_ both fall in the same time [exhibiting the effect]. I dare say, if I were to put this piece of gold-leaf, instead of the paper, on the coin, it would do as well. It is very difficult to lay the gold-leaf so flat that the air shall not get under it and lift it up in falling, and I am rather doubtful as to the success of this, because the gold-leaf is puckery; but will risk the experiment. There they go together! [letting them fall] and you see at once that they both reach the table at the same moment. We have now pumped the air out of the vessel, and you will perceive that the gold-leaf will fall as quickly in this vacuum as the coin does in the air. I am now going to let it loose, and you must watch to see how rapidly it falls. There! [letting the gold loose] there it is, falling as gold should fall. I am sorry to see our time for parting is drawing so near. As we proceed, I intend to write upon the board behind me certain words, so as to recall to your minds what we have already examined--and I put the word FORCES as a heading; and I will then add, beneath, the names of the special forces according to the order in which we consider them: and although I fear that I have not sufficiently pointed out to you the more important circumstances connected with this force of GRAVITATION, especially the law which governs its attraction (for which, I think, I must take up a little time at our next meeting), still I will put that word on the board, and hope you will now remember that we have in some degree considered the _force of gravitation_--that force which causes all bodies to attract each other when they are at sensible distances apart, and tends to draw them together. LECTURE II. GRAVITATION--COHESION.