"The observer, whom we have supposed capable of seeing electricity, would find that the whole surface of the earth, the atmosphere and probably the fathomless space beyond, were teeming with manifestations of the electric force. Every chemical process and every blow in nature or in art evolves it. The great process of vegetation and the reciprocal process of animal life all over the globe are accompanied by it. As incessantly as the sun's rays pass around the earth, warming every part in alternation with the cooling influences of night, great currents or fluctuations of magnetic tension, which never cease their play, circulate about the globe, and other apparently irregular currents come and go according to laws not yet understood; while the aurora borealis, flaming in the sky, indicates the measureless extent of this wonderful power, the existence of which the world has but begun to discover. Our observer would see that these great earth currents infinitely transcend the little artificial currents which men produce in their insulated wires, and that they constantly interfere with the latter, attracting or driving them from their work, and making them play truant, greatly to the vexation of the operators and sometimes to the entire confusion of business. If a thunder-storm passed across the country, he would see all the wires sparkling with unusual excitement. When the rain fell and water, which is a conductor, trickled along the wires and stood in drops upon the insulators, he would see the electricity of the line deserting its path and stealing off slyly, in greater or less quantities, over the wet surface of the insulators or by the wet straws or kite strings which sometimes hang across the line. Now and then he might see the free electricity of the storm overleap the barriers and take possession for the moment of some unguarded circuit, frightening operators from their posts. Such an observer would realize what it is difficult adequately to conceive, that electricity is, as has been said, the hidden force in nature, and still remains, as far as man is concerned, almost dormant. A high scientific authority has remarked, in speaking of metals, that the abundance of any object in nature, bears a proportion to its adaptation to the service of man. If this be true in general, we may expect electricity will become, one day, a familiar thing." I conclude with a word from the wise and godly man I have before cited: "Oh that mine enemy would write a book," cried Job. Of course, he meant a book setting forth some new-fangled idea which he knew would bring upon its author the whole army of cavilers. This my little book or essay may bring upon me the same legions, grown mightier with the centuries which have elapsed since Job's day. To them, I can only reply, "Truth is mighty and will prevail." * * * * * _From Dr. Ashburner in Reichenbach's Dynamics of Magnetism._