of the same substance. The experiments of Faraday and of Plücker prove that all matter exists in certain polar conditions, having powers of mutual attraction and repulsion.[33] Are the molecular forces, so called, to be referred to any of those powers which are involved in the general term magnetic-polarity? Are they not probably the result of some ultimate principle of which these properties are but the modified manifestations? These questions will now be generally answered in favour of magnetism; but in our ignorance we should pause; the next generation will without doubt find another solution for the problem. Franklin supposed the ultimate atoms of bodies to be surrounded by a subtile fluid or ether, which they have the power of condensing upon their surfaces with great force--and we have experiments showing that this is probable[34]--whilst he regarded the atoms of the ether itself as mutually repellent, thus establishing an equilibrium of forces. Æpinus reduced the hypothesis of Franklin to a mathematical theory; and Coulomb _proved_ that the force with which the repulsion of the ethereal atoms and the attraction of the material molecules are produced, is, like universal attraction,--to whatever power that may be due,--regulated by the law of the inverse ratio of the square of the distance. These views are found, upon minute examination, to hold true to the phenomena with which inductive science has made us acquainted; and the striking manner in which, when submitted to the rigorous investigations of geometers, they agree with known conditions of electricity, appears certainly to favour the opinion that this power may be materially connected with these molecular arrangements. Many of the phenomena which are connected with the magnetic influences also bear in a remarkable manner upon this inquiry. But, without the necessary proof of direct experimental evidence, it were as unphilosophical to refer the binding together of the molecules of matter to the agency of electricity, as it would be to adopt the theory of the hooked atoms of Epicurus, or the astrological dream of the sympathies of matter.[35] Science, however, enables us to infer with safety that the mechanical powers which regulate the constitution of a cube of marble, or a granite mountain, are of a similar order to those which determine the earth’s relation to the other planets in the solar system, and that solar system itself a unit, in the immensity of space, to the myriads of suns which spangle the stellar vault.