Part 3

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.

As to the Third Objection to a larger Quantity of electrify’d Iron not giving greater Force than a smaller, it should be observ’d, that in this Essay I have only conjectured what most probably is true: And as I profess not to have been engaged in making electrical Experiments, I must rely on those only who have made them: But, surely, if there may be too much Iron employ’d to be so affected, as I have imagined, there may also be too little; and therefore Time may yet shew, that such a Quantity of this Power may be so collected as to kill a Man; since but Yesterday I was informed, that a Person, who lives in the _Strand_, is now recovering from a Palsy, in which he lost his Speech, and other Intellects; which Mischief he received from this Force of Electricity.

I hope what I have written on this Subject will not call on me, from the thinking Part of Mankind, any undue Reflection: I have nevertheless met with such an unmannerly Abuse from a Country Show-man, who published some Experiments, and owns he added the Preface to it, in order to write what I am sure no Gentleman would have written—If this Person be poor, and did it for Gain, I heartily pity him. He owns he was much affrighted, when he heard of my publishing this Piece, because of the hard Fate, he says, of his Booksellers; but, before he had read Two Pages, he likewise owns he recovered his Spirits, when he found I pretended to think for myself, and did not let Sir _Isaac Newton_ think for me, after he had been so long dead. I am well satisfy’d, had that Great Man been living, and had seen these electrical Experiments, he would not have bow’d low to this great Philosopher, for thus supporting his Character. His doing this would be as ridiculous as to see a Pygmy attempt to carry a Giant. I believe there are more Answers to Books written to pay a Landlady, or an Alehouse-Score, than from any other Cause; especially, if they think they answer one whose Character will call it into the World.—I know nothing of my Adversary’s Finances; but how rich soever he may have made himself by his Show, he seems to have the Blessing of never being liable to the Headach from his Thinking too intensely.

_FINIS._

Transcriber’s note:

Width of em-dashes has been regularised.

Page 8, ‘unphilophical’ changed to ‘unphilosophical,’ “how unphilosophical and unmeaning”

Page 16, ‘mortuum’ changed to ‘Mortuum,’ “as a Caput Mortuum. Of”

Page 27, ‘convergeing’ changed to ‘converging,’ “prove this converging Fire”

Page 31, ‘wil’ changed to ‘will,’ “so it will be”

Page 56, ‘whetever’ changed to ‘whatever,’ “then, whatever ceases to”

Page 57, second ‘to’ struck, “ceases to be in”