Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

366 OF MATTER, MIND, AND SPIRIT.ferences wliich, upon various accounts, appear to inc unwarrantable. Iagree that ^Ui/' representing a particle of matter, and ^hn" representingits properties, it is only with "??i" that we have any acquaintance, the existenceof ^^a" resting merely on an inference. Heretofore I have oftenappealed to this fact, in order to show that the evidence of imponderable,no less than of ponderable matter, is precisely the existence of propertieswhich can only be accounted for by inferring the existence of an appropriatematter to which those properties appertain. Yet I cannot concurin the idea that, because it is only with ^hn^' that we are acquainted, theexistence of "«" must not be inevitably inferred, so that bodies are to beconsidered as constituted of their materialized powers. I use the word"materialized,'' because it is fully admitted by Farraday, that by dispensingwith an impenetrable atom "a" we do not get rid of the idea of matter,but have to imagine each atom as existing throughout the whole sphere ofits force, instead of being condensed about the centre. This seems to followfrom the following language :1781. ^^The view now stated of the constitution of matter icould seemto involve necessarily tJie conclusion that matter fills cdl sjpacCj or at leastthe space to tchich gravitation extends^ including the sun and its system;for gravitation is a property of matter dependent on a certain force, andit isthis force ichich constitutes matterJ'1782. Literally, this paragraph seems to convey the impression, that,agreeably to this new idea of matter, the sun and his planets are not distinctbodies, but consist of certain material powers reciprocally penetrating eachother, and pervading a space larger than that comprised within the orbitof Neptune. We do not live upon, but within, the matter of which theearth is constituted, or rather within a mixture of all the solar and planetarymatter belonging to our solar system.I cannot conceive that the sagaciousauthor seriously intended to sanction any notion involving these consequences.I shall assume, therefore, that, excepting the case of gravitation,his new idea of matter was intended to be restricted to those powers whichdisplay themselves within masses at insensible distances, and shall proceedto state the objections which seem to exist against the new idea as associatedwith those powers.1783. Evidently the arguments of Farraday against the existence, inpotassium and other masses of matter, of impenetrable atoms endowed withcohesion, chemical affinity, momentum, and gravitation, rest upon the inferencethat in metals there isnothing to perform the part of an electricalconductor besides continuous empty space. This illustrious philosopherhas heretofore appeared to be disinclined to admit the existence of anymatter devoid of ponderability ! The main object of certain letters whichI addressed to him was to prove that the phenomena of induction couldnot, as he had represented, be an "action" of ponderable atoms, but, onthe contrary, must be considered as an affection of them consequent to