Wesley Corpus

6. But let come to the things that are still nearer home, and inquire what knowledge we have of them. How much do we know of that wonderful body, light How is it communicated to us Does it flow in a continued stream from the sun Or does the sun impel the particles next his orb, and so on and on, to the extremity of his system Again: Does light gravitate or not Does it attract or repel other bodies Is it subject to the general laws which obtain in all other matter Or is it a body siu generis, altogether different from all other matter Is it the same with electric fluid, and others arrest its course Why is the phial capable of being charged to such a point, and no farther A thousand more questions might be asked on this head, which no man living can answer. 7. But surely we understand the air we breathe, and which encompasses us on every side. By that admirable property of elasticity, it is the general spring of nature. But is elasticity essential to air, and inseparable from it Nay, it has lately proved, by numberless experiments, that air may be fixed, that is, divested of its elasticity, and generated or restored to it again. Therefore it is no otherwise elastic, than as it is connected with electric fire. And is not this electric or ethereal fire, the only true essential elastic in nature Who knows by what power, dew, rain, and all other vapours rise and fall in the air Can we account for the phenomenon of them upon the common principles Or must we own, with a late ingenious author, that those principles are utterly insufficient; and that they cannot be rationally accounted for, but upon the principle of electricity