to be unexceptionable.

1368. In the theory of induction founded upon a molecular action of the
dielectric, we have to look to the state of that body principally for the
cause and determination of the above effects. Whilst the induction
continues, it is assumed that the particles of the dielectric are in a
certain polarized state, the tension of this state rising higher in each
particle as the induction is raised to a higher degree, either by
approximation of the inducing surfaces, variation of form, increase of the
original force, or other means; until at last, the tension of the particles
having reached the utmost degree which they can sustain without subversion
of the whole arrangement, discharge immediately after takes place.

1369. The theory does not assume, however, that _all_ the particles of the
dielectric subject to the inductive action are affected to the same amount,
or acquire the same tension. What has been called the lateral action of the
lines of inductive force (1231. 1297.), and the diverging and occasionally
curved form of these lines, is against such a notion. The idea is, that any
section taken through the dielectric across the lines of inductive force,
and including _all of them,_ would be equal, in the sum of the forces, to
the sum of the forces in any other section; and that, therefore, the whole
amount of tension for each such section would be the same.

1370. Discharge probably occurs, not when all the particles have attained
to a certain degree of tension, but when that particle which is most
affected has been exalted to the subverting or turning point (1410.). For
though _all_ the particles in the line of induction resist charge, and are
associated in their actions so as to give a sum of resisting force, yet
when any one is brought up to the overturning point, _all_ must give way in
the case of a spark between ball and ball. The breaking down of that one
must of necessity cause the whole barrier to be overturned, for it was at
its utmost degree of resistance when it possessed the aiding power of that
one particle, in addition to the power of the rest, and the power of that
one is now lost. Hence _tension_ or _intensity_[A] may, according to the
theory, be considered as represented by the particular condition of the
particles, or the amount in them of forced variation from their normal
state (1298. 1368.).

[A] See Harris on proposed particular meaning of these terms,
Philosophical Tran