e may appear in the atmosphere, I do
not mean to deny; but that they have anything to do with the discharge of
ordinary electricity, or are at all related to lightning or atmospheric
electricity, is much more than doubtful.

* * * * *

1642. All these considerations, and many others, help to confirm the
conclusion, drawn over and over again, that the current is an indivisible
thing; an axis of power, in every part of which both electric forces are
present in equal amount[A] (517. 1627.). With conduction and
electrolyzation, and even discharge by spark, such a view will harmonize
without hurting any of our preconceived notions; but as relates to
convection, a more startling result appears, which must therefore be
considered.

[A] I am glad to refer here to the results obtained by Mr. Christie
with magneto-electricity, Philosophical Transactions, 1833, p. 113
note. As regards the current in a wire, they confirm everything that I
am contending for.

1643. If two balls A and B be electrified in opposite states and held
within each other's influence, the moment they move towards each other, a
current, or those effects which are understood by the word current, will be
produced. Whether A move towards B, or B move in the opposite direction
towards A, a current, and in both cases having the same _direction_, will
result. If A and B move from each other, then a _current_ in the opposite
direction, or equivalent effects, will be produced.

1644. Or, as charge exists only by induction (1178. 1299.), and a body when
electrified is necessarily in relation to other bodies in the opposite
state; so, if a ball be electrified positively in the middle of a room and
be then moved in any direction, effects will be produced, as _current_ in
the same direction (to use the conventional mode of expression) had
existed: or, if the ball be negatively electrified, and then moved, effects
as if a current in a direction contrary to that of the motion had been
formed, will be produced.

1645. I am saying of a single particle or of two what I have before said,
in effect, of many (1633.). If the former account of currents be true, then
that just stated must be a necessary result. And, though the statement may
seem startling at first, it is to be considered that, according to my
theory of induction, the charged conductor or particle is related to the
distant conductor in the opposite state, or that which ter