one and the same, modified only by accidents.

They referred to certain phenomena always resembling each other in
whatever way the electricity producing them might be generated; and they
argued, with an appearance of truth, that the electricity which produced
these similar phenomena must be one and the same: for, asked they, are
not like causes indicated by like effects? The principle was right, but,
as was subsequently shown, the application and the conclusion were
wrong. The error had arisen from the fact that electricities of every
kind possess certain properties in common: thus, air electricity enters
into the composition of them all. These common properties produce
phenomena varying only in degree, but so similar to each other that, in
the absence of further knowledge, the electricians concluded that their
theory was correct, and, in consequence, many valuable discoveries were
retarded for centuries.

MANY KINDS OF ELECTRICITY.

In my reign, however, tangible and visible proofs established beyond
doubt that every kind of body and substance, whether animate or
inanimate, contains an electricity of its own.

Although all electricities contain air electricity, and are similar in
some other respects, yet each differs from all others by reason of some
properties peculiar to itself, the species being different, though the
genus is the same. As in the case of the blood of animals, which is
called by the common name of blood in spite of material differences,
when the species is different, so we have a generic name for all
electricities, a term signifying "A spark of Heaven power."

Some electricities are diffused and attenuated; some are concentrated;
others are so tenacious of the body to which they belong that they are
all but steadfast. Some are sympathetic; some antipathetic, attracting
or repelling each other; some mingle gently; others, when brought into
contact, cause violent explosions.

DRAWING OUT AND CONCENTRATING ELECTRICITIES FOR USE.

WE discovered the means of drawing out the various electricities from
the body to which they are appetent, and of concentrating and preserving
them for use.

Man, beasts, birds, insects, fish, reptiles, trees, plants, water, in
short, all substances organic and inorganic, possess each its own
peculiar electricity. In naming fish, I refer to each species, and not
merely to those already known to you as electrical, and which have the
power of emitting strong currents