John Freke

“ You may suppose a Person sitting, as it is too frequently found they are, near a Door, or in a Window, when they are in a warm Temperature, and in Perspiration; if you believe that there can be any Probability in the Conjecture I have offer’d to your Consideration, is it not natural for any of this Fire, which passes as frequently through the Air in the Daytime (though unobserved) as when it is seen in the Night; I say, Why is it not natural for it to force its Entrance into any Person or Thing? ”

“ As the Word Electricity arises from Amber, I need not instance in any other Material; nor need I give again my Reasons, why certain Things are non-electricable. But, for clearing One Point, in which I am not rightly apprehended; I have said, That if Fire be the Cause of Life and Increase in any thing which stands in a State of Nature, then, whatever ceases to be in a State of Life or Increase, must have its Fire withdrawn, and it becomes a Caput Mortuum.—I have been told, This is not true; for a dead Animal will be electrify’d. ”

“ For, if all Nature be agitated by this Fire, all Things have it in the common Proportion, as it was intended they should stand in Nature. And therefore, as I have endeavoured to shew, that Electricity is occasioned by crouding on any thing more of this Fire and Force than naturally belonged to it; and as the Flame of a Candle must of Necessity send out of it at its Point an Overplus (without which there could be no Succession or free Motion in its Flame) ”

“ As concerning the Silk, I look on it as an excrementitious Matter also; designed by God Almighty (who makes nothing in vain) to become a Capsula or Coffin to preserve the Insect in it safely, for such a Season as was intended it should remain there.
All resinous Bodies are likewise non-electricable; which I think will tend rather to prove my Conjecture to be true than false: For, are there such Things as Pitch or Resin in Nature? Are they not made out of the Juice of Plants? Which Plants, whilst they remained in the Life of Nature, had nothing but their unalter’d Juice in them. ”

“ We know, that a Cart or Coach-Wheel, for Want of Grease, by Friction will be set on Fire; and Fire-Canes, rubbed together smartly, will take Fire; but neither of these, I believe, nor any thing else, will beget or generate the Element of Fire. They must either collect it out of the Air, or else it must be lodged within them, as we find it to be in Steel in an eminent Degree: For, if you drop the Filings of Steel through the Flame of a Candle, it sends out the most fierce Fire of any thing in Nature. ”

“ We may observe universally, that Youth abounds with infinitely more Spirits than Age doth, as well in the Human Species as in the Brute Creation; as it is clearly seen in Children, compar’d to Adults; as also in Lambs, in Colts, in Kittens, and almost all other Young, they being much more vigorous than their Dams are generally seen to be. Now what Reflection I would make on this, is, That if Life in them, and in all Nature, be owing to the same Fire as causes Electricity, then, from thence may proceed the Danger of lodging old People with young Children ”

“ Now, if you further consider the Air as loaded with any or all of these Vapours and Effluvia, and demanding Entrance with the Authority of Fire, its Companion, is it any Wonder, that the Rheumatism, and many other bad Effects, which frequently happen, in unguarded Seasons, to Mankind, may be owing to the Cause here treated of? ”

“ It is no Wonder, therefore, that all undisorder’d Nature should be equally electrify’d: For how is it possible to have it otherwise? since, if a Person stands on the Ground, and touches but the Capsula before he touches the Body, the electric Fire starts through him into the Ground, as swift as Lightning, and thence into the universal lambent Flame, from whence it was taken. ”

“ For, since the Antients have ever supposed some uniform compulsive Power, which they called the Anima Mundi, and which by these electrical Experiments seems to be Fire, I will endeavour to shew, that, in the Dispersion of it in common Nature, you may observe that some Plants abound with it, from the great Vigour they discover, compar’d with others in their own Tribe. Some are so, as being of a more verdant Nature than others are. ”

“ The like may be said of a dead Animal; but Wax, Pitch, Resin, and the Tribe of Non-electricables, never had their Existence from Nature only; and therefore they are quite of a different Tribe. For what I say is, That whatever had once Fire in it is capable of being electrify’d. Those called Electrics per se, having no Fire in them, when, by Friction, Fire is collected on their Surfaces, it is either driven from thence into the Air, or into some Electricable, and so it joins with that Fire which naturally belongs to it. ”

“ Notwithstanding what has been advanced concerning the Æther, which is believed to inhabit above our Atmosphere, I chuse rather to suppose, that the Air is an Element as well as Fire, and that the Difference in it is only betwixt heavy and foul Air, and clean and light Air. That which comes on the highest Mountains is clean, and free from our Fogs and Putrefactions, and, consequently, more elastic. ”

“ In the Second Objection it is said, I am mistaken, when I advance, that the Apparatus is not the Cause of Electricity, but that it is produced by the Air. To shew this, I am told, That if a Person is placed, and also the Apparatus, on Wax or Resin (which are non-electricable) , no Fire or Force is produced from them: But if the Person employ’d in doing it touches the Wainscot or the Floor with a Walking-Stick, or the like, the Electricity flows as freely as if he stood on the Floor. From whence some Conjecture this Power comes from the Earth only ”

“ If what I have here undertaken to shew should enlighten the Minds of any of my Readers, or if it should so far awaken the Attention of others, as to make them give better Reasons for the Operation of this Power of Electricity than I have done, I shall not account the Time ill spent, which I have employ’d on this interesting Subject: A Subject which can, with more Nobleness and Dignity employ the Mind of Man, than any I can think of relating to the sublunary Part of this World. ”

“ The next Thing I propose to account for, is, Why a Company of unelectrify’d Persons, who are joined together by their holding each a Piece of iron Wire betwixt them, tho’ they are ever so many, do all receive a violent Blow or Concussion on their Bodies, when one of them touches a Piece of electrify’d Iron.—I think this Experiment may be carried so far, that, as it has been found already sufficient to kill Birds, and hurt many Persons very grievously, it may have Force enough given to it to kill a Man, as effectually as the Darting of Lightning can do. ”

“ Now, as, by the Contrivance of Man, here is more of this Fire crouded together, than was intended by the Author of all Uniformity, seeing, by its natural Cohesion, and the infinite Celerity it is spirally driven on with, it is no Wonder, in this confined State, if that, which, as Water unconfin’d, would be gentle and beneficent, should, with all the Power that belongs to it, break out at the first Door which is opened for its Passage from this tortur’d State. ”

“ The more of the Air that passes through them, the quicker they burn; as when the Snuff of a Candle is taken off, which hindered the Quantity to pass thro’ it, it increases the Flame; though, before, the same Materials were employ’d. The same may be said of clearing the Ashes from, and stirring the Fire; which impeded the Quantity of Air from leaving its Fire behind, in its Passage through the Coals.
If the Wax had any Inherency of Fire in its Nature, Why, if you turn a lighted Candle downwards, does the Wax extinguish the Flame? ”

“ And when it may be more fully understood, it may afford us Means whereby we may be better enabled to reason more intelligibly than now we can, concerning various Operations in Nature.
I am very sensible what Tribute a new Author is liable to pay to Criticks: I know it is too common to find much too large a Part of them inclin’d to look into a Book for its Faults, rather than for its Use; and are more ready to pull down, than they have Abilities to put any thing in its Place. ”

“ I cannot think, that the Term Electric per se is suited to any Material whatever; unless some One was found out which would attract to it, of its own accord, any other Material; as we find a Loadstone will do, when placed near any thing in its Reach: but, if you lay even Amber unrubb’d in Contact with Straws, or any other Things, they will not be attracted to it. So that Friction, it is plain, collects this Power to the Amber. ”

“ It is very probable, that those who pretend to know every thing, will be so good as to say, if they like what I have advanc’d, that it squares exactly with what they thought before concerning it: And those who set up for Criticks will try their Hands at this Performance, and, if they can, will condemn it. ”

“ For, suppose the Ball or Tube inveloped with a Quantity of this Fire moving spirally round them, with the utmost Velocity; and it can no more depart from its Company than you find Sparks of Fire which fly from Steel on a Knife-grinder’s Wheel are liable to do. Every body almost can remember to have seen them adhere to the Wheel, and frequently pursue each other quite round it. ”

“ As I am upon the Subject of Vegetation, it may not be improper to offer somewhat concerning the Direction of the Farina fecundans, which is found in Plants and Flowers, to the Matrix of that, or of a neighbouring Plant or Flower. ”

“ For if you consider, that you may as effectually electrify one Quantity of Iron as another, that it may be done to many Ton Weight as easily as to a small Piece, and that, when it departs into a Person, all the Power given to it, not only on its Surface, but intimately thro’ every Pore and Particle of it, darts like Lightning from the Point only it was touch’d in ”

“ Now if, as in a Barometer, the Quicksilver is suspended by the Air on the Top of the Tube, which was extracted or emerged out of the Quicksilver, by the Weight of the said Quicksilver, and as that Air in the Barometer cannot but have a Communication with the ambient Air, the Air within the Barometer must thence be affected, by its becoming less elastic also. ”