Page:Various Forces of Matter.djvu/17

Rh paper is immediately moved towards the shell-lac, and by now drawing the latter away, the paper falls over without having been touched by anything. You see—in the first illustration I produced an effect than which nothing could be commoner—I pull it over now, not by means of that string or the pull of my hand, but by some action in this shell-lac. The shell-lac, therefore, has a power wherewith it acts upon the sheet of paper; and as an illustration of the exercise of another kind of power, I might use gunpowder with which to throw it over.

Now, I want you to endeavour to comprehend that when I am speaking of a power or force, I am speaking of that which I used just now to pull over this piece of paper. I will not embarrass you at present with the name of that power, but it is clear there was a something in the shell-lac which acted by attraction, and pulled the paper over; this, then, is one of those things which we call power, or force; and you will now be able to recognise it as such in whatever form I show it to you. We are not to suppose that there are so very many different powers; on the contrary, it is wonderful to think how few are the powers by which all the phenomena