ble current-one fluid passing to an electrified conductor from any subject presented to it, whilst the same quantity of the other fluid passes from it; and when each body receives its natural quantity of both fluids, the balance of the two powers is restored, and the bodies are unelectrified.

This theory is warmly advocated by Mr. Symmes, Mr. Eales, and Mr. Adams, the latter of whom, in the violence of his zeal to establish a favorite doctrine, often forgets his candor, and sometimes his good manners. As a specimen of his disposition to investigate, take the exordium of his examination of the Franklinian theory.

"It was not my intention at first, to have particularly noticed the defects of this theory; but as some late writers have endeavored to conceal its errors, either by giving up some of the most essential parts, or by endeavoring to bend facts and accommodate them to this theory, it became necessary to point out a few of its defects and inconsistencies. Many parts thereof, I conceive, would never have been accredited, if it had not been necessary for party purposes, to establish the author's reputation as a philosopher."

The Franklinian, or positive and negative theory, supposes that the operations of electricity depend on the action of a simple homogeneous fluid. That the electric matter violently repels itself-but attracts all other matter. When bodies possess their natural share of this fluid, or such a quantity as they can retain by their non-attraction, they are then said to be in an unelectrified state; but when the equilibrium is disturbed, and they either acquire an additional quantity from other bodies, or lose part of their own natural share by communication to other bodies, they exhibit electrical appearances. In the former case, they are electrified plus or positively; and in the other, negatively or minus. This electric fluid moves with great case in those bodies which are called conductors, but with extreme difficulty through those which are non-conductors. It is also supposed, that electrics, or non-conductors, always contain an equal quantity of this fluid, so that there can be no surcharge or increase on one side,

without a proportional decrease or loss on the other, and as the electric does not admit the passage of the fluid through its pores, there will be an accumulation on one side, and a corresponding deficiency on the other. Then, when both sides are connected by proper conductors, the equilibrium will be restored, by the rushing of a fluid from the overcharg ed surface to the exhausted one. Thus, also, if an electric be rubbed by a conducting substance, the electricity is only conveyed from one to the other, the one giving what the other receives; and if one be electrified positively, the other will be electrified negatively, unless the loss be supplied by other bodies connected with it, as in the case of the electric and insulated rubber of a machine. Bodies differently electrified will naturally attract each other until they mutually give and receive an equal quantity of the electric fluid, and the equilibrium is restored between them.

The learned and ingenious Dr. Young, bishop of Clonfert, has in his analysis of Natural Philosophy considered the hypotheses of Franklin and Eales, with much attention, judgement and candor. He contends that the electric fluid, is not a homogeneous body. For in general, in combustion, the presence of oxygen is necessary; but in the electric discharge, light and heat are both extricated without the aid of oxygen for when the discharge is made in oxygen gas, the gas suffers no diminution either in bulk or quantity-the only alteration that the discharge oscasions, is an increase of temperature. And it is also certain, that the discharge can be made in fixed air and azotic gas. On this account, Franklin's hypothesis of a simple homogeneous fluid is pronounced inadequate to account for all the phenomena of the electric fluid. The advocates of the other theory, seem to have considered merely the existence of a double current, without any supposition of the chemical action of these different powers on each other; for if different gases or powers come into an union, that union cannot take place, without the destruction of their individuality-If the fluids be homogeneous, they will merely increase the quantity of substance; if not homogeneous, their

union will produce a new substance, with properties different from those of their constituent bodies. The hypothesis of a double current, is at least, as inadequate as Dr. Franklin's to account for the light and heat which are generated by the electrical discharge.

Remainder next month.

FOR THE POLYANTHOS.

THE MORAL CENSOR....No. V.

Sun, gallop down the westlin skies,
Gang soon to bed, and quickly rise
O lash your steeds-post time away,
And haste about our bridal-day;
And if you're wearied, honest light,
Sleep, gin ye like, a week that night!

ALLAN RAMSAY.

THAT Phœbus, after exerting his best speed to gratify the wishes of an enamored pair, is entitled to a good sound slumber, no one who has ever had his bones shaken in a mailcoach, will dispute or deny. Our gentle Shepherd, and his tender Lassie, while they urge the sun to haste about their bridal-day, very naturally look forward with pleasure to the sweets of repose after so much hurry of expectation, and im▸ patience of desire. Martinus Scriblerus humorously notices the request of two absent lovers :—

"Ye Gods! annihilate both space and time,
And make two lovers happy.”-

Considering that only space and time were to be done away, that these inamoratas might be brought together, we cannot but pronounce the wish as modest and reasonable as could be expected from romantic lovers. We find Allan Ramsay's "cooing ones" rather more simple and pastoral, than the hero and heroine of the buskin invocation which we have quoted; and there is an arch way of coaxing the ruler of day, in the address of the Caledonian pair, which is charmingly evincive

4

of their real fervency of affection. The wishes of lovers, are ever warm, active and impatient. They grow ardent from opposition. Every thing that impedes their gratification, becomes odious and hateful. The anger which they occasion, is not mere resentment on account of an imaginry or real injury sustained by the fancied or actual sufferer :-no;—it is absolute madness. It is a tornado-impetuous and irresistible. Nothing can stop its progress-it rages until it is exhausted by its own tempestuous turbulence. Our design in extracting from the works of a favorite bard, the passage which is prefixed as a motto to this paper, originated in a desire to admonish our readers, that they, as well as simpler ones, are every day as fooolish, in wishing away their time. "Time is money," said a famous economist-why then wish away treasure? How ridiculous we are, to conceive every moment tedious, and desire to have it annihilated, that occurs between the commencement of a speculation and its termination; as if no other object worthy of rational pursuit could be found to occupy the interval! Foolish indeed,-when we reflect, for a moment, on the uncertainty of all human prospects and hopes, and that the chance is nearly equal, whether the event of a plausible scheme will gratify our ambitious or avaricious wishes or involve us in disappointment and ruin. The consummation of earthly plans is, by prudent men, as much to be dreaded as desired; since, such is the fallibility of human judgement, that our expected blessings may prove the heaviest of evils. Where we looked for happiness, we may meet with misery. The anxious merchant is frequently rewarded for his confidence, with protested bills;-the soldier often "catches a tartar" instead of taking a prisoner ;the seaman, while exulting under a press of sail and a fine nine-knot breeze, chances to bump his vessel on a sunken rock; and the lover, who has teased the sun to work on "double tides," sometimes, wishes the object of his impatience, when obtained, any where-except within curtains. He then reverses his song, and sings

VOL. I.

32

Sun, gang thee up the eastlin skies,
Get out of bed and quickly rise,
Lash on thy steeds, make no delay,
The devil take my bridal-day;
Come cheer my spirits, honest light,
For I have had a wretched night.
-My spouse, the best of wives (I swear,
To keep the peace and save my hair,)
When we should go to bed to sleep,
Gives her glib tongue full licens'd sweep ;~~

« My trunks are empty—not a gown,

That is not known to all the town,

My hat, or bonnet, or my veil,
Might figure in a rag-fair sale,
While Mrs. Blowsy, when she goes
To church, at me cocks up her nose,
And every upstart Miss of school
Turns my whole dress to ridicule.
Didn't you promise when we wed,
On every night to go to bed
At ten o'clock, except when friends,
In pity to our candle ends,
Should ask us out to dance or dine,
Kind to our dollars, wax and wine?
And now, you cold unfeeling lout,
You almost every day dine out,
And, like a cruel tiger, leave

Your kind good wife at home to grieve ;

For this I left poor Peter Brown,

And half the gay gallants in town,
Pass'd with disdain the Sunday rows,
Of envying belles and sighing beaux ;-
For this, I turn'd a deafish ear,

To settlement,-ten thousand clear,
Which Mr. Smink resolv'd to pay,-
The night before he ran away.

You grudge your butcher and your baker,
And wish me with the undertaker:

Yes,-how you strive with every art,
To break your poor Maria's heart,
And look-unmindful of my roaring,
The drunken beast's asound and snoring.”