Let us take yet another view. All experiments prove that the phenomenon
we call electricity, is owing to a disturbance of the equilibrium or
natural condition of a highly elastic fluid. In certain conditions of
the atmosphere, this fluid is accumulated in the region of the clouds,
and by its tension is enabled to force a passage through opposing
obstacles, in order to restore the equilibrium. By experiment it is
found that dry dense air opposes the greatest obstacle to its escape. As
the air is rarefied, this obstacle diminishes; until in a vacuum the
transmission may be considered instantaneous. There ought to be,
therefore, a greater escape of electricity from the clouds upwards than
downwards; and, if space be void, or only filled with an extremely
attenuated matter, the electricity of the earth, considered as an
elastic fluid without ponderosity, (and no law of condensation from the
law of gravity in harmony with its other attributes, will allow us to
consider it otherwise,) _would long since have left the earth_. The same
objection applies in the case of the galvanic and magnetic fluids. If we
entertain the idea that electricity is a mere disturbance of natural
condition, wherein two fluids are united, and that an excess of one is
necessarily attended by deficiency in the other, we depart from the
first rule of philosophy, which teaches us to admit no greater number of
causes than are sufficient to explain the phenomenon. For we fearlessly
assert that not a single fact exists in electrical science, which can be
explained better on Dufoy's theory than on Franklin's; and the former
objections would still apply.