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of philosophising, which proceeds upon actual observation, makes a collection of facts, and concludes no farther than those facts will warrant. In my present circumstances, that mode of studying the nature of the globe is out of my power, and therefore I have permitted myself to wander a little in the wilds of fancy. With great esteem, I have the honor to be,

Sir, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

P. S. I have heard that chemists can by their art decompose stone and wood, extracting a considerable quantity of water from the one, and air from the other. It seems natural to conclude from this, that water and air were ingredients in their original composition: for men cannot make new matter of any kind. In the same manner do we not suppose, that when we consume combustibles of all kinds, and produce heat or light, we do not create that heat or light, we only decompose a substance which received it originally as a part of its composition? Heat may thus be considered as originally in a fluid state; but, attracted by organized bodies in their growth, becomes a part of the solid. Besides this, I can conceive that, in the first assemblage of the particles of which this earth is composed, each brought its portion of the loose heat that had been connected with it, and the whole when pressed together, produced the internal fire which still subsists.

LOOSE THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSAL

FLUID, ETC.

Passy, June 25, 1784. UNIVERSAL space, as far as we know of it, seems to be filled with a subtile fluid, whose motion, or vibration, is called light.

This fluid may possibly be the same with that which, being attracted by and entering into other more solid matter, dilates the substance, by separating the constituent particles, and so rendering some solids fluid, and maintaining the

fluidity of others: of which fluid when our bodies are totally deprived, they are said to be frozen; when they have a proper quantity, they are in health, and fit to per form all their functions; it is then called natural heat: when too much, it is called fever; and when forced into the body in too great a quantity from without, it gives pain by separating and destroying the flesh, and is then called burning; and the fluid so entering and acting is called fire.

While organized bodies, animal or vegetable, are aug→ menting in growth, or are supplying their continual waste, is not this done by attracting and consolidating this fluid called fire, so as to form of it a part of their substance? and is it not a separation of the parts of such substance, which, dissolving its solid state, sets that subtile fluid at liberty, when it again makes its appearance as fire?

For the power of man relative to matter seems limited to the dividing it, or mixing the various kinds of it, or changing its form and appearance by different compositions of it; but does not extend to the making or creating of new matter, or annihilating the old: thus, if fire be an original element, or kind of matter, its quantity is fixed and permanent in the world. We cannot destroy any part of it, or make addition to it; we can only separate it from that which confines it, and so set it at liberty, as when we put wood in a situation to be burnt: or transfer it from one solid to another, as when we make lime by burning stone, a part of the fire dislodged from the wood being left in the stone. May not this fluid, when at liberty, be capable of penetrating and entering into all bodies, organized or not; quitting easily in totality those not organized; and quitting easily in part those which are; the part assumed and fixed remaining till the body is dissolved?

Is it not this fluid which keeps asunder the particles of air, permitting them to approach, or separating them more, in proportion as its quantity is diminished or augmented? Is it not the greater gravity of the particles of air which forces the particles of this fluid to mount with the matters to which it is attached, as smoke or vapor?

Does it not seem to have a great affinity with water, since it will quit a solid to unite with that fluid, and go off with it in vapor, leaving the solid cold to the touch, and the degree measurable by the thermometer?

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The vapor rises attached to this fluid; but at a certain height they separate, and the vapor descends in rain, retaining but little of it, in snow or hail less. What becomes of that fluid? Does it rise above our atmosphere, and mix equally with the universal mass of the same kind? Or does a spherical stratum of it, denser or less mixed with air, attracted by this globe, and repelled or pushed up only to a certain height from its surface, by the greater weight of air remain there, surrounding the globe, and proceeding with it round the sun?

In such case, as there may be a continuity or communica tion of this fluid through the air quite down to the earth, it not by the vibrations given to it by the sun that light appears to us; and may it not be, that every one of the infinitely small vibrations, striking common matter with a certain force, enter its substance, are held there by attraction, and augmented by succeeding vibrations, till the matter has received as much as their force can drive into it?

Is it not thus that the surface of this globe is continuuly heated by such repeated vibrations in the day, and ooled by the escape of the heat when those vibrations are discontinued in the night, or intercepted and reflected by clouds? Is it not thus that fire is amassed, and makes the greatest part of the substance of combustible bodies?

Perhaps when this globe was first formed, and its origi nal particles took their place at certain distances from the centre, in proportion to their greater or less gravity, the fluid fire, attracted towards that centre, might in great part be obliged, as lightest, to take place above the rest, and thus form the sphere of fire above supposed, which would afterwards be continually diminishing by the substance it afforded to organized bodies; and the quantity restored to it again by the burning or other separating of the parts of those bodies.

Is not the natural heat of animals thus produced, by separating in digestion the parts of food, and setting their fire at liberty?

Is it not this sphere of fire which kindles the wandering globes that sometimes pass through it in our course round the sun, have their surface kindled by it, and burst when their included air is greatly rarified by the heat on their burning surfaces?

CONTENTS.

LIFE of Dr. Franklin, as written by himself,
Continuation of his Life by Dr. Stuber,
Extracts from his Will,

7

102

159

ESSAYS.

On Early Marriages,

169

On the Death of his brother, Mr. John Franklin,
To the late Dr. Mather, of Boston,

- 171

ib.

The Art of procuring Pleasant Dreams,

The Whistle, a true story, written to his nephew,

A Petition of the Left Hand,

The Handsome and Deformed Leg,·

Conversation of a Company of Ephemere; with the

Soliloquy of one advanced in age,

Morals of Chess,

- 173

- 175

- 176

178

- 180

- 183

An Economical Project,

Paper. A Poem,

On the Art of Swimming,

New Mode of Bathing,

Life and Death,

Advice to a Young Tradesman,

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Necessary Hints to those who would be Rich,

The Way to make Money plenty in every Man's
Pocket,

Sketch of an English School,

On modern Innovations in the English Language, and
in Printing,

An Account of the highest Court of Judicature in Penn-
sylvania, viz: the Court of the Press,

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Observations on the generally prevailing Doctrines of

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Precautions to be used by those who are about to un-

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216

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On the Slave Trade,

Observations on War,

On the Impress of Seamen,

On the Criminal Laws and the Practice of Privateer-

ing,

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Remarks concerning the Savages of North Amer-
ica,
To Mr. Dubourg concerning the Dissensions between
England and America,

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A Comparison of the Conduct of the Ancient Jews
and of the Antifederalists in the United States of
America,

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Nautical Affairs,

Positions to be examined,

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227

230

231

235

241

247

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Preliminary Address to the Pennsylvania Almanac,
entitled, "Poor Richard's Almanac for the Year
1758,"-

257

- 266

The Internal State of America; being a true descrip-
tion of the Interest and Policy of that vast Conti-
nent,
Information to those who would remove to America, - 271
Thoughts on commercial subjects,

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Final Speech of Dr. Franklin in the late Federal
Convention,

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Preference of Bows and Arrows in War to Fire-arms 295
On the Theory of the Earth,

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