ATTRACTION, in natural philosophy, a general term used to denote the cause by which bodies tend towards each other, and cohere till separated by some other power. Hence there are four different species of attraction mentioned by philosophers, viz. of COHESION, ELECTRICITY, MAGNETISM, and GRAVITATION. See those articles.
Concerning the cause of attraction there have been many disputes; the most general opinion at present is, that it is a property originally impressed upon all kinds of matter by the Creator himself, and consequently that it has no natural cause. But others ridicule this account of the matter; affirming, that as the tendency of the different parts of matter towards one another is merely a natural phenomenon, we ought to seek for a natural cause of that phenomenon, it being equally unphilosophical to resolve attraction into a quality of matter, as to solve the phenomena of thunder, whirlwinds, hurricanes, &c. by saying they are qualities of the air.
Des Cartes accounted for attraction by his materia subtilis;
subtilis; but as he was at so little pains to accommodate his system to the phenomena of nature, it very soon fell into disrepute, and even the existence of any kind of matter more subtle than the common air we breathe has been positively denied. This was running to the opposite extreme, and such an hypothesis was no less obviously false than that of Des Cartes. Hence Sir Isaac Newton himself was obliged to have recourse to the very same hypothesis with Des Cartes, and to suppose that there might be in nature a very subtle and invisible kind of fluid which he called Éther*, that pervaded the whole creation, and was the cause of the different kinds of attraction we observe.
This supposition of Sir Isaac's hath subjected him to no little censure from inferior geniuses; who without his abilities, or attention to the phenomena of nature, have determined that his admitting the existence of an ethereal fluid was only out of complaisance to the age he lived in. But he himself says no such thing, nor by his manner of expressing himself does he give us any room to think that this supposition proceeded from any thing else than a contemplation of nature: besides, the complying in this manner with an opinion known to be erroneous, would be unworthy of any philosopher, much more of Sir Isaac Newton. But experience has now made it manifest, that there is a kind of matter much more subtle than the common air, and which possesses every quality that Sir Isaac could wish for in his ether. The fluid we mean is that of electricity. Indeed, notwithstanding the different species of attraction abovementioned, it is far from being improbable, that, some time or other, they may be all solved from the action of the electric fluid: certain it is, that no known substance seems so well calculated for being a general cause of attraction as this fluid, whether we consider its omnipresence as surrounding and pervading the whole earth and atmosphere, or the greatness of its power in overcoming every obstacle; and such powers are now allowed by philosophers in general to the electric fluid, that it appears hardly possible to avoid either curtailing those already assigned to it, or allowing it a larger if not an universal sphere of action*.