Further, being an electrified body, the electric density will be greatest near the sun's surface, and this fact fully accords with our statement in Art. 45, that Aether is gravitative. As pointed out in that Art., if Aether be gravitative, it must be densest nearest to the attracting body; and, as Aether has an electric basis, then with the denser Aether there must be an increased electric density, which can only happen provided the sun is an electrified body. Sir G. Stokes was also of this opinion, for in his Burnet Lectures on Light he writes (p. 212): "There is nothing, therefore, unreasonable in supposing that the sun may be a permanently charged body." So that all the reasoning that has led to this result seems to harmonize and confirm each several hypothesis which has been advanced. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the sun is an electrified body, and it is for us now to carry out this fact to its logical and philosophical conclusion, by applying all the truths which circle round it to the solar system, when we shall find greater confirmation of the statement just advanced than any we have yet adduced. According to Professor Young of America, the sun is not only an electrified body, but is also the abode of living and sentient beings. This astronomer has suggested that the sun is the centre of electric force, and that converging streams of Electricity are ever flowing to it as a centre; but on meeting with the atmosphere they give rise to brilliant discharges, which thus gives the appearance of a solid incandescent body. Now, whether this hypothesis is correct or not, it is absolutely certain that the sun is an electrified body, as it gives rise to electro-magnetic waves in the Aether, as philosophically proved by direct experiments. [Footnote 22: _Aether and Matter_, p. 8.] [Footnote 23: _Ibid._, p. 64.] [Footnote 24: _Magnetism and Electricity_, by C. Maxwell, Art. 782.] ART. 80. _Aether and Electric Fields._--Before proceeding to apply some of the facts of Electricity to the solar system, let us find out what is meant by an Electric Field. An electric field is to an electrified body, what a thermal or heat field is to a heated body, or a luminous or lighted field is to a luminous body. If a lamp, for example, be lighted, its light waves spread out on every side, and extend for a considerable distance unless impeded by such obstacles as the wall of a room. The extent to which the light waves reach and flow might well be called the lighted or luminous field, and in that field the effect of the aetherial light waves would be manifested and seen. Now, in a similar manner, when any body is electrified, the electric waves spread out on every side of the electrified body, and the extent to which the waves spread out form what is known as an electric field.