That this conception of the universal Aether in its application to solar space is not extravagant may be proved from the writings of Prof. Tyndall and Clerk Maxwell. Tyndall, writing on the subject of Faraday's Lines of Force, says:[26] "The aspect of these curves so fascinated Faraday that the greater part of his intellectual life was devoted to pondering over them. He invested the space through which they run with a kind of materiality, and the probability is that the progress of science, by connecting the phenomena of magnetism with the luminiferous Aether, will prove these 'Lines of Force,' as Faraday loved to call them, to represent a condition of this mysterious substratum of all radiant action." While Clerk Maxwell,[27] writing on "Action at a Distance," says: "These Lines of Force _must not be regarded as mere mathematical abstractions_. They are the _directions in which the medium is exerting tension like that of a rope_, or rather like that of our own muscles." I therefore premise, that both these statements will find a literal fulfilment in the conception of the Aether advanced and perfected in this work. [Footnote 25: _Phil. Mag._, 1861.] [Footnote 26: Tyndall on _Light_.] [Footnote 27: _Collected Papers_, by Niven.] ART. 81. _Aether and Induction._--We have seen in the preceding Arts. that the sun is an electrified body, possessing an electric field, which field possesses different intensities at different distances from its surfaces. If such be the case, the question at once confronts us, as to what is the effect of such an electrified body with its electric field upon all the planets which revolve around it; for, if its electric field extends as far as Neptune, then all the planets and meteors, that revolve around the sun, must revolve in the sun's electric field. Such a question can best be answered from the consideration of experiments and theories advanced first by Faraday, who gave to the world his theory of Induction, which we shall now consider. Let _A_ be an electrified body (Fig. 13), and _C_ be a body not electrified, but situated within the electric field of _A_. Then it can be experimentally proved, that _C_ will also become an electrified body by induction. As is well known, there are two kinds of electricity, Positive and Negative. We will suppose _A_ to be charged with positive electricity. Then it can be proved that _C_ will also be charged with negative electricity on the half nearest to _A_, while the other half will be charged with positive electricity. [Illustration: Fig: 13.] Now how has this result been brought about? According to Faraday's theory the particles of air, the dielectric, between _A_ and _C_ play a most important part in the process. As a matter of fact, each atom or particle of air is polarized, as the process of separating the two kinds of electricity is termed, so that every atom has one half of it covered with positive electricity, and the other half with negative electricity.