Ether (Space); Force and energy; Gravitation; Matter
In coming to a conclusion with reference to Philosophy and the Laws of
Motion, I wish to say that I am strongly of the opinion that the day has
come, or will soon come, when they will pass away and give place to a
more direct and simple method of working of the great Law of
Gravitation. I look upon the Laws of Motion as part of the scaffolding
which has been used to build up the Law of Gravitation. That Law has now
been erected, and stands firm and secure in its position in the
universe. Whatever changes may take place in its scaffolding, the Law
itself will stand out with greater beauty and clearness, if we could but
see the perfected structure, apart from the props and helps which have
assisted in its successful erection and completion. As Dr. Larmor said,
in his address to the British Association, 1900: "There has even
appeared a disposition to consider that the Newtonian principles, which
have formed the basis of physical phenomena for nearly two centuries,
must be replaced in these deeper subjects by a method of more direct
description of the cause of the phenomena. The question has arisen, as
to how far the new methods of aetherial physics are to be considered as
an independent departure; or how far they form the natural development
of existing dynamical science."
I hope, therefore, to be able in this work to do something towards
clearing the completed Law from some of the outside props, which have
long hidden the simplicity, beauty and harmony of the physical working
of Gravitation from the eyes of those who feign would see its wonderful
mechanism.
In the elaboration and development, therefore, of the physical cause of
Gravitation, it will be necessary to conceive a medium, whose properties
and motions shall be able to account for all the movements of the
planets, comets, suns and stars that the Laws of Motion now account for.
Instead, however, of there being several Laws purely and simply
mathematical in their application, there will be one physical medium,
which will by its properties and motions account for--and that in a
satisfactory manner--all the motions of the heavenly bodies. That such a
medium is required in the scientific world is proved by the statement
made by Professor Glazebrook, in his work on J. C. Maxwell, page 221,
where he says: "We are still waiting for some one to give us a theory of
the Aether, which shall include the facts of electricity and magnetism,
luminous radiation, and it may be Gravitation."
ART. 17. _Summary of the Chapter._--In summing up the contents of this
chapter, we find therefrom, that there is a Universal Law in existence
that is known as the Law of Gravitation. The physical cause of this Law,
however, is unknown; Newton suggesting that it was due to the properties
of an aetherial medium that pervaded the universe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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