Ether (Space); Force and energy; Gravitation; Matter
Let us, therefore, consider these pressures and tensions, or so-called
repulsions and attractions that exist in this electro-magnetic Aether
from the atomic standpoint, and by so doing try to realize how it is
that one body, as the sun, acts upon another body, as the earth, through
the intervening medium, the Aether. We can either consider it from the
material standpoint, that is, by considering the Aether as matter, pure
and simple, or by viewing it from the electrical standpoint, which may
be considered from Clerk Maxwell's physical conception of an electric
field. We will briefly consider it from the latter standpoint. Our
conception of an aetherial atom was that of a spherical vortex atom
possessing polarity and rotation on an axis. We must, however, make the
distinction between the two kinds of aetherial atoms that Clerk Maxwell
first indicated in his paper on Physical Lines of Force, _Phil. Mag._,
1861, and that Dr. Larmor has worked out in his _Aether and Matter_ from
the electron standpoint, viz. that the Aether is composed of positive
and negative electrons. Or we can accept Professor Lodge's theory, that
Aether is made up of positive and negative electricity. We are compelled
to accept the hypothesis of two kinds of aetherial or electrical atoms,
whatever they may be called, in view of the teaching of electricity,
that positive and negative electricity are always to be found in
association, and in combination, wherever electricity exists. We have
proved that electricity is to be found throughout the realm of space
(Art. 78); therefore in all planetary and stellar regions electricity is
present. Thus it exists in the so-called space between the sun and
planets, and between the planets and satellites, forming around them all
spherical shells, that become less and less dense as they recede from
the central body. Now it is by the action of these positive and negative
electrical atoms, that the attraction of one body is transmitted across
space from the sun to the earth, or from the earth to the sun, or from
the earth to Jupiter, or from Jupiter to any of the planets, the action
always taking place along the line joining the centres of gravity of the
bodies, _i. e._ the radius vector, and with a force equal to the
quantities of electricity in association with those bodies (Art. 85),
and with an intensity that always acts inversely as the square of the
distance. Thus the inductive action of any sun, planet or satellite, or
any other planet or satellite, can be mentally traced from atom to
atom, across the intervening space, that is filled with the atomic
Aether, between any two attracting bodies. So that, if the sun attracts
the earth, it attracts it by and through the motions and properties of
the electro-magnetic Aether that is made up of positive and negative
electricity, and that attraction, being produced by a physical medium
which is as real and tangible as air or water, is brought into harmony
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