Ether (Space); Force and energy; Gravitation; Matter
To see if this conception of the Universe is borne out by scientific
data, we will now address ourselves more particularly to those
fundamental truths which underlie the unity of the Universe.
ART. 124. _The Unity of the Universe._--The Unity of the Universe is a
dream which has passed before the imagination of many philosophers in
by-gone times, and has been a fruitful source of speculation to
old-world, as well as more modern philosophers. The researches of such
living scientists as Sir William Crookes, Professor J. J. Thomson and
others, have, however, made this dream come within the range of
practical research and direct experiment. Professor J. J. Thomson
believes that it is possible to break off from an atom, a part which is
only 1/1000 part of the whole, and these infinitesimal parts he has
called corpuscles, which he considers are the carriers of the electric
current.
If, therefore, it can be philosophically proved that the hypothesis of
an atomic, gravitating, and condensing Aether can satisfactorily account
for the physical existence of all atoms, and therefore of all matter,
the dream of old-world philosophers will be helped on its way to a
successful realization.
We have already suggested, that nebulae are formed out of the
condensation of the electro-magnetic Aether that fills the Universe; and
as that nebula, according to the Nebular Hypothesis, ultimately resolves
itself into a sun, or planet, or satellite, as the case may be, it
follows that the condensation of this electro-magnetic Aether forms the
basis of all the various elements, as Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen and the
other seventy elements of which those bodies are composed. Thus the
conclusion that we are compelled to come to in regard to the ultimate
nature of matter, in its primordial condition, is, that all matter which
exists in its varied forms throughout the entire Universe finds its
physical origin and source in the universal electro-magnetic Aether,
which is itself atomic, and possesses all the essential properties of
matter.
With the conception of the Aether as advanced in this work, this
hypothesis is perfectly philosophical and logical. For the conception is
simple, in that it supposes one form of matter to spring out of another
form, that is, from an aetherial form to gaseous, in a similar manner to
that in which a gaseous form changes into a liquid form, that is, by
condensation, or a closer drawing together of the aetherial elastic
envelopes that surround each atom; each particular gas, as Hydrogen,
Nitrogen, or Oxygen, representing different quantities of aetherial
condensations, as will be seen in the next article.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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