The same current, therefore, which lights up our earth, and which gives to it its requisite supply of heat, at the same time indues it with the power of attraction. _Thus is engendered that power known as gravity, which has ever been acknowledged a profound mystery beyond the comprehension of man._ FOOTNOTES: [11] Appendix, p. 102. CHAPTER VIII. THE ATMOSPHERE. _A Veritable Ocean._ The great aerial ocean which we call the atmosphere (at the bottom of which we live, and move, and have our being), is even more vitally important than has ever been dreamed of in human philosophy. _How Constituted._ Its tangible constituents, such as clouds, vapors, gases, are well understood; as well as the modifying influence of those atmospheric elements upon what we call sunlight, and sun-heat. But the intangible and vital principle, or basis of the atmosphere, has in a measure escaped recognition. This principle is vito-magnetic in its character, and may be designated as _static_,[12] from its habit when in equilibrium, and also in contradistinction from that vast flood of _active_ fluid which fills the solar cone-space. _Extent and Character of this Influence._ The whole globe and its surrounding atmosphere are vast reservoirs of this static fluid. These, interacting freely through continuity, virtually become one in their operations. As a constituent of the atmosphere this fluid is nearly uniform in its proportions. Its varying conditions, as positive, negative, and neutral, form a marked peculiarity. Changes from one to another of these conditions, over larger or smaller areas, are affected with marvellous rapidity, and with varying and sometimes with striking results. In the extremes of atmospheric temperature, this fluid is found to exist in the extremes of its positive and negative conditions. The contrast is by some supposed to exist in the seasons of winter and summer, in proportions as 13 to 1, (heretofore regarded as quantitive). _Note the Functions of this Ocean._ This fluid is indeed _the vital principle_, upon which _all life_, animate and inanimate, depends. The necessity for frequent respirations is occasioned by the imperative demands of the system for this agent. As before intimated, the mild and steady light which illumines the earth in its day-season is owing to the action of the _active_ fluid of the cone-space upon the _static_ fluid of the atmosphere. The untempered force of the former might not be endured. The pale and steady light of the moon and planets is due to a like reaction through the same agencies. The relations which the present known constituents of the atmosphere sustain to this fluid may not at the present time be estimated. _Not yet fully Comprehended._