We said, at page 248, that a fluid of some kind, elastic or not elastic, is necessary to enable us to pump solid matter out of a vessel of any kind, and went on to show that a gas as described by Dr. Crookes, or that can be described, in its own independent state of existence, by anybody, could not supply the want; because it consists of particles, molecules, atoms--any name that can be given to them--which have no power in themselves to move or to give motion to anything; they can be moved but cannot impart motion to anything, even to one another, until they are first set in motion by attraction. This in its turn led us to see that the only elastic fluid we have is the ether, and our work since then has taught us that we were wrong in saying at page 250 that a non-elastic fluid would suit for pumping solid matter out of a vessel; for we now see that what we have been in the habit of looking upon as non-elastic fluids, must owe their fluidity, such as it is, to the ether, which, in proportionate degree, pervades them the same as it does all other matter. In this way we are run down to the only conclusion we can come to, namely, that the ether is the only connecting medium and carrying agent of matter that we have, or even initiator of motion, except attraction; and being matter of the nature of an elastic fluid, there is no reason why we should not at once consider it to be attraction itself. It has been looked upon, for no one can exactly tell how long, as the connecting mechanism of the universe, thus having, in reality, assigned to it the attributes of the law of attraction, and all that we have to do is to put it in its right place. We are, in a manner, taught to look with suspicion on two agents being required to do one kind of work, or even two kinds of work that are so closely allied that we cannot separate them in a way that satisfies us; and this is precisely a case in which we can have one agent that can connect matter, and at the same time carry immaterial elements from one place to another.