Having broached the notion of the ether being the primitive element of the universe, or at all events, of the solar system, we might be expected to show how all the other elements were formed from it; but that has been done for us in a very much more able manner than we could have done it. Anyone who chooses to refer to "Nature" of September 2, 1886, will find--in Dr. Crookes's opening address, on Chemical Science in Section B, at the meeting of the British Association for that year--a very detailed explanation of how all the chemical elements might have been elaborated from one that he called Protyle; in which explanation he will only have to change this word into Ether to comprehend the process much more easily than by any exposition we could pretend to draw up. To quote the whole address would be altogether out of place, and besides, our notes of it are only fragmentary. But for present satisfaction of those who cannot immediately refer to "Nature," we may say that in the same report it is clearly stated that Sir George B. Airy was of opinion that all bodies may not be subject to the law of gravitation; and have no cause to think it strange we do not see that, were the ether and attraction one and the same, the whole universe would be finally collected into one mass, itself included. They will have better authority than ours for believing that the ether may connect matter evolved from itself, without being materially confounded with it. At the same time we acknowledge the necessity for expressing our idea of what we consider to be its nature, and in compliance with this obligation we say we have conceived it to be of the nature of indiarubber, not an elastic fluid as we have called it before, but rather an elastic substance like a jelly, as some people have conceived it to be; not a gas, because it does not require any medium to connect its particles. Looking upon it in this light, action at a distance can be accounted for in a very natural manner. When a stretched indiarubber band is relieved from strain, the relief must be felt instantly throughout every part of its length; for, although the band may take time to contract, no time is required for the relief from strain being felt. In like manner an alteration in strain between the sun and the earth--and these alterations of strain are taking place every instant--connected by an indiarubber ether will be felt instantly in both bodies; and should anyone stand out for time being required to convey the attraction, let him remember that the difference of its power would be felt first at the two ends of the connecting medium, for the very good reason that even attraction itself could not prefer one extreme to the other. And that is all that is meant by action at a distance.