Aether and Gravitation Part 31

The diameter of the sun is about 865,000 miles, so that the distance of the nearest star is 240,000,000 times the diameter of the sun. We could therefore put 240,000,000 of our solar systems in the s.p.a.ce that exists between us and the nearest star. How is it, then, that all the planets as they revolve round the sun do not float up and down in the s.p.a.ce that extends between us and the nearest star?

I can give no other answer, and can see no other possible physical explanation than the one already given, which is, that they are bound to the sun by the two co-equal forces, the centrifugal and centripetal forces, and while so bound are carried round the sun by the electro-magnetic aetherial currents which extend out into s.p.a.ce. It has to be remembered that the aetherial electro-magnetic currents circulating round the earth are situated within the aetherial currents which circulate round the sun, therefore the plane of the moon's...o...b..t will coincide more or less with the plane of the earth's...o...b..t. We have now only to go one step further to get our complete conception of the plane of the ecliptic.

In Arts. 107 and 108 we learned that the sun was subject to Kepler's 1st and 2nd laws, and as a natural result we came to the conclusion that it, too, was circled round some central body. We have only to apply a similar course of reasoning to the sun and its central body as we have to the moon and the earth, and the earth and the sun, and then we arrive at our physical conception of the plane of the ecliptic, which is due to the aetherial currents that circle round the sun, while that body is carried round some other central body.

Thus by the circulating Aether currents, originated and outflowing from their respective sources, each source being immutably fixed and bound to each other by the two equal and complementary forces, can be accounted for, the uniformity of position and plane of the various...o...b..ts of the various satellites, planets, and the sun, as they move in one great plane, termed the Plane of the Ecliptic.

It could not be otherwise than it is, and thus another celestial phenomenon can be accounted for on a real tangible basis by accepting the existence of those aetherial currents which form the physical basis of all the celestial mechanism.

If further evidence were required of the existence of these rotating Aether currents round the sun, such evidence is found in that phenomenon of the solar system known as the Zodiacal Light, of which up to the present no physical explanation has been forthcoming. In the conception of the atomic and gravitating Aether which rotates round the sun, I venture to premise will be found the physical solution of this phenomenon also.

I will refer the reader to an extract taken out of _Outlines of Astronomy_, by Herschel (Art. 894), so that we may see what his conception of the zodiacal light was, and we will see how far his explanation is in conformity with our hypothesis of an atomic, gravitating and rotatory Aether medium.

He writes: "We shall conclude this chapter by the mention of two phenomena, which to me indicate the existence of some slight degree of nebulosity about the sun itself, and even to place it in the list of nebulous stars. The first is that called the Zodiacal Light, which may be seen any very clear evening soon after sunset, about the months of March, April and May, as a cone or lenticularly-shaped light extending from the horizon obliquely upwards, and following generally the course of the ecliptic, or rather that of the sun's equator. The apparent angular distance of its vertex from the sun varies, according to circ.u.mstances, from 40 to 90, and the breadth of its base perpendicular to its axis from 8 to 30. It is extremely faint and ill-defined, at least in this climate, though better seen in tropical regions, but cannot be mistaken for any atmospheric meteor or aurora borealis. It is manifestly in the nature of a _lenticularly-formed envelope surrounding the sun_, and extending beyond the orbits of Mercury and Venus, and nearly, perhaps quite, attaining that of the earth, since its vertex has been seen fully 90 from the sun's place in a great circle. It may be conjectured to be no other than the _denser part_ of that medium which we have some reason to believe resists the motions of comets; loaded perhaps with the actual materials of the tails of millions of those bodies of which they have been stripped in their successive perihelion pa.s.sage. If its particles have inertia, they must necessarily stand with respect to the sun in the relation of separate and independent minute planets, each having its own orbit, plane of motion, and periodic time."

Let me call the reader's special attention to one or two statements of Herschel's given in this extract, in order to see how these statements harmonize with the view of the Aether submitted in this work. In the first place he states its shape is that of a lenticularly-formed envelope surrounding the sun, and extending beyond the orbits of Mercury and Venus, and probably to our earth. This harmonizes with the shape of the aetherial envelope as given in Art. 70. Then Herschel states it may be the denser part of that medium which we have reason to believe resists the motions of comets. That is exactly what it is, though Herschel failed to show why it should be the denser part of the Aether, as we have seen is the case, on account of its being gravitative. I will also prove later on, that Herschel was right with regard to the resistance of the motion of comets through it. Then he refers to its particles probably possessing inertia, as though he had antic.i.p.ated the atomicity of the Aether, and a.s.suming that atomicity, he was compelled to postulate inertia also as we have done in Art. 48.

Lastly, he points out that each separate particle must have its own plane of motion, its own orbit, and its periodic time. Now this view fully coincides with that laid down in this article, where we have learned that the rotating Aether has its own plane of motion, that plane being the Plane of the Ecliptic, and as every particle or atom has its allotted place in the rotating Aether, then, as Herschel points out, the particle must have its own orbit, and plane of motion, and also its own periodic time. If, therefore, we had desired fuller confirmation of this atomic gravitating Aether, we could not have wished for more conclusive proof than that given by one of the greatest philosophical astronomers of the last century. We shall see later that Herschel also had a clearer view of cometary phenomena, and of the forces which played a part in those phenomena, than any of his contemporaries, when we deal with the origin and motions of all comets. Thus from Herschel we learn that the zodiacal light is caused by the atomic, gravitating, and rotatory Aether as that aetherial medium revolves round the sun, while at the same time every atom of the medium is itself in a state of rotation on its axis, as it performs its journey in its own orbit and in its own plane of motion.

ART. 110. _Centripetal Force._--We have now to consider what is the physical cause of that part of the compound Law of Gravitation known as the Centripetal Force. As we have already learned (Art. 10), this force is really none other than the Attractive Force of Gravitation, in that its mode of operation always acts towards the centre of the attracting body, and hence was called by Newton the Centripetal Force.

The centripetal force is, however, the exact counterpart and complement of the centrifugal force, in the same way that the latter is the exact counterpart of the former, as we have already learned that the centrifugal force operates along the same path, and that it is subject to the same law of proportion, being equal to the product of the ma.s.ses of a body (Art. 85), and further, that its intensity is inversely as the square of the distance (Arts. 66, 74 and 84).

We have, however, discovered that the physical cause of the centrifugal force is due to the pressure of the electro-magnetic Aether (Art. 96).

If, therefore, the physical cause of that law which is the complement and counterpart of Gravitation Attraction is to be found, and alone found, in the pressure and motions of the electro-magnetic Aether, then it is only logical and reasonable to infer that the physical cause of the Attraction of Gravitation is to be found in the same electro-magnetic Aether. That the Attraction of Gravitation is to be found in this medium is now an accepted hypothesis among scientists.

Because, unless the physical cause of Gravitation Attraction is to be found in this electro-magnetic Aether, then, in order to account for that attraction, we should have to postulate the existence of another medium in s.p.a.ce, in lieu of the Aether, which would be to the centripetal force what the Aether is to the centrifugal force. This would be distinctly unphilosophical, as it would be a violation of the first two rules of our philosophy, in that it would not be simple in its conception, and that such a hypothesis would imply the existence of two media which would occupy the same planetary and interstellar s.p.a.ce at one and the same time, and this is a violation of all experience in its widest form.

Therefore the physical cause of Gravitation must be sought for in the same medium which gives the physical cause of the companion force, and that medium is the electro-magnetic Aether. Professor Preston in his _Theory of Light_ is of this opinion. In Art. 327 he writes: "To account for the propagation of heat and light, that is, of radiant energy, we have postulated the existence of a medium filling all s.p.a.ce. But the transference of the energy of radiant heat and light is not the only evidence we have in favour of the existence of an Aether. Electric, magnetic and electro-magnetic phenomena and Gravitation itself point in the same direction."

Professor Lodge, in his _Modern Views of Electricity_, is even more explicit in his statement of the case. On page 338 he states: "Gravitation is explainable by differences of pressure in the medium (_i. e._ the Aether) caused by some action between it and matter not yet understood." Further, Newton himself suggested that the physical cause of Gravitation Attraction was to be found in that aetherial medium which pervaded all s.p.a.ce.

If, therefore, we attempt to explain the physical cause of Gravitation Attraction by the tensions of the universal Aether, we shall not only be dealing with the subject from a philosophical standpoint, but we shall solve the problem in that direction in which Professors Preston and Lodge and other scientists have suggested we are to seek for the solution. Professor Curry, in his _Theory of Electricity and Magnetism_, page 406, states: "If we regard the luminiferous Aether, as defined by Von Helmholtz's equations, as the given medium or transmitter of so-called gravitating action, we are then able on the one hand to interpret its longitudinal oscillations as gravitational waves propagated through s.p.a.ce with the given enormous velocity, and on the other hand, to form some conception of the mysterious force of Gravitation itself, for we can then conceive it as a medium stress arising from a certain type of Aether oscillations, its longitudinal ones, that pervade entire s.p.a.ce."

Now in order for us to lead up to the physical cause of the centripetal force, we must recall some of the facts already given with regard to planetary and solar s.p.a.ce. Thus we have learned that the sun is an electro-magnet possessing its own magnetic field, with its lines of force (Art. 88). We have also learned that all the planets are electro-magnets, each possessing its own field with its lines of force (Art. 91).

We have further seen that the cause of all this electro-magnetism is due to the fact that electric currents are continually circulating round each body, and by their conjoint action with the magnets there are produced the electro-magnetic fields that are a.s.sociated with each body in the solar system. From this hypothesis we arrived at the conclusion, that wherever there was Aether, there we found electricity, because of the electro-magnetic basis which Aether possesses. This result is fully confirmed by Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory of light (Art. 78), which has been so fully experimentally demonstrated by Hertz. Indeed, in the minds of several scientists there is a growing conviction that Aether and Electricity are possibly one and the same substance.

Professor Lodge, in the work already referred to, in relation to this hypothesis, writes in the preface to that book: "Crudely, one may say that as heat is a form of energy, so electricity is a form of Aether, or a mode of aetherial manifestation." And again: "A rough and crude statement adapted for popular use is that _Electricity and Aether are identical_. But that is not all that has to be said, for there are two opposite kinds of electricities, and there are not two Aethers. But there may be two aspects of one Aether, just as there are two sides to a sheet of paper."

As, therefore, we learn that Aether has an electro-magnetic basis, and that electricity is a mode of aetherial manifestation, we have therefore to consider one of the most fundamental laws of electricity, and note its application to solar and planetary s.p.a.ce.

It is one of the fundamental laws of electricity, that equal and opposite quant.i.ties of electricity are always generated at one and the same time. Faraday's well-known ice-pail experiment proved this. It is an absolute impossibility for one kind of electricity to be generated without an equal quant.i.ty of the opposite kind being produced, although it is not strictly correct to use the term generated or produced in relation to electricity, as electricity cannot really be produced by any process whatever.

Another way of stating this law is, that the total induced charge on any body is always equal and opposite to the inducing charge. So that if we look upon the sun as an electrified body (Art. 80) surrounded by the aetherial envelopes or sh.e.l.ls, then we can conceive of the inductive action of the sun upon any planet as taking place along the tubes of force in the Aether, which tubes are sections of the spherical envelopes that surround it. But this inductive action implies the existence of the very law already enunciated, viz. that equal and opposite quant.i.ties are always generated at one and the same time, and before that law can become operative in relation to the Aether, it must be postulated that the Aether possesses a dual character, that is, it possesses a positive and negative electrical basis.

This view of the Aether has already been developed by Dr. Larmor in his Electron Basis of the Aether, as in that hypothesis he postulates both positive and negative electrons. In his _Aether and Matter_ he writes, page 3: "It a.s.sumes that the ma.s.s of each sub-atom is proportional to the absolute number of electrons, positive and negative, that it carries, and that the effective interatomic forces are entirely or mainly electric." Further, Professor Lodge on this point writes:[40] "We now proceed a step further and a.n.a.lyze the Aether into two const.i.tuents, two equal opposite const.i.tuents, each endowed with inertia and each connected to the Aether by elastic ties. The two const.i.tuents are called positive and negative electricity respectively, and of these two electricities we imagine the Aether to be composed." Again, later on, p.

349 of the same work, he adds: "Is Aether electricity then? I do not say so, but that they are connected there can be no doubt. What I have to suggest is, _that positive, and negative electricity together may make up the Aether_."

Now, accepting this as correct, and I will prove that it is correct later on, from experiments performed by Faraday, we can see how the inductive action of the sun may be transmitted through s.p.a.ce, and how that inductive action will effect any body in its electrical field, such inductive action always taking place through the polarization of the atomic Aether, and taking the form of an attractive power which is exerted towards the centre of the attracting body.

Further, this inductive action will be subject to the same laws of electricity as the centrifugal force is, which is the repulsive power due to the pressure of the Aether. Therefore the inductive action of the sun upon any body will, according to the laws of electricity, act inversely as the square of the distance (Art. 84), and will be directly as the product of the charges on the two attracting bodies, which we have seen according to Art. 85 is equal to the product of their ma.s.ses.

Not only will this inductive action apply to the sun, but it will equally apply to all planets, satellites and stars that exist in the heavens, each of these bodies according to Art. 80 being an electrified body possessing its electric field and lines of force radiating out into s.p.a.ce.

Thus we arrive at the conclusion, that each body in the solar system is not only the centre of a centrifugal force due to the pressure of the electro-magnetic Aether, but that it is also the centre of an attractive force due to the existence of the positive and negative elements of the Aether, and of their attractive power for each other.

This attractive power is also subject to exactly the same laws that the centrifugal force is subject to in regard to intensity, proportion, and the direction which it takes. So that we have now two centripetal forces existing in s.p.a.ce, which exactly correspond with each other, viz.

Gravitation Attraction and the attraction due to Electrical Induction.

The cause of one, however, is known, being due to the inductive influence of the various electrified bodies that exist in s.p.a.ce, which inductive influence can be traced through the whole of the atomic Aether that exists between the two bodies, whereas the cause of the centripetal force or Gravitation Attraction is unknown. According to the Rules of Philosophy, therefore, it will be much simpler if we replace our Gravitation Attraction, whose cause is unknown, by the inductive power of the various bodies, the physical cause of which lies in the electro-magnetic Aether, or the dielectric as Faraday called it. In other words, we are compelled to come to the conclusion that the centripetal force, or Gravitation Attraction so called, is an electrical phenomenon, which finds its physical cause in the same universal Aether that the centrifugal force does.

Unless this view of the attraction of Gravitation is accepted, we should have two forces operating between all bodies, both operating at exactly the same time, in exactly the same direction, and with exactly the same intensity, and this phenomenon according to Newton would be unphilosophical. In Art. 4 we learn that Newton in the first rule states that "Nature is simple, and does not abound in superfluous causes of things." And again: "In the nature of Philosophy nothing is done in vain; and by means of many things, it is done in vain when it can be done by fewer." Here then we have apparently two forces which act in the same molecular or planetary or interstellar s.p.a.ce, at one and the same time.

Therefore if this be true, Nature does abound in a superfluous cause, because we have two forces in existence where one will suffice, and one of them therefore exists in vain. So that it will be philosophical if we do away with one of the causes, and replace the two causes by only one.

Now which shall be done away with--the electrical attraction which is due to a physical medium, the electro-magnetic Aether, or the Gravitation Attraction, that is caused by some virtue of a body of which we have no knowledge, which is transmitted through s.p.a.ce in a way that we cannot understand, and acts upon distant bodies in a manner altogether outside our usual experience and observation? There can only be one answer. If either of the two forces has to be done away with, it must be the mysterious, intangible, unphilosophical attraction of Gravitation, which must be replaced by the philosophical and known attraction of electricity, which can be traced to a physical medium, the electro-magnetic Aether that joins atom to atom, molecule to molecule, satellite to planet, planet to sun, and sun to star, and so gives unity to the universe of worlds. From philosophical considerations, therefore, we are compelled to come to the conclusion that the attraction of gravity and electrical attraction are one and the same.

Faraday arrived at this conclusion and performed certain experiments to confirm that conclusion, but he was unable to experimentally prove the truth. It does not follow, however, that because he failed to experimentally establish the connection, therefore the conclusion is wrong. In his _Experimental Researches_ he writes, par. 2705, "On the possible relation of gravity to electricity":--"First of all, a body which was to be allowed to fall, was surrounded by a helix, and then its effect in falling sought for." This experiment Faraday states produced negative results (par. 2706). "A solid cylinder of copper was introduced into the helix, and carefully fastened to it, and this compound arrangement was allowed to fall." "The result of this experiment may be cla.s.sified as doubtful. It gave very minute, but remarkable indications of a current in the galvanometer, and the probability of these being related to gravity appeared the greater, when it was found, in raising the helix or core, similar indications of contrary currents appeared."

In par. 2717 Faraday thus sums up: "Here end my trials for the present.

The results are negative. They do not shake my strong feeling of the existence of a relation between gravity and electricity, though they give no proof that such a relation exists." Here then we have expressed the strong conviction of the relation that undoubtedly exists between gravity and electricity by one of the greatest scientists that has ever lived, and I believe that it is a fact that he was engaged upon experiments to prove his conviction about the time of his death.

We will now endeavour to trace the action of the Law of Gravitation in its compound working, in its application to the atomic Aether that fills all s.p.a.ce, and by its gravitating property surrounds all bodies situated in that s.p.a.ce. We are dealing no longer with a frictionless medium, which is incapable of accepting and transmitting motion of any kind or sort, but we are now dealing with a medium composed of atoms, which can give rise to pressures and tensions, or repulsions and attractions from any one part of s.p.a.ce to another.

If we can prove that an atomic Aether can give rise to these pressures and tensions from one body to another, and those pressures and tensions harmonize with, and satisfactorily account for, the phenomena sought to be explained, then we shall have succeeded in making our philosophy agree with our experience, and such a result as action at a distance will for ever disappear from the mental conception of all men, as it has long disappeared from the pages of philosophical and scientific works, though that disappearance was not accompanied with a satisfactory solution of the problem.

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 a.s.sociation, and in combination, wherever electricity exists. We have proved that electricity is to be found throughout the realm of s.p.a.ce (Art. 78); therefore in all planetary and stellar regions electricity is present. Thus it exists in the so-called s.p.a.ce between the sun and planets, and between the planets and satellites, forming around them all spherical sh.e.l.ls, 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 s.p.a.ce 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 quant.i.ties of electricity in a.s.sociation 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 s.p.a.ce, 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 with our experience and observation, as no body pushes or pulls another body, be it what it may, unless both bodies are joined together by some medium which transmits the push or the pull. Professor Lodge, in his _Modern Views of Electricity_, has ill.u.s.trated from an electrical standpoint how the pressure and tension in any electrical field may be transmitted from particle to particle, or atom to atom. He supposes that a positive atom of electricity rotates in one direction while a negative atom rotates in the opposite direction. In any electric field these atoms are so a.s.sociated with each other, that when one atom revolves, it makes the other to revolve in the opposite direction, with the result, that the spin or rotation is transmitted through the medium at a speed dependent upon the density of the medium.

For fuller details of the description I must refer the reader to the work already referred to. What I wish to call the reader's attention to is, that the tension and pressure in this field is not transmitted across a vacuum, in some unknown way, but is transmitted solely by a physical medium. The action is direct, and is produced, and alone produced, continued, and perpetuated by a physical medium which is composed of atoms of negative and positive electricity. So that if one body _A_ acts upon another body _B_, it acts upon _B_ solely and entirely by the action of the atoms which form the magnetic lines of force, and the equipotential surfaces around the electrified body, and that action can be traced mentally step by step across the intervening s.p.a.ce that may exist between the two bodies. It is in an exactly similar manner, that the Attraction of Gravitation, which we conceive to be the same as electrical attraction, is transmitted from body to body in the atomic, molecular, planetary or stellar world. In each and every case, the pressure and tensions, which are inseparably connected, are transmitted by the atoms of the electro-magnetic Aether, that is, by the positive and negative atoms of electricity of which, according to Professor Lodge and Dr. Larmor, the Aether is composed. So that, if the sun acts on the earth, by the centrifugal force, it acts on it solely through and by the pressures which are originated in the atomic Aether by the central body. If the sun attracts the earth, by the centripetal force, that action can also be traced to the tensions that are originated among the atoms of the electro-magnetic Aether. There is nothing mysterious about the phenomenon in either case, as by accepting this view of an atomic Aether with its dual character of positive and negative electricity, the action may be traced mentally from point to point across the so-called intervening s.p.a.ce that exists between any two bodies. In each and every case, wherever the centripetal or centrifugal force acts, the action is direct, because it is caused by a physical medium, which physical medium is in direct contact with each body acted upon, and also fills the s.p.a.ce between those bodies. With this view of the centripetal force of Gravitation, our Philosophy is made to agree definitely with our experience, which teaches us beyond contradiction, that no body moves, unless it is either pushed or pulled by a physical medium. Unless this view of the centripetal force is accepted, we shall have to stumble on in darkness as to the physical cause of the centripetal force, and mentally accept the unphilosophical proposition, that a body can act on another in a way that we cannot understand, and by means which lie outside our experience and observation, and this hypothesis, as Newton and Herschel pointed out, is distinctly an unphilosophical proposition.

[Footnote 40: _Modern Views of Electricity_, p. 221.]

CHAPTER XII

AETHER AND COMETS

ART. 111. _Comets. What are Comets?_--In addition to the planets and asteroids which revolve around the sun, there are also other bodies termed Comets, which revolve round the solar orb.

Unlike the planets, however, they do not all keep to the plane of the ecliptic, but approach to, and recede from the sun at all angles to that plane, as well as in that plane itself. Comets are supposed to be huge ma.s.ses of gaseous matter, in a more or less condensed condition. That they are not composed of absolutely solid matter is proved by the fact that it is possible to see the stars through the gaseous matter of which they are composed.

How the gaseous matter of which these comets are formed is originated, or how it is formed in solar or stellar s.p.a.ce, has, I believe, up to the present never been explained, and indeed, with the idea of a frictionless Aether, I fail to see how any physical explanation of the origin and development of a comet can be satisfactorily given. With the conception of the Aether, however, that is put forward in this work, viz. that Aether is matter in its most rarefied and attenuated form, which can be condensed into a gaseous condition, with such a conception of the universal aetherial medium, the origin and development of gaseous matter from this Aether becomes a physical possibility.

Lord Kelvin, in the _Philosophical Magazine_, July 1902, on the "Cl.u.s.tering of Gravitational Matter in any part of the Universe," has already suggested the possibility of the condensation of the Aether, but with the old idea of a frictionless Aether, that is, an Aether which does not possess ma.s.s, such a hypothesis is improbable. Because, if the Aether becomes condensed at all, it must be condensed into gaseous and solid matter, and all experiments and observation teach us that both these forms of matter possess ma.s.s and weight.

Therefore, if the frictionless Aether, which possesses no ma.s.s and weight, is to be condensed into gaseous or solid matter, there must come a period in the process of condensation when it must pa.s.s out of the condition of possessing no ma.s.s and no weight, into the condition of possessing ma.s.s and weight, which a.s.sumption is altogether opposed to those Rules of Philosophy based upon experiment and observation.

Aether can only pa.s.s into a gaseous or solid condition, in which condition it will possess ma.s.s and weight, on the a.s.sumption that in the aetherial condition it possesses the same properties, only in a modified form, which it possesses after the process of condensation has taken place. In a similar way that air can pa.s.s out of its gaseous condition into a liquid condition, or any gas can pa.s.s out of its gaseous into a liquid condition, so Aether, on the conception as given in Chapter IV., can pa.s.s out of its aetherial and rarefied condition into that form of matter which is known as gaseous. We shall deal with this aspect of Aether more fully when we come to deal with the Nebular Hypothesis, as the same principle underlies that hypothesis as underlies the origin and development of comets.

Thus, comets may be formed at any time in interstellar s.p.a.ce out of the Aether that exists there, provided the conditions of its formation are to be found there. Then, as they are gradually formed, they would, like any other bodies, come more directly under the influence of any large bodies, as the sun, and be attracted by them.