Aether and Gravitation
illustration version
, CHAPTER I
PHILOSOPHY OF GRAVITATION
ART. 1. _Gravitation._--In the realm of Science, there exists a Force or
Law that pervades and influences all Nature, and from the power of
which, nothing, not even an atom, is free.
It holds together the component parts of each and every individual
world, and in the world's revolving prevents both its inhabitants and
its vegetation from being whirled off its surface into space. It exists
in each and every central sun, and circles round each sun its associated
system of planets. It rolls each satellite around its primary planet,
and regulates the comet's mysterious flight into the depths of space,
while the pendulation of even the remotest star is accomplished by this
same force. Our own rocking world obeys the same mysterious power, that
seems to grasp the entire material creation as with the grasp of the
Infinite.
It exists in, and influences every atom, whose combinations compose and
constitute the entire material creation, or each and every orb that
,bespangle the blue infinity.
As is readily seen, it weaves as it were around each and all, a
mysterious network or chain, that binds star to star, and world to
world, blending all into one entire, vast and complete unity. It decides
all their orbits and distances, regulates and controls all their
motions, from the most simple even to the more complex and intricate,
ultimately producing that wondrous and beauteous order, unity and
harmony that everywhere pervade and blend all the universe into one
grand and harmonious whole.
That Law I need hardly say is the Law of Gravitation.
ART. 2. _Cause of Gravitation._--Now the question arises, and indeed has
arisen a thousand times since the discovery of this law by Sir Isaac
Newton over two hundred years ago, as to what is the physical cause, the
true explanation of this universal attraction.
MacLaurin in his work on the philosophical discoveries of Sir Isaac
Newton says: "In all cases when bodies seem to act upon each other at a
distance, and tend towards one another without any apparent cause
impelling them, this force has been commonly called Attraction, and this
, term is frequently used by Sir Isaac Newton. But he gives repeated
caution that he pretends not by the use of this term to define the
nature of the power, or the manner in which it acts. Nor does he ever
affirm or insinuate that a body can act upon another body at a distance,
but by the intervention of other bodies."
The results of modern discovery show that action at a distance, without
the intervention of any medium, as for example the sun attracting the
earth, is not the universal condition which governs all so-called
forces.
It is now recognized that light and heat are both forms of energy, and
therefore forces, using the term in the same sense that it is applied to
Gravitation.
Both light and heat are transmitted through space with finite velocity
through the intervention of a medium, the universal Aether. It is
therefore only reasonable to suppose, that if one or more particular
kinds of energy, or forces, require a medium for their transmission, why
not another force, as for example Gravitation?
Gravitation is an universal force which operates throughout the length
and breadth of the entire universe, and if there be a medium which is to
illustration version
, CHAPTER I
PHILOSOPHY OF GRAVITATION
ART. 1. _Gravitation._--In the realm of Science, there exists a Force or
Law that pervades and influences all Nature, and from the power of
which, nothing, not even an atom, is free.
It holds together the component parts of each and every individual
world, and in the world's revolving prevents both its inhabitants and
its vegetation from being whirled off its surface into space. It exists
in each and every central sun, and circles round each sun its associated
system of planets. It rolls each satellite around its primary planet,
and regulates the comet's mysterious flight into the depths of space,
while the pendulation of even the remotest star is accomplished by this
same force. Our own rocking world obeys the same mysterious power, that
seems to grasp the entire material creation as with the grasp of the
Infinite.
It exists in, and influences every atom, whose combinations compose and
constitute the entire material creation, or each and every orb that
,bespangle the blue infinity.
As is readily seen, it weaves as it were around each and all, a
mysterious network or chain, that binds star to star, and world to
world, blending all into one entire, vast and complete unity. It decides
all their orbits and distances, regulates and controls all their
motions, from the most simple even to the more complex and intricate,
ultimately producing that wondrous and beauteous order, unity and
harmony that everywhere pervade and blend all the universe into one
grand and harmonious whole.
That Law I need hardly say is the Law of Gravitation.
ART. 2. _Cause of Gravitation._--Now the question arises, and indeed has
arisen a thousand times since the discovery of this law by Sir Isaac
Newton over two hundred years ago, as to what is the physical cause, the
true explanation of this universal attraction.
MacLaurin in his work on the philosophical discoveries of Sir Isaac
Newton says: "In all cases when bodies seem to act upon each other at a
distance, and tend towards one another without any apparent cause
impelling them, this force has been commonly called Attraction, and this
, term is frequently used by Sir Isaac Newton. But he gives repeated
caution that he pretends not by the use of this term to define the
nature of the power, or the manner in which it acts. Nor does he ever
affirm or insinuate that a body can act upon another body at a distance,
but by the intervention of other bodies."
The results of modern discovery show that action at a distance, without
the intervention of any medium, as for example the sun attracting the
earth, is not the universal condition which governs all so-called
forces.
It is now recognized that light and heat are both forms of energy, and
therefore forces, using the term in the same sense that it is applied to
Gravitation.
Both light and heat are transmitted through space with finite velocity
through the intervention of a medium, the universal Aether. It is
therefore only reasonable to suppose, that if one or more particular
kinds of energy, or forces, require a medium for their transmission, why
not another force, as for example Gravitation?
Gravitation is an universal force which operates throughout the length
and breadth of the entire universe, and if there be a medium which is to
