204 hertz's experiments, 



lowiug even as far as others cau go into this wonderful region. If the 

 present articles cau give to most who read them glimpses which un- 

 fold intelligible ideas of even the outskirts of this region, it is all that 

 any writer can reasonably expect who is not one of those masters of 

 exposition who combine the highest scientilic and literary abilities. 



Consider for a minute tlie question at issue. That electric and mag- 

 netic pheuoinena are due to the same medium by which light is propa- 

 gated — that all-pervading medium by whose assistance we receive all 

 the energy on this earth that makes life here possible, by which we 

 learn the existence of other Avorlds and suns, and analyze their struc- 

 tures and read their histories; that medium which certainly pervades 

 all transparent bodies, and probably all matter, and extends as far as 

 we know of anything existing: this wonderful all pervading uiedium is 

 the one we use to i)ush and juill with when we act by means of electric 

 and magnetic forces; and remember that we can pull molecules asunder 

 by this means as well as proiiel trains and light our houses. The forces 

 between atoms are controlled by this all-pervading-medium, which 

 directs the compass of the mariners, signals around the globe in times 

 that shame e'en Shakespeare's fancy, rends the oak, and terrifies crea- 

 ation's lords in the lightning flash. It was a great discovery that proved 

 all concord of sweet sounds was due to the medium that supplies the 

 means of growth to animals and plants, and deals destruction in the 

 whirlwind; and yet the 80 miles depth of our air is but an infinitesimal 

 film compared with the all-pervading illimitable aether. 



That there is a medium by which light is transmitted in a manner 

 somewhat analogous to that by which the air transmits sound has been 

 long held proved. Even those who held that light was due to little 

 particles shot out by luunnous bodies were yet constrained to super- 

 I)Ose a medium to account for the many strange actions of these parti- 

 cles. ISTow, no one thinks that light is due to such particles, and only a 

 very few of those who have really considered the matter think that it can 

 be due to air, or other matter such as we know. How does light exist 

 for those eight minutes after it has left the sun and before it reaches 

 the earth ? Between the sun and earth there is some matter, no doubt, 

 but it is in far-seiiarated parts. There are Mercury and Venus, an<l 

 some meteors ami some dust JU) doubt, and wandering molecules of 

 various gases, many yards apart, that meet one another every few days, 

 perhaps, but no matter that could pass on an action from point to point 

 at a rate of thousands of miles each second. Some other medium must 

 be there than ordinary gross matter. Something so subtle that the 

 planets, meteors, and even comets — those wondrous fleecy fiery clouds 

 rushing a hundred times more quickly than a cannon-ball around the 

 sun — are imperceptibly impeded by its presence, and yet so constituted 

 as to take up the vibrations of the atoms in these fiery clouds and send 

 them on to us a thousand times more rapidly again than the comet 

 moves, to tell us there is a comet, and teach us what kinds of atoms 



