36 COSMOS. 



on the periods of revolution of Encke's comet, and the evapo- 

 ration of many of the large tails of comets, seem to prove that the 

 regions of space which separate cosmical bodies are not void, 14 

 but filled with some kind of matter; we must not omit to 

 draw attention to the fact, that among the now current 

 but indefinite expressions of " the air of heaven" " cosmical 

 (non-luminous) matter" and " ether" the latter, which has 

 been transmitted to us from the earliest antiquity of Southern 

 and Western Asia, has not always expressed the same idea. 

 Among the natural philosophers of India, ether (dkd'sa) was 

 regarded as belonging to the pantschatd, or five elements, and 

 was supposed to be a fluid of infinite subtlety, pervading the 

 whole universe, and constituting the medium of exciting life, 

 as well as of propagating sound. 15 Etymologically considered, 

 oka sci signifies, according to Bopp, "luminous or shining, 

 and bears, therefore, in its fundamental signification, the 

 same relation to the ' ether ' of the Greeks as shining does to 

 burning." 



14 Aristotle (Phys. Auscult., iv. 6-10, pp. 213-217, Bekker.) 

 proves, in opposition to Leucippus and Democritus, that there 

 is no unfilled space no vacuum in the universe. 



15 Akasa signifies, according to Wilson's Sanscrit Dic- 

 tionary, " the subtle and ethereal fluid supposed to fill and 

 pervade the universe, and to be the peculiar vehicle of life 

 and sound." "The word dkd'sa (luminous, shining) is derived 

 from the root has (to shine), to which is added the preposi- 

 tion d. The quintuple of all the elements is called pantschatd, 

 or pantschatra, and the dead are, singularly enough, desig- 

 nated as those who have been resolved into the five elements 

 (prapta pantschatra}. Such is the interpretation given in the 

 text of Amarakoscha, Amarasinha's Dictionary." (Bopp.) 

 Colebrooke's admirable treatise on the Sankhya Philosophy, 

 treats of these five elements; see Transact, of the Asiat. Soc., 

 vol. i. Lond. 1827, p. 31. Strabo refers, according to 

 Megasthenes, (xv. 59, p. 713, Gas.) to the all-forming fifth 

 element of the Indians, without, however, naming it. 



