INFLUENCE ON RECENT SCIENCE 93 



more agitated than fire which can disintegrate even 

 solid matter into its smallest parts, and then carry them 

 away. So we should believe that the matter of the 

 sun is celestial fire, very fluid and agitated, carrying 

 off with it particles of the heavens. Although matter 

 of the first kind is constantly rushing along the axis 

 toward the center of the vortex, yet, when it approaches 

 that point, it experiences a tendency to fly out to the 

 equatorial surface because of its centrifugal force. 

 The effort, not only of the little spheres of the second 

 kind but also of the fragmentary particles of the first 

 kind, to leave the center of a stellar vortex, constitutes 

 light. While all particles of a vortex may tend to 

 move away from the center because of their cen- 

 trifugal force, yet, since they are packed like balls in 

 a cup, they cannot really move and so only tend to 

 move. Just as when a sufficient hole is made in the 

 bottom of a cup filled with balls, one of them drops 

 through and all the balls lying within an inverted cone 

 settle down; so it is with light, if any particle in space 

 tends to move, this tendency or pressure is instantly 

 transmitted to any distance along straight lines, which 

 come not only from the center of a luminous body but 

 also from all points in its superficies. If we attempted 

 to discuss details, we should find ourselves worried 

 and baffled between this tendency to move in a plenum 

 and the real motions of balls in a cup containing free 

 spaces between them. But there is little use in fretting 



