76 THE GENESIS OF WORLDS. 



of attraction have now in each world expended their utmost 

 possible energy, and are holding all the forms of matter combined 

 and compacted in a cold and rigid embrace. The forces of 

 repulsion have entirely abandoned the contest, and are either 

 vibrating through the unknown realms of space, or are locked 

 up in the swift and complicated motions of the heavenly bodies. 

 It is probable that by far the greater part of the repulsive forces 

 thus exists in the form of motion. It has been estimated, no 

 doubt with a near approximation to truth, that if by any means 

 the earth could be suddenly arrested in its rapid course, its mass 

 would thereby be raised to the enormous temperature of 23,360 

 Fahr. a heat sufficient to vaporize and dissipate every known 

 substance. If then, as would be the case, it should fall into the 

 sun, this heat would be increased by the fall four hundred fold. 

 Now it makes no difference in the aggregate evolution of heat 

 whether this cessation of motion is sudden or gradual ; and if 

 we can find in nature any agencies tending to retard the revolu- 

 tions of the planetary bodies, they must inevitably sooner or 

 later fall into the sun. In such a case it can hardly be doubted 

 that we have found a cause sufficient to produce again the disin- 

 tegration and diffusion of matter. 



The wave-theory of light and radiant heat presupposes the 

 existence of an ethereal medium pervading all space. It must 

 be a medium of material atoms held in equipoise by a balance of 

 forces, for it is evident there could be no wave-motion unless 

 there was something to move, and something too having the 

 attributes of matter in a state of extreme mobility or fluidity. 

 There is no other conceivable way by which light could reach us 

 from the sun and stars except through this all-pervading form of 

 matter. And if there is a material medium, of whatsoever ex- 

 ceeding tenuity it may be, it must present something of resistance 

 to everything passing through it. It resists the passage of light 

 eight minutes in 90,000,000 miles, thus proving its materiality 

 by its resistance to force, which is one of the definitions of mat- 

 ter. If one could conceive of any force passing through an 

 absolute vacuum, it could only be conceived of as passing instan- 

 taneously, for there is absolutely nothing to detain it. Again heat 



