THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



mass upon itself, under the influence of gravitation. 

 Be the cause of gravitation what it may the impact 

 of the ethereal atoms upon the molecules of matter 

 or some other unknown force the heated gases and 

 metallic vapors now constituting the atmosphere and 

 outer portions of the sun, must be driven back towards 

 the centre of the sun as the molecules of our atmo- 

 sphere are driven back by the same or other cause of 

 gravitation, and prevented from passing out and being 

 lost in space. The heat of the sun caused by and per- 

 sisting since the condensation of the original nebulous 

 or disseminated state is augmented by the continued 

 condensation of the molecular mass, and returns to the 

 ether in the shape of the molar vibratory motions of 

 heat, light and electricity in the Ether as an isotropic 

 medium, that energy which its individual atoms before 

 exhibited in their inherent atomic motion, and ex- 

 pended in the condensation of the sun's molecules by 

 the arrest of their own movement. 



There are evident reasons why gravitation or the ar- 

 rest of the motion of the Ether atoms should here man- 

 ifest itself principally as heat. The sun is the central 

 body of the Solar System, by far exceeding the com- 

 bined mass of all its planets ; it has, so far as known, 

 no other motion than around the common centre of 

 gravity of itself and the planets, with the rotative 

 motion on its own axis, which motion, as well as any 



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