THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



pic mass of temporarily arrested and comparatively 

 quiescent atoms the surplus energy given off by the 

 sun, in the form of the short and intensely rapid 

 transverse vibrations of radiant light and heat that 

 pass through infinite space in all directions, a few of 

 which reach our earth with the speed of 186,000 

 miles a second, and bring to us Light, Heat and Life. 

 Each far off star that we see at night, the nearest 

 one 300,000 times more distant than our Sun, repeats 

 this wonderful action under the like impulses of the 

 Cosmic Ether, bringing without doubt to its planets 

 ever invisible to us the like gifts of light and 

 life. 



An objection made to the Atomic theory of gravi- 

 tation is that " if one body (the earth, for instance) 

 shields another body (the moon, or a falling stone) 

 from the impact of the atoms between them, resulting 

 in the movement of both masses in the line of least 

 resistance, this shielding of impacts would be in pro- 

 portion to the half diameter of the respective bodies ; 

 which proportion is incorrect, as gravitation is as the 

 mass, or weight, not as the area." The protection of 

 one body by the other would not be as the area, but 

 as the mass. It is true that the respective bodies 

 would shield one another in proportion to their half 

 diameters, but the effect thereof would be in propor- 

 tion to their mass. The Ether penetrates the inter- 



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