Force and Form. 1043 



matter involved necessarily cause it to assume; so the motion imparted 

 to the sphere of the atomicule when it is specialized must take such 

 form as the shape of the body compels. We cannot think of the re- 

 flections of force from even an atom without admitting the influence of 

 the form of the body in shaping the direction and manner of such re- 

 flection. 



The different chemical atoms are made up of the gravitation atoms 

 or atomicules, some containing but few, and others many. Thus the 

 chemical atoms have arisen as aggregations and specializations from the 

 gravitation atoms and have their various forms, and are surrounded by 

 their own spheres of ether whose motion imparted to them at the time 

 of their aggregation and by the force to which such aggregation is due, 

 constitutes their polar chemical attraction. 



Every Fixed Star visible to us is reasonably believed to be a sun 

 surrounded like our sun by a system of planets. The number of 

 these suns is like that of the grains of sand on a sea shore. The un- 

 assisted eye can count several thousand, but the telescope reveals them 

 by the million. They are particularly abundant if we look in the direc- 

 tion of the milky way. This is an immense ring that goes entirely 

 around the sky, and entirely around us, so that we are well in towards 

 the middle of it. There is reason to believe however, that this ring is 

 in reality a flattish disc, like a pie, of small thickness compared to its 

 extent, and when we look toward the milky way in any direction we see 

 this disc of stars edgeways, and so the number in that direction is in- 

 conceivably great ; but if we look at right angles to the plane of the 

 milky way we see through the disc the thin way, and the number of 

 stars is less. Now as the sun and planets together constitute our solar 

 system, so the disc of the milky way with all the stars belonging to it, 

 including our sun and planets, and all the stars visible to us, constitute 

 our Stellar System. It is perfectly legitmate to say ours, because as 

 great as it is there is reason to believe that throughout its vast extent, 

 matter and its properties are everywhere substantially the same as in 

 our little solar system. The universal ether puts us in touch with the 

 whole of it, and enables us by means of the telescope to observe the 

 motions of distant stars to be in accordance with the same law of 

 gravity that keeps us from being flung off the surface of the earth ; 

 and by means of the spectroscope we discover that there are to be found 

 in bodies whose light has been years on the way to reach us, many of 

 the same elements that we dig up in our fields and mines. Certainly 

 our stellar system is one family; and the cause that imposed not only 

 ponderability but also chemism upon the materials of our sun and 

 planets, was a catastrophe that involved the entire stellar S} r stem ; and 

 no doubt it will take another equally vast and far reaching to undo 



