PHYSICAL PARADOXES. 



Thus the particles in the greater part of 

 the ring press more forcibly against the rear 

 of the particles A and B, while those be- 

 tween them press less forcibly against their 

 faces. 



They therefore move nearer together. 



And they have not been pulled, but pushed 

 together. What looks like attraction is really 

 repulsion. None of the particles of the medium 

 is armed with a hook or loop of any kind with 

 which those between the particles of substance 

 could pull upon one another to bring the sub- 

 stances nearer together. Their coming together 

 has been due to the pushing of the particles 

 behind them. 



Those who are least familiar with specu- 

 lations of this kind must be warned that the 

 foregoing is not in the smallest degree a sug- 

 gestion of the actual nature of the connection 

 between ordinary matter and ether, or the way 

 in which electricity and magnetism act. The 

 true state of the case is enormously more 

 complex. Each atom of substance is a group 

 of corpuscles with interdependent movements 

 comparable with those of the solar system. 

 The construction of the ether, if simpler, may 

 still be far from simple ; and what really takes 

 place is more like a modification of the orbital 

 movements of the component corpuscles than 

 a change in the speed of our steam-engine 

 governor. The chains of action, moreover, are 



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