PHYSICAL PARADOXES. 



rationally interpreted as a circuitous pushing, 

 but not as anything equivalent to the mechanical 

 pulling known to us. 



There still remain to be considered the facts 

 of the universal attraction of gravitation i 



We undoubtedly have got everything in the 

 universe behaving as if it could pull at every- 

 thing else, however distant ; and where other 

 influences do not interfere, things do come to- 

 gether in accordance with this general ten- 

 dency. 



Is this attraction of gravitation something 

 sui generis, or is it another case of what looks 

 like pulling being really indirect pushing ? 



Of the theories on which it has been at- 

 tempted to explain the action of gravitation, 

 the only one fairly consistent with itself and 

 with the facts, as well as in harmony with the 

 rest of the structure of things so far as we 

 know it, is the theory of Le Sage. 



Briefly, this is that space is occupied, 

 though not filled, by small particles rapidly 

 flying, like the molecules of a gas, in all direc- 

 tions, frequently striking one another and 

 striking other objects. They repel everything 

 in every direction. But when two bodies are 

 near together they shelter each other from 

 many of the blows which but for their mutual 

 proximity would have fallen upon each from 

 the direction of the other ; thus they are less 

 powerfully repelled from each other than they 



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