12 The Cause of Life and Motion 



The theory that air has weight in its natural condi- 

 tion cannot be sustained. Experiments have shown 

 that a vessel weighs more when filled with air than it 

 does when the air is exhausted. But this is no evidence 

 that the air has weight. If it were possible to extract 

 all the air from the vessel, then the experiment might, 

 at least, be plausible. Since this condition cannot be 

 accomplished, the experiment only shows that rarified 

 air is impelled to a higher place than the natural local 

 air. The fact that air balances a column of mercury, 

 and also a column of water, is not a proof of its weight 

 but a proof of its tendency to maintain its geometric 

 or crystalline form, if it was a proof of its weight, 

 the mercury or water would not be balanced by it under 

 confinement in the receiver of the air pump in the 

 same or nearly the same manner, as when not confined. 



The theory of the attraction of gravity is 

 based on the hypothesis that a mysterious force 

 existing within a body exerts an influence in some 

 inexplicable manner beyond its limits. The theory 

 in all its phases is irrational and inconsistent. If 

 any body is impelled toward another body by 

 force, such force must either be independent of 

 the body or it must act in some manner by means 

 of a connecting link between the bodies. 



The term attraction, is an invention derived 

 from a misconception of the true cause, produc- 

 ing an effect, and, considered as a property of 

 positive force residing in matter, it does not exist 

 even in a magnet. Of the various experiments 

 made to illustrate the supposed properties of 



