Energy and Ether. 1019 



why should the impulse be in the direction of the moon in preference to 

 some other direction? We find as a matter of fact that these prefer- 

 ences in direction are always settled in favor of the direction towards 

 the greatest mass, provided distances are the same, and so we are bound 

 to suppose a relationship of some sort between the attracting bodies to 

 determine this question of mass, and cannot evade it by interpolating a 

 third party or source of energy. If there is such third party, the rela- 

 tionship would have to be conceived as existing between the attracting 

 bodies and it. So the conception of a third party does not help us. 

 In any theor} T of gravity we attempt to frame, we are therefore bound 

 to include the conception of a mutual interchange of communication 

 taking place between two bodies, preliminary to the mutual pull they 

 exert on each other. We cannot conceive otherwise, how, for example, 

 in our hypothetical case above, the ball could reach a decision as to the 

 relative mass of earth and moon, unless it were subjected every moment 

 to an influence which every moment varied as the distances between the 

 bodies varied, it being the fact that bodies weigh less to each other as 

 their distances apart increase, and more and more as the distances 

 diminish. That this communication is going on thus momentarily, is 

 proved by the fact that no matter whereabouts on the road between the 

 earth and moon the ball is liberated, it begins its fall towards one or 

 the other at once. Assuming the mass of the earth to be 81 times as 

 great as that of the moon, and their distance apart to be 240, 000 miles, 

 the point between the two at which their attractions for the ball 

 would be exactly equal, would be 24,000 miles from the moon, and 

 216,000 miles from the earth. If the best surveying party that ever 

 staked off a railroad, were to measure these distances, and try to locate 

 this point, they could not be sure of it within many chains, or be able to 

 guess on which side of the true spot the} 7 had placed it. But if the 

 ball were to be set free it would be found to have the exact tally. 

 Place it where you will, its apparent intelligence as to the direction of 

 the heaviest mass is never for a moment at fault. Wherever it may be, 

 it seems at every moment to be thoroughly posted, and never gets lost 

 or ' 'turned around. " There is only one possible interpretation to this, 

 and that is, that as a part of the machinery of gravitation, every body 

 sends out an influence which, reaching other bodies, is the equivalent of 

 a notification or intelligence of their whereabouts and their magnitude. 

 The sort of attraction or influence at a distance about which we have 

 found out the most, is magnetic attraction. As explained in a previous 

 chapter, a magnet appears to shoot forth a vast number of "lines of 

 force, " as they are denominated, which, upon reaching a definite dis- 

 tance from the magnet become deflected, and return to it, and other 

 bodies caught in those return currents are drawn by them back to the 

 magnet, a process which constitutes "magnetic attraction." 



