CONSTITUENTS OF THE UNIVERSE. 



quire no agent for their transmission, aB space 

 is the ample and appropriate field in which 

 they move in straight lines until intercepted. 

 Nothing whatever is known of the imaginery 

 Ether, which would have to occupy nearly all 

 space to be of any use, and for no other purpose 

 than to transmit light, as it were. Is the 

 universe as lop-sided as that theory would 

 imply? So much of one thing to so little of 

 all things? In short, this theory does not 

 come within the range of plausibilities; for 

 how indeed could the light of the sun vibrate 

 the Ether at all which is perfectly transpar- 

 ent if there is any through which the light 

 passes, evidently unobstructed. If it takes a 

 thousand years for the light from a remote 

 star or sun to reach our solar system, when 

 moving at the rate of nearly two hundred 

 thousand miles in a second of time, is there 

 any possible explanation of that movement 

 but the straight line and an unobstructed 

 path? 



NO REST OR STANDSTILL. 



The theory of inertia, or matter at rest, has 

 no support whatever. It was originated 



