264 Prof. WhewelVs Demonstration 



this hypothesis, per se, any matter must be imponderable ; being 

 endowed with a property the very opposite of attraction of 

 gravitation. This last mentioned property exists between masses 

 consisting of both kinds of particles, so far as the attraction 

 between the heterogeneous atoms predominates over the repul- 

 sion between those which are homogeneous. It would follow 

 from these premises, that all matter is ponderable or otherwise, 

 accordingly as it may be situated. 



22. Can the ether by which, according to the undulatory theory, 

 light is transmitted, consist of ponderable matter? Were it so, 

 would it not be attracted about the planets with forces propor- 

 tioned to their weight, respectively ? and becoming of unequal 

 density, would not the diversity in its density, thus arising, 

 affect its undulations, as the transmission of sound is influenced 

 by any variations in the density of the aeriform fluid by which 

 it is propagated ? 



With esteem, 



I am yours truly, 



Robert Hare. 



Demonstration that all Matter is Heavy. By the Rev. William Whe- 

 WELL, B. D., Fellow of Trinity College and Professor of Moral 

 Philosophy. [Read February 22d, 1841.] 



" The discussion of the nature of the grounds and proofs of the most 

 general propositions which the physical sciences include, belongs rather 

 to metaphysics than to that course of experimental and mathematiOTl 

 investigation by which the sciences are formed. But such discussions 

 seem by no means unfitted to occupy the attention of the cultivators of 

 physical science. The ideal, as well as the experimental side of our 

 knowledge, must be carefully studied and scrutinized, in order that its 

 true import may be seen ; and this province of human speculation has 

 been perhaps of late unjustly depreciated and neglected by men of 

 science. Yet it can be prosecuted in the most advantageous manner 

 by them only : for no one can speculate securely and rightly respecting 

 the nature and proofs of the truths of science without a steady posses- 

 sion of some large and solid portions of such truths. A man must be 

 a mathematician, a mechanical philosopher, a natural historian, in order 

 that he may philosophize well concerning mathematics, and mechanics. 



