FORCE 45 



law of gravitation. He says, " Until we see how 

 gravity itself is to be explained as Newton and Fara- 

 day thought it must be explained, by some continuous 

 action of intervening or surrounding matter, may we 

 not be temporarily satisfied to explain capillary at- 

 traction merely as Newtonian attraction intensified in 

 virtue of intensely dense molecules movable among 

 one another, of which the aggregate constitutes a 

 mass of liquid or solid."* 



Again he says, " Hence, unless we find heterogen- 

 eousness and the Newtonian law of attraction incapa- 

 ble of explaining cohesion and capillary attraction, 

 we are not forced to seek the explanation in a devia- 

 tion from Newton's law of gravitational force. "t 



May we regard the attractions of molecules and 

 atoms as due to the force of gravity acting at insensi- 

 ble distances? When a mixture of one volume of 

 oxygen with two volumes of hydrogen explodes to 

 form water, is it due to the fall of these atoms against 

 each other, produced by gravitation? 



If we answer in the affirmative, the answer is 

 simply an unknown quantity. 



If we seek to explain how ether acts as a medium 

 in chemical affinity, we fail to do so. 



It may be that electric currents are ether in motion 

 through certain media, and that magnetism is due to 

 ether moving in vortices. 



Magnetism acts readily through a vacuum and 

 through solids, liquids, and gases. Neither the total 

 absence of matter nor the presence of the densest 

 solids interferes with its action. It may be that the 

 motions of ether will explain the facts of magnetism. 

 In fact, we are compelled to choose between ether and 

 an absolute vacuum in explaining the action of all 

 attractive forces. Shall we accept the theory that a 

 * Popular Lectures and Addresses, pp. 9, 10. t Ibid, p. 4. 



