Here, then, we have indisputable evidence of the existence and mode of working of the electro-magnetic aetherial currents, whose action alone can produce the phenomena with which we are so familiar, and for which there must be some physical cause. I am not aware that any reason or explanation either mathematical or otherwise has ever been given, or even suggested, as to the cause of the phenomena which we have just endeavoured to explain.
Indeed, there can be no other physical explanation of the fact, that all the planets revolve round the sun in the same direction that the sun rotates on its axis, than the one here given, viz. that the cause is to be found, and alone found, in the circulating electro-magnetic Aether currents which are generated in the Aether by the electro-magnetic body, the sun. Again, in order to confirm the existence of these Aether currents that exist in space, not only those generated by the sun, but also by all the other electro-magnetic bodies, as all the planets ([Art. 88]), we will consider the working of the same upon the satellites of those planets which possess them.
The Earth we know has one satellite, the moon, Mars has two satellites, Phobos and Deimos, Jupiter has five satellites, Saturn has eight satellites, while up to the present Uranus has been found to possess four, and Neptune one. There is, however, little doubt but that both Uranus and Neptune possess more than those already discovered, as it is inconceivable that Jupiter and Saturn, which are nearer to the sun, should possess a greater number of satellites by which the nights of the respective planets are illuminated, while the further planets, which need the increased lighting, because of the decreased intensity of the aetherial light waves at the increased distance, possess apparently a less number of satellites, and therefore less illumination for their respective nights.
But what have these satellites to teach us as to the existence of the electro-magnetic aetherial currents that circulate round the planets? We have to apply a similar course of reasoning to the planets, as we have done in the case of the sun. If the sun is an electro-magnetic body, by its axial rotation it generates rotating Aether currents, and those Aether currents partake of the same rotation as the revolving body, that is, from west to east. In a like manner each planet, being an electro-magnet, generates electro-magnetic aetherial currents which also possess the same rotation as the planetary body which gives rise to them.
So that if the planets rotate on their axes from east to west, the Aether currents will also rotate from east to west, but if the rotation of each planet is from west to east, then the rotation of the Aether currents associated with each planet will also be from west to east, with the result that each satellite will be carried round its primary planet by the circulating Aether currents in exactly the same way as the planet rotates on its axis.
Now if this is the case, then we have further evidence of the existence of the circulating electro-magnetic Aether currents, not only those associated with the sun, but those also associated with each of the planets, as explained in [Art. 91]. It might have been urged in the case of the planet's revolution round the sun being in the same direction as the sun's axial action, that such a fact was merely a coincidence, but such an objection loses its force if it is proved that the same principle or truth when applied to other bodies equally holds good. When we come to analyze the direction of the satellites round their primary planets, we find that each satellite has an orbital motion, or is carried round its central and controlling planet by that planet's Aether currents in exactly the same direction that the planet rotates on its axis, viz. from west to east. So that we have in the orbital direction of the satellites, as we have also in the orbital direction of the planets, conclusive evidence of the existence and mode of working of the Aether and of the electro-magnetic currents generated in that aetherial medium by the electro-magnetic bodies which rotate in it.
[CHAPTER XI]
AETHER AND KEPLER'S LAWS
Art. 102. Aether and Kepler's First Law.--In [Art. 26] we learned that according to the First Law of Kepler, each planet revolves round the sun in an elliptic orbit, with the sun occupying one of the foci.