Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

The Milky Way is divided in one part of its course by a stream of stars, which seems to branch off as a separate stream, thus dividing it into two parts.

All these facts seem to point to the conclusion that the stars of the universe, instead of being scattered about haphazard in the space, form a ring or layer, of which the thickness is very small compared with its length and breadth.

Our own solar system, according to Herschel, occupies a place somewhere about the middle of the thickness of the zone, and near the point where it divides into two parts.

Recent observations go to show that there is a tendency of the sun's apex to drift along the edge of the Milky Way, and this drift seems to point to a plane of motion of the sun, nearly coinciding with the plane of the Milky Way.

Art. 118. Stars and Kepler's Laws.--We have learned in a previous chapter that the sun is the centre of a system which comprises a retinue of planets, with their attendant satellites, together with a number of asteroids or minor planets, with the addition of meteors and comets to complete the system.

Now if the sun is a star, then, according to our First and Second Rules of Philosophy, every star ought also to be the centre of a stellar system and the centre of two aetherial motions, that is, the Centrifugal and Centripetal forces, due to the pressures and tensions of the Aether medium. Further, every stellar system would be composed of exactly similar bodies to those which compose our solar system, as planets with their attendant satellites, together with meteors and comets; the whole of the stellar planets being bound to the central body by the combination of the two aetherial motions, and kept revolving round the central star by the rotating electro-magnetic Aether currents.

Such a hypothesis is entirely philosophical, as it is simple in conception, and fully agrees with our experience in relation to the only star of which we have any complete knowledge.

It is unthinkable to conceive of a star existing in so-called space, and constantly radiating out its light and heat for no purpose at all. All Nature teaches us that there is not a single thing in existence but what has a definite purpose, and a definite place to fill in the universe. Even the aetherial atoms, which form the foundation stones of the universe, have their own purpose to fulfil in the glorious scheme of the Universe conceived by the Eternal Infinite; and to suppose that a star has no purpose to fulfil, no task to perform, is to suppose something altogether opposed to the teaching of all Philosophy. Why even man, with his finite wisdom, would not be so foolish, so unwise, as to make a star, and set it in the firmament of heaven for no purpose at all! Are we therefore to suppose that the Divine Creator of all things possesses less wisdom than the creatures which He Himself hath made? Such an assumption would be a reflection not only on the wisdom of an All Wise Being, but would also be a reflection on our own ideas of philosophical reasoning.

Therefore the conclusion that we are compelled to come to, in relation to the millions of stars that exist in interstellar space, is that every star is the centre of a stellar system, and the centre of two aetherial motions due to the pressures and tensions of the electro-magnetic Aether; while rotating round each star are the ever-circulating electro-magnetic Aether currents, which form the medium by which all the stellar planets with their attendant satellites are ever made to revolve around that central body which supplies them with their light and heat. Some such conclusion as this Sir John Herschel arrived at, for in his Treatise of Astronomy, Art. 592, he writes: “Now for what purpose are we to suppose such magnificent bodies scattered through the abyss of space? Surely not to illuminate our nights, which an additional moon of the 1/1000 part of our own moon would do much better. He must have studied astronomy to little purpose who can suppose man to be the only object of the Creator's care, or who does not see in the vast and wonderful apparatus around us, provisions for other races of animated beings. The stars, doubtless, are themselves suns, and may perhaps each in its sphere be the presiding centre around which other planets or bodies may be circulating.”

Further, with reference to the stability of each of these stellar systems, it is essential that the existence of a physical centrifugal force should be recognized, in order that the unity and harmony of the spheres should be maintained.