Having broached the notion of the ether being the primitive element of the universe, or at all events, of the solar system, we might be expected to show how all the other elements were formed from it; but that has been done for us in a very much more able manner than we could have done it. Anyone who chooses to refer to "Nature" of September 2, 1886, will find—in Dr. Crookes's opening address, on Chemical Science in Section B, at the meeting of the British Association for that year—a very detailed explanation of how all the chemical elements might have been elaborated from one that he called Protyle; in which explanation he will only have to change this word into Ether to comprehend the process much more easily than by any exposition we could pretend to draw up. To quote the whole address would be altogether out of place, and besides, our notes of it are only fragmentary. But for present satisfaction of those who cannot immediately refer to "Nature," we may say that in the same report it is clearly stated that Sir George B. Airy was of opinion that all bodies may not be subject to the law of gravitation; and have no cause to think it strange we do not see that, were the ether and attraction one and the same, the whole universe would be finally collected into one mass, itself included. They will have better authority than ours for believing that the ether may connect matter evolved from itself, without being materially confounded with it. At the same time we acknowledge the necessity for expressing our idea of what we consider to be its nature, and in compliance with this obligation we say we have conceived it to be of the nature of indiarubber, not an elastic fluid as we have called it before, but rather an elastic substance like a jelly, as some people have conceived it to be; not a gas, because it does not require any medium to connect its particles.

Looking upon it in this light, action at a distance can be accounted for in a very natural manner. When a stretched indiarubber band is relieved from strain, the relief must be felt instantly throughout every part of its length; for, although the band may take time to contract, no time is required for the relief from strain being felt. In like manner an alteration in strain between the sun and the earth—and these alterations of strain are taking place every instant—connected by an indiarubber ether will be felt instantly in both bodies; and should anyone stand out for time being required to convey the attraction, let him remember that the difference of its power would be felt first at the two ends of the connecting medium, for the very good reason that even attraction itself could not prefer one extreme to the other. And that is all that is meant by action at a distance.

Here are some other things that could be explained more easily than they can be at present, through the ether and attraction being considered to be one and the same, than under any other conception we can form; but although we have a dim vision of such explanations in some cases, our knowledge of the sciences involved in them is not sufficient to warrant us in letting our dim conceptions see the light. Therefore all that remains for us to add is, that some things we have said of the ether may have to be so far modified now, but as they have had their part in leading us to the conclusions we have arrived at, they cannot be altogether suppressed.

[CHAPTER XV.]

Page
[261]Construction of the solar system. Matter out of which it was formed
[262]Domains of the sun out of which the matter was collected
[263]Stars nearest to the sun. Table VII. showing distances
[265]Remarks on Binary Stars. Table VIII. showing spheres of
  attraction between the sun and a very few
[266]Sirius actually our nearest neighbour. Form of the sun's domains of a very jagged nature
[267]Creation of matter for the nebulæ, out of which the whole universe was
  elaborated. Beginning of construction
[267]The law of attraction begins to operate through the agency of evolution
[268]Form of the primitive solar nebula. The jagged peaks
  probably soon left behind in contraction
[269]How the nebula contracted. Two views of the form it might take.
  Comparison of the two forms, solid or hollow
[272]The hollow centre form adopted. The jagged peaks left behind
[273]The nebula assuming a spherical form. Shreds, masses,
  crescents separated from one side
[274]Probable form of interior of nebula. Compared with envelopes in heads of some comets
[275]Reflections on the nebula being hollow. Opinions of others quoted
[276]The matter of a sphere solid to the centre must be inert there
[277]Further proofs of the nebula being hollow
[278]How rotary motion was instituted
[279]Such a nebula might take one of two forms
[280]The form depending on the class of nebula. Planetary in the case of the solar system.
  A similar conception of how rotary motion could be instituted

In this chapter we proceed to consider how the original nebula was formed, and whether the solar system could be evolved therefrom in the manner shown in the analysis of [Chapter V].

The usual way of treating the solar system has been to suppose it to have been formed out of a nebula extending far beyond the planet Neptune, generally in a vague way; although some writers have specified a limit to the distance, in order to give some definite idea of what must have been the density of the nebula at some particular period of its existence. In the first part of our work we have adopted the same plan and we mean to follow it out, because it gives us a greater degree of facility for expressing our ideas, and making them more intelligible, than by adopting a new method. But we shall previously endeavour to show where the nebula itself came from and how it was formed, which seems to us to be as necessary as to show how it was transformed into the solar system.