l we find the present established principles of science? If we
grant the Newtonians a plenum, they still cling to attraction of _all
matter_ in some shape. If we confine them to a vacuum, they will
virtually deny it. Is not this solemn trifling? How much more noble
would it be to exhibit a little more tolerance, seeing that they
themselves know not what to believe? We do not offer these remarks as
argument, but merely as indications of that course of reasoning by which
we conclude that the upholders of the present systems of science are not
entitled to any other ground than the pure Newtonian basis of an
interplanetary vacuum.

DIFFICULTIES OF THIS VIEW.

This, then, is the state of the case: Matter attracts matter directly as
the mass, and inversely as the squares of the distances. This law is
derived from the planetary motions; space is, consequently, a void; and,
therefore, the power which gives mechanical momentum to matter, is
transferred from one end of creation to the other, without any physical
medium to convey the impulse. At the present day the doctrines of
Descartes are considered absurd; yet here is an absurdity of a far
deeper dye, without we resort to the miraculous, which at once
obliterates the connection between cause and effect, which it is the
peculiar province of physical science to develop. Let us take another
view. The present doctrine of light teaches that light is an undulation
of an elastic medium necessarily filling all space; and this branch of
science probably rests on higher and surer grounds than any other. Every
test applied to it by the refinements of modern skill, strengthens its
claims. Here then the Newtonian vacuum is no longer a void. If we get
over this difficulty, by attributing to this medium a degree of tenuity
almost spiritual, we shall run upon Scylla while endeavoring to shun
Charybdis. Light and heat come bound together from the sun, by the same
path, and with the same velocity. Heat is therefore due also to an
excitement of this attenuated medium. Yet this heat puts our atmosphere
in motion, impels onward the waves of the sea, wafts our ships to
distant climes, grinds our corn, and in various ways does the work of
man. If we expose a mass of metal to the sun's rays for a single hour
the temperature will be raised. To do the same by an artificial fire,
would consume fuel, and this fuel would generate the strength or force
of a horse. Estimate, therefore, the amount of forc