ance to the following remarks on the relation of Aether to Matter:
"We are convinced with our President (Professor Rucker) that Aether is
Matter, but we are forced to say that the properties of Matter are not
to be looked for in Aether, as generally known to us by action resulting
from force between atoms of Matter and atoms of Aether. _Here I am_
ILLOGICAL _when I say between Matter and Aether_, as if Aether were not
Matter. Aether we relegate to a distinct species of Matter which has
inertia, rigidity, elasticity, compressibility, but NOT HEAVINESS."

From a quotation of this kind, which is from the lips of one of the
keenest intellects of the present time, I think I am justified when I
make the statement, that it is not conceded that Aether is matter, with
all that that concession logically involves. Because, as Lord Kelvin
points out, though it is admitted that Aether is matter, yet that
admission is only a qualified admission, and not one which carries with
it all the properties that essentially belong to matter, or an admission
which includes the fact that Aether is gravitative, that is, subject to
Gravitation. To be strictly logical and philosophical, in the statement
that Aether is matter, it must be conceded not only that Aether is
subject to such properties as elasticity, inertia, and compressibility,
but that it is also gravitative or possesses weight. For either Aether
is matter, or it is not matter.

It cannot be both at one and the same time. Such a conception is
altogether opposed to that simplicity which is the chief characteristic
of Nature as pointed out by Newton.

If therefore Aether be matter, then, to be strictly logical and
philosophical, it must be conceded that Aether is gravitative, as well
as having the other properties of matter, as elasticity and inertia,
etc. Unless this is conceded, then we have the anomaly in Nature of
matter, which is not matter, because it violates the very principles
which above all others decide what is matter, viz., "That every particle
of matter attracts every other particle," etc., that is, that it is
gravitative. Thus by supposing that the Aether is matter, and yet not
being gravitative, all the Rules of Philosophy are violated, as such a
hypothesis is opposed to both the first and second Rules of Philosophy,
and is contrary to all observation and experience. If Aether therefore
be matter, as is conceded by the most advanced thinkers of the time,
then it follows