he repulsive power
of light and heat will be proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, otherwise
Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory of light is a fable and a myth, and
Hertz' experiments were never performed. Further, if all
electro-magnetic phenomena are due to the same aetherial medium which
gives rise by its wave motions to light, heat and electricity, then we
shall have discovered a medium which throughout the universe can by its
wave motions transmit and propagate both repulsions and attractions,
that is, the aetherial medium which is to be the physical cause of
Universal Gravitation. In order to further develop and establish this
point we will now consider the subject of Electricity as a Mode of
Motion.

[Footnote 21: _Mag. and Elec._]

CHAPTER VIII

AETHER AND ELECTRICITY

ART. 79. _Electricity, a Mode of Motion._--The question as to What is
Electricity? is one of the greatest problems of modern times. In view of
the electro-magnetic theory of light, however, science is able to give a
better definition as to what electricity is, than it was able to do
previous to the introduction of the theory by Maxwell, and its practical
establishment by Hertz.

If that theory teaches us anything at all with regard to the nature of
electricity, it teaches us that electricity is due to certain motions of
the universal Aether, that not only fills all so-called Space, but
surrounds all particles and atoms of all Matter.

The question has been asked by various scientists, "Is Aether
Electricity, or, in other words, are Aether and Electricity one and the
same?" Let us look at the question from the standpoint of the analogy
from the phenomena of light and heat. As we have already seen (Art. 61),
heat is due to a particular kind of motion of the universal Aether,
generally known as vibratory motion, which motion is communicated to the
Aether by a luminous or heated body.

So that we learn that heat at any rate has an aetherial basis, as it is
a particular kind of aetherial motion. From Art. 70 we learn also that
light is due to an undulatory or wave motion in the Aether; the waves,
however, in this case being shorter, and of more rapid vibration than
those waves which give rise to heat.

Thus light and heat both have an aetherial basis, being due to
vibrations of that medium. From these analogies, therefore, we come to
the conclusion that electricity and magnetism have