that as the sun journeys towards the point _D_ of the Earth's
orbit, it tends to approach nearer and nearer the Earth. Thus the
intensity of the aetherial pressure owing to the decreased distance will
be greatly increased, and the effect of the increased pressure of the
Aether upon the planet will be to push it away from the sun, so that the
two forces may be equalized, and its mean distance, which is definitely
fixed, be maintained as far as possible.

The result will be that, instead of the Earth describing the half-circle
_E_ _D_ _C_, it actually describes the part of the ellipse _E_ _F_ _C_.
Thus it can be seen that while the sun is travelling through space, it is
at the same time giving rise to the electro-magnetic Aether waves, which,
by their repelling power, repel the Earth from the sun in the direction
that the sun is travelling, and hence the half-circle is elongated into
that part of the elliptic orbit known as the perihelion, which is that
part of the orbit where the distance of any planet from the sun is the
least.

[Illustration: Fig: 26.]

The repelling power of the Aether waves is not, however, sufficient to
overcome altogether the centripetal force in conjunction with the
Earth's motion, with the result that when the Earth arrives at _F_, its
distance is only 91 million miles, that being the least distance between
the sun and the Earth. We shall see the result of this decreased
distance when we deal with Kepler's Second Law.

We will now proceed to notice the effect of the sun's orbital velocity
upon that part of the Earth's orbit which includes the aphelion, or that
part in which the Earth occupies a position of the greatest distance
from the sun. Proceeding on the same method of reasoning, if the sun
were stationary, with the Earth being circled round it by the
electro-magnetic Aether currents, then the path described by the Earth
would be that of a circle, being represented by the half-circle _C_ _G_
_E_ (Fig. 26).

But it has to be remembered that while the Earth is being circled round
the sun by the rotatory electro-magnetic Aether currents, the sun is
still travelling on towards _S_ _F_ at the rate of 18,000 miles per
hour, while the Earth is travelling in almost an opposite direction
towards _C_ _G_, so that by the time the Earth has got to _G_, which we
will suppose is one quarter of its ellipse, the sun has travelled
millions of miles in that time.

Thus it can readily be seen, that by t