ts and satellites, forming around them all
spherical shells, that become less and less dense as they recede from
the central body. Now it is by the action of these positive and negative
electrical atoms, that the attraction of one body is transmitted across
space from the sun to the earth, or from the earth to the sun, or from
the earth to Jupiter, or from Jupiter to any of the planets, the action
always taking place along the line joining the centres of gravity of the
bodies, _i. e._ the radius vector, and with a force equal to the
quantities of electricity in association with those bodies (Art. 85),
and with an intensity that always acts inversely as the square of the
distance. Thus the inductive action of any sun, planet or satellite, or
any other planet or satellite, can be mentally traced from atom to
atom, across the intervening space, that is filled with the atomic
Aether, between any two attracting bodies. So that, if the sun attracts
the earth, it attracts it by and through the motions and properties of
the electro-magnetic Aether that is made up of positive and negative
electricity, and that attraction, being produced by a physical medium
which is as real and tangible as air or water, is brought into harmony
with our experience and observation, as no body pushes or pulls another
body, be it what it may, unless both bodies are joined together by some
medium which transmits the push or the pull. Professor Lodge, in his
_Modern Views of Electricity_, has illustrated from an electrical
standpoint how the pressure and tension in any electrical field may be
transmitted from particle to particle, or atom to atom. He supposes that
a positive atom of electricity rotates in one direction while a negative
atom rotates in the opposite direction. In any electric field these
atoms are so associated with each other, that when one atom revolves, it
makes the other to revolve in the opposite direction, with the result,
that the spin or rotation is transmitted through the medium at a speed
dependent upon the density of the medium.

For fuller details of the description I must refer the reader to the
work already referred to. What I wish to call the reader's attention to
is, that the tension and pressure in this field is not transmitted
across a vacuum, in some unknown way, but is transmitted solely by a
physical medium. The action is direct, and is produced, and alone
produced, continued, and perpetuated by a physical medium whi