ation between Aether and electricity is as
certain as there is a definite relation between electricity and light.
In order to find out how far the relationship and identity between
Aether and electricity extend we will review our conception of the
Aether as given in Chapter IV. According to the conception advanced in
that chapter, on the hypothesis that Aether was matter, we
philosophically came to the conclusion that Aether was atomic, and
therefore gravitative. Because it was gravitative, it possessed density,
and varying degrees of density; and having mass, it possesses the
property of inertia the same as any other matter; and was also elastic.

We have now to add to these properties that of compressibility, which
property we have ascribed to it from philosophical considerations when
dealing with comets, and nebulae, and the origin of planets and
satellites. Now, if there is any identity between Aether and
electricity, then it follows that that identity will be more or less
manifested, as we find electricity possessing more or less of the
properties which have been ascribed to the electro-magnetic Aether. For,
if we find two apparently different substances, or entities, possessing
exactly the same properties, and occupying the same space at one and the
same time, then the only logical conclusion that we can come to is, that
these two apparently different substances are not two substances, but
one.

We have already proved that they both occupy exactly the same space,
that is, they occupy the planetary and interstellar regions of space,
and fill indeed the entire Universe. The electro-magnetic theory of
Light (Art. 78) indisputably proves this. We will therefore find out if
electricity possesses the properties which have already been ascribed to
the Aether. The first property, and indeed the fundamental property, of
Aether is that it is atomic, and upon the atomicity of the medium
depends the whole of the theory as worked out in relation to heat,
light, electricity and so-called gravitational phenomena. Is there
anything about electricity that can suggest the hypothesis that
electricity is atomic? The answer is unquestionably in the affirmative.
Many of the greatest scientists of the past and present century have
believed and worked at the hypothesis of the atomic character of
electricity, and none more so than Dr. Larmor in his _Aether and Matter_
and Professor J. J. Thomson.

Now what is Dr. Larmor's opinion as to