Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/252

 substance, and electricity is the name of one of its forms of activity. It is because ether is universally diffused and of so pure a character as to penetrate air, earth, and water that electricity may be called into action everywhere.

Ether is the medium of heat and light from the sun; but such heat and light are best explained as electrical effects of the sun's action; or, in other words, they are forms of the activity of ether.

Electrical phenomena are in many ways so associated with the sun's condition as to suggest that it is the great generator of electricity, as is instanced by the electrical disturbance of the atmosphere and the display of the aurora when the sun spots are numerous. It is the sun's forces that lift the waters from the earth in the form of vapor, and give rise to clouds, which being charged with electricity, as is evidenced in lightning, show that heat and light, which are but activities of ether, are intimately associated with electricity. The light produced by the arc lamp is to all appearance like that of the sun, though not so intense. Upon the analysis of a current of electricity, it is found to yield the three great constituents of the sun's influx into nature; namely, heat, light, and power. From the sun there comes the heat to warm the earth, the light to light it, and powers