Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/253

 that work in and upon it, rotating it on its axis and impelling it on its orbit. A similar resolution of the current of electricity into its attributes is seen in the common street car, which receives from a copper wire a current of electricity that yields the light to light it, the heat to warm it, and the power to rotate its wheels. Further, it is the common perception of scientists, that electrical action has the same origin as sunlight, as evinced by the experiments from which such conclusions are derived.

Since the ether is a substance that can be so actuated by the sun as to yield heat, light, and force of an electrical nature, the economy of nature forbids that there should be two such substances, and shows that electricity is an activity of ether. The electrical apparatus is a device which actuates the atmosphere of ether after the manner that the sun does, producing analogous effects. Because the sun has electrical effects upon the earth, it is necessary that there be a medium through which its forces are communicated to the earth. This medium is universally acknowledged to be the ether. Then it is clear that the ether is capable of being charged with heat, light, and power and many natural forces that plant and animal life are dependent upon. Experiments with the Cathode rays give evidence of the