A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity: From the Age of Descartes to the Close of the Nineteenth Century (Classic Reprint)

Modern research, building on this foundation, has shown how intimate is the connexion between the different celestial bodies. They are formed of the same kind of matter; they are similar in origin and history; and across the vast spaces which divide them they hold perpetual intercourse. Until the seventeenth century the only influence which was known to be capable of passing from star to star was that of light. Newton added to this the force of gravity; and it is now recognized that the power of communicating across vacuous regions is possessed also by the electric and magnetic attractions. It is thus erroneous to regard the heavenly bodies as isolated in vacant space; around and between them is an incessant conveyance and transformation of energy. To the vehicle of this activity the name aetlier has been given. The aether is the solitary tenant of the universe, save for that infinitesimal fraction of space which is occupied by ordinary matter.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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