70 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLE
All matter is assumed by scientists to consist of
atoms,orparticles,whichattractandrepeleachother.
Iftheseatomsattracteachothermorethantheyrepel,
we callthematterasolid. Iftheattractionandthe
repulsionareaboutequal,wecallthematteraliquid.
Iftlieatomsrepelmorethantheyattract,wecallthe
matteragas. Now,thisether,likeallmatter,is sup-
posedtobemadeupofatoms thatattractand repel
eachother;onlytheatomsoftheetherareverymuch
smallerthanthoseinordinarymatter,andverymuch
fartherapart.
Anecessarypartoftheetherhypothesisisthesup-
position thattheether isimponderable—thatis,has
no weight;forifithadweight,itwouldfallinthe
directionof thestrongest attracting force, andthus
cease to be a uniform medium everywhere present.
Ifitisimponderable,orwithoutweight,weareshut
uptotheconclusionthattheratiobetweentheinter-
spaces of these atoms and the atoms themselves is
vastlygreaterthanthelikeratioinordinary,orpon-
derable,matter. Toputthecaseplainly: Theatoms
oftheether,inorderto fitthetheory, areas small
withreferencetothespacesbetweenthem,asthesun
andtheearthareascomparedwiththespacebetween
them. Andbetween these atoms there is absolutely
vacantspace. Thereforewehaveabandonedthefirst
difficultyofhowtheforcepassesfromthesunacross
theinterspacetotheearth,onlytocometoasecond
justlikeit,—Howdoestheforcepassfromoneatom
oftheethertoanotheratomthroughthevacantspace
that always exists between them? The illustration