aracter,
and may be designated as _static_,[12] from its habit when in
equilibrium, and also in contradistinction from that vast flood of
_active_ fluid which fills the solar cone-space.

_Extent and Character of this Influence._

The whole globe and its surrounding atmosphere are vast reservoirs of
this static fluid. These, interacting freely through continuity,
virtually become one in their operations. As a constituent of the
atmosphere this fluid is nearly uniform in its proportions. Its varying
conditions, as positive, negative, and neutral, form a marked
peculiarity. Changes from one to another of these conditions, over
larger or smaller areas, are affected with marvellous rapidity, and with
varying and sometimes with striking results.

In the extremes of atmospheric temperature, this fluid is found to exist
in the extremes of its positive and negative conditions. The contrast is
by some supposed to exist in the seasons of winter and summer, in
proportions as 13 to 1, (heretofore regarded as quantitive).

_Note the Functions of this Ocean._

This fluid is indeed _the vital principle_, upon which _all life_,
animate and inanimate, depends. The necessity for frequent respirations
is occasioned by the imperative demands of the system for this agent. As
before intimated, the mild and steady light which illumines the earth in
its day-season is owing to the action of the _active_ fluid of the
cone-space upon the _static_ fluid of the atmosphere. The untempered
force of the former might not be endured. The pale and steady light of
the moon and planets is due to a like reaction through the same
agencies.

The relations which the present known constituents of the atmosphere
sustain to this fluid may not at the present time be estimated.

_Not yet fully Comprehended._

"Air," said SIR LYON PLAYFAIR, "is the most familiar of substances; the
first with which an infant becomes acquainted on entrance into the
world, and in death, the last to be given up; yet, strange to say, its
nature and constitution have only become partially understood within the
past century, and even now scientific knowledge can only be regarded as
on the threshold of the subject."

The novelty and the assurance of the concluding lines of the above
quotation would, at a comparatively recent date, have excited in the
reader a great astonishment. We had supposed that the constituents, and
th