s a second. This means
that the whole of space is filled with this medium. If there were any
vacant spaces, the light would fail to get through them, and stars
beyond them would become invisible. There are no such vacant spaces, for
any part of the heavens shows stars beaming continuously, and every
increase in telescopic power shows stars still further removed than any
seen before. The whole of this intervening space must therefore be
filled with the ether. Some of the waves that reach us are not more than
the hundred-thousandth of an inch long, so there can be no crack or
break or absence of ether from so small a section as the
hundred-thousandth of an inch in all this great expanse. More than this.
No one can think that the remotest visible stars are upon the boundary
of space, that if one could get to the most distant star he would have
on one side the whole of space while the opposite side would be devoid
of it. Space we know is of three dimensions, and a straight line may be
prolonged in any direction to an infinite distance, and a ray of light
may travel on for an infinite time and come to no end provided space be
filled with ether.

How long the sun and stars have been shining no one knows, but it is
highly probable that the sun has existed for not less than 1000 million
years, and has during that time been pouring its rays as radiant energy
into space. If then in half that time, or 500 millions of years, the
light had somewhere reached a boundary to the ether, it could not have
gone beyond but would have been reflected back into the ether-filled
space, and such part of the sky would be lit up by this reflected light.
There is no indication that anything like reflection comes to us from
the sky. This is equivalent to saying that the ether fills space in
every direction away from us to an unlimited distance, and so far is
itself unlimited.

3. MATTER IS HETEROGENEOUS.

The various kinds of matter we are acquainted with are commonly called
the elements. These when combined in various ways exhibit characteristic
phenomena which depend upon the kinds of matter, the structure and
motions which are involved. There are some seventy different kinds of
this elemental matter which may be identified as constituents of the
earth. Many of the same elements have been identified in the sun and
stars, such for instance as hydrogen, carbon, and iron. Such phenomena
lead us to conclude that the kinds of matter elsewhere in t