When we come to a full examination of this theory, we shall further
reason that this _ether_ so far from being of that quasi spiritual
nature which astronomers would have us believe, is a fearfully energetic
fluid, possessing considerable inertia and elasticity; that its law of
condensation is that of all other fluids, that is, as the compressing
force directly; and that its effects are simply a product of matter and
motion. We will next endeavor to prove that the gravity of planetary
matter could not exist without this ethereal medium, by showing that it
is an effect produced by the interference of _opposing waves_, whereby a
body is prevented from radiating into space its own atomic motion, from
the side opposite which another body is placed, as much as on the
opposite side, and consequently it is propelled by its own motion
towards the other body. And this effect following the simple law of
inertia and radiation, is directly as the mass, and inversely as the
squares of the distances.