SUNLIGHT.
_Its Source and Nature._
Sunlight is one of the products of that grand retro-action which is
incessantly in operation between sun and earth, and is, in its intimate
and essential nature, a vito-magnetic _fluid_[B] (or so-called
magnetic). Subtle, and apparently intangible, manifesting itself rather
as a presence than a real substance, it fills all the space between the
sun and earth--which space may, with sufficient accuracy, be termed the
solar cone or cone-space.
_Its Limits._
Beyond the boundaries of the solar cone, _no light is_.
[Illustration: Pl. I. SOLAR CONE.]
_The Sun not Incandescent._
The apparent brightness of the sun is owing to the aggregation of the
93,000,000 of miles of this fluid which is present between the sun and
earth, or to our presence in the great current of activity of the
vito-magnetic force. It is therefore not due to a condition of
incandescence _at_ or _near_ that body. It is cool and habitable, and
emits no light. The brightness of the intervening fluid intercepts the
view, and thus no one may behold its body. Dark spots upon its face
disclose its true character.[5]
If, therefore, the sun be truly dark, the brightness of its satellites
cannot be caused by light projected from its surface or surroundings.
How, then, may we account for the light of the moon and planets, which
do not possess a light _sui generis_? A new hypothesis is requisite. To
frame this hypothesis is not difficult.
_The New Hypothesis._
Analogy teaches us that the earth is seen from the moon and planets,
even as they are seen from the earth. Yet there is nothing upon the face
of the whole earth which is capable of reflecting the slightest amount
of the sun's rays to those spheres. The fields, forests, rocks, and
seas, only absorb light, they do not reflect it. In this phenomenon,
therefore, there is no element of specular reflection. It consists
rather of the lighting up of the static vito-magnetic fluid of our
atmosphere, by the great solar current. The atmosphere, thus vivified,
discloses our presence to those orbs, and in like manner, their presence
to the inhabitants of the earth.
_No Borrowed Light._
The light of the planets is therefore in no sense a borrowed light,
since the action which generates and transmits it, is purely
co-operative. Otherwise there could be no light at the earth, or
planets.
_The Sun Dependent for His own Supply._
And, indeed, the sun possesses within himself alone no element of supply
of his own needed light and heat; and in his immensity and power is even
_dependent_ upon the circling orbs, for the quantity of each which is
indispensable to a condition of habitation.
The bodies of the planets are in like manner invisible; we behold but
the illumined atmosphere of each sphere. Thus the moon and planets, to
be visible, must possess atmospheres.
_Light as a Substance._
That the thunderbolt is a substance may not be questioned. That the
aurora borealis, or polaris, another form of vito-magnetic fluid, is a
substance is not questioned. The so-called heat-lightning, though
apparently intangible, must therefore be regarded as a substance. Yet
further in the remove we find the zodiacal light. Sunlight is but the
same, in form of extreme tenuity. The thunderbolt passes from earth to
cloud, and instantaneously changes its _substantial_ form to one as
tenuous as light; yet, in the transformation, this fluid has not lost
its identity. Though unseen, it continues to exist as matter.
_Velocity of Light._
While ever present, light is being incessantly replenished; its action
being instantaneous. The calculations of ROËMER, founded upon
observations made through spaces of 382 and 568 millions of miles of
distance, should not be too confidently accepted, especially as the
results of such conclusions are so vitally important. When we consider
that with our best telescopes directed towards the moon, less than a
quarter of a million of miles distant, nothing really satisfactory may
be discerned, what value, therefore, may be attached to statements
founded upon such thoroughly unreliable data?
BRADLEY'S estimate of the velocity of light, founded upon his study of
"the aberration of light," is even less worthy of consideration.
Any effort to measure such an inconceivable velocity as that claimed for
light, by any means or appliances which may be devised by human
ingenuity, must be regarded as futile. DESCARTES says: "Light reaches us
_instantaneously_ from the sun, and would do so, even if the intervening
distance were greater than that between the earth and heaven."
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Appendix, p. 99.
[B] This term is employed as being most exact and comprehensive, as this
fluid is now known to be the source of all life and all attractions.