HYPOTHESIS IV.
Reading edition
All material Bodies have an Attraction for the ethereal Medium, by means of which it is accumulated within their Substance, and for a small Distance around them, in a State of greater Density, but not of greater Elasticity.
It has been shewn, that the three former hypotheses, which may be called essential, are literally parts of the more complicated Newtonian system. This fourth hypothesis differs perhaps in some degree from any that have been proposed by former authors, and is diametrically opposite to that of Newton; but, both being in themselves equally probable, the opposition is merely accidental; and it is only to be inquired which is the best capable of explaining the phenomena. Other suppositions might perhaps be substituted for this, and therefore I do not consider it as fundamental, yet it appears to be the simplest and best of any that have occurred to me.