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in its place but it has not been useless.  By its means intelligent questions have been asked of Nature & many interesting facts added to the sum of human knowledge.  The next theory in time may be likewise abandoned but not until like its predecessor it has added new facts to those already known.  His illustration of the subject as I said before was light.  It was known that the reflection of light from a mirror and the rebound of a ball were governed by the same laws.  The angle of incidence being equal to that angle of reflection in one corresponding to the angles of approach & rebound in the other.  The theory was advanced that light consisted of atoms proceeding from the sun, rebounding from polished surfaces in reflection as the ball rebounds.  So
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far the theory was simple enough.  But it was objected that if light consisted of atoms rays proceeding in all directions from the different luminous bodies would interfere with each other.  It is known that the impression of light upon the retina of the eye remains the eighth of a second & if a burning stick were whirled rapidly around eight times in a second so that a new impression were produced upon the eye at the cessation of the first the appearance of a continuous ring of light would be produced.  Light travels at the rate of     miles the eighth of a second so that the atoms of light coming from the sun might be that far apart and still seem like a continuous ray in wh. case different beams of light could pass each other without difficulty addition no 1 to the Theory.
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