that there was no more occasion to notice explicitly the light coming from the wires, than there would have been if the earth had really been at rest. While, however, I would vindicate my explanation from any flaw or deficiency of reasoning (unless the not noticing formally and explicitly the light coming from the wires be regarded as such), I allow that, without investigation, I fancied the path of a ray in space to be curvilinear. It was first virtually proved by Professor Challis, though not explicitly stated, that the path was rectilinear throughout. Consequently the angle (Phil. Mag., vol. xxvii. p. 14), which I argued was insensible, is in fact zero. The method which consists in considering the rectilinear propagation of light as resulting from the supposition that is an exact differential, and then the law of aberration as resulting from the rectilinear propagation, instead of considering the whole at once, has the advantage of showing that we are at liberty to suppose the velocity of the æther at the surface of the earth to be of any amount relatively to the surface. I had not contemplated this case; for it was the precise object of my investigation to get rid of the apparent necessity of supposing the æther to be rushing through the air and through the earth itself as the earth moves round the sun.
