The Washington times., 1894-06-17

|
planets that make up the solar system 1t Is
drifting in space at the speed of &C, 600 miles
| an hour or more, so that the actual line
drawn in space by any one point on tho earth
IS n highly complex curve drawn at the rate
| of upwards of 125. 900 miles an hour.
Now any object whatever keeping up with
| the earth. but without the hold of gravity,
must maintain the velocity in space of not
less than 125.OO0 miles per hour and that is
not ALL as the movement is not : q straight
| line. any such object wishing to keep in apar-
ticular locality, say room, would have to be
on the alert constantly, for the earth wobbles
| for numerous reasons, and what seems to us.
who have bodies held by gravitations to the
earth. as so quiet and smooth-running, that
we are never conscious of the motions for an
instant is SO simple, because gravity takes
| care OF US. Once surrender that and under
take to depend upon some supposed private
source of energy. and one would instantly
discern he had an engineering problem OF
high degree OF complexity."
Let US consider some OF the more subtle
phenomina that occur at seances. First, as
TO the so-called conditions and OF the primal
ones OF these for such phenomina as the
movements of bodies and materializations is
said to be darkness. This is of SO much I'M
portance that it must be fully attended to. It
Is now recognized that what we call light is
Guee that sensation there is no one antece-
dent that is essential.
Press the eye with the finger in the darkest
night and you will see a ring of light with
great dist:nctness. An electric shock, bump
on the head, will also give one a sensation OF
light and in the absence of other judgment
no one could tell what was the antecedent Of
a given light sensation. Light is sensation,
and in the absence OF eyes no such distinction
could possibly be discovered. Light, then, as
a particular Kind of agency takes no part in
phenomena outside of the eye. These facts
make ii quite impossible for the physicist to
understand why darkness should be an essen
tai condition for the occurrence OF such phe-
nomen;p as are described. Again, every ray
of light when traced back leads to a vibrating
molecule or atom. What is called spectrum
analysis is but development of the funda-
mental principles. and not only the kind OF
matter, but its physical condition is revealed.
II Moses had had a aspectroscope when he saw
the burning bush it might have told him the
nature of that conflegration."
However large the physical universe may
be- and however exact such relations rs we
have established may be. it is daily becoming
more certain that even in the physical uni
verse we have to dc with a factor-ether-the
properties of which We vainly try to interpret
in terms of matter. the undiscovered proper
ties of which ought to warn every one against
the danger of strongly asserting what is pos
sible. and what impossible, in the nature OF
things. With the electromagnetic theory of
light now Just established, and the vortex
ring of matter still subiudice. but with daily
increasing evidence in its favor. one may now
be sure that matter itself is more wonderful
than any philosopher ever thought It's pos
sibilities may have been vastly underrated.
In the book called ''The Unseen Uni
is tod
ether may be the medium through which
mind and matter react. What fifteen years
ago was deemed possible, is to-day deemed
probable, and tomorrow may be demon
strated; and a perusal of that book is recon-
mended 10 persons who are interested in
questions OF this kind"
The book is well worth careful study, and
its style is such rs to render that study
pleasure The author keeps himself well
within his own lines of scientific analysis.
His only lapse into the realms of the imagina-
tion is. perhaps, his admission OF the neces-
sity OF hypothesis, while Tyndall plainly
declares that great discoveries in natural
science have always been in the faithful fol-
lowing of the flights of the Imagination.
While it is admitted that the law OF the
universe must be one law, one complete
whole; that there can be no conflict, one
truth with another truth, yet there well may
be wide gaps in the incomplete comprehen-
sion of the stupenduous whole, and these
gaps yet to be filled by the further discoveries
of law may for the time seem to be contradic-
tions.
The computation Of the atmospheric resis-
tence OF bodies is undoubtedly correct in a
mathematical acnse, but it is admitted that
thought is in fact the ruling power-the
power that subdues and utilises force-the
creative power that is directly the representa-
tive of the Creator and Ordainer of matter,
ether. and motion.
Thought is subject to no limitation OF time.
space or gravity. While our author is writing
OF the '.far off stars his thought had ran
there and back again to his pen and ink That
thinking principle in man-what OF 1t? 1t is
this that driv es our author into this tabulation
of scientific discoveries. 1t is this that escapes
all terrestrial laws. May it not be possible
when we attempt to talk OF the fourth dimen-
sion of space that We are, like the flying bird,
trying to find the atmospherehe is at that mo-
ment beating with his wing, that his will may
overcome gravity?
What if this much talked of. and mythical
land and unconditional consciousness were
one? And the thought which We vainly claim
as something of our own for mulating
thought that trans the hopes and fears
of our bodily nature, be proven TO be
true wave of that shoreless ocean of con-
sciousness where We may yet ''know even
as we are known"
These tireless workers in the various fields
of science are the true carpenters that are
building the scaffolding from the summit of
which will yet be discovered the promised
Land the seeing that evolution is in its
midway of progress, and man, the organic,
the animal man, is finished. and will not go
on, but 1T Is another man who will go on,
man within this man, and that he may go on
the first man must stop. VETERAN.
Natter, either, and motion
A. E. DoLBEAN, P. D.
LEE IL SHEPARD, Boston.