knowledge of matter to our sense of conscious as you can be of the ethereal touch, the question would never even medium. True the process is not very have presented itself; we should have direct. You cannot apprehend the been simply ignorant of the ether, as ether as you can matter, by touching or ignorant as we are of any life or mind tasting or even smelling it, but the in the universe not associated with process is analogous to the kind of persome kind of material carcass. But ception we might get of ordinary matter our senses have attained a higher stage if we had the sense of hearing alone. of development than that. We are It is something akin to vibrations in conscious of matter by means other the ether that our skin and our eyes than its resisting force. Matter acts on | feel. one small portion of our body in a It may be rightly asserted that it is totally different way, and we are said to not the ethereal disturbances themtaste it. Even from a distance it is able selves, but other disturbances excited to fling off small particles of itself suffi- by them in our tissues, that our heat cient to affect another delicate sense. nerves feel; and the same assertion can Or again, if it is vibrating with an be made for our more highly developed appropriate frequency, another part of and specialized sight nerves. All nerves our body responds, and the universe is must feel what is occurring next door discovered to be not silent but eloquent to them, and can directly feel nothing to those who have ears to hear. Are else; but the "radiation," the cause there any more discoveries to be made? which excited these disturbances, travYes; and already some have been elled through the ether, not through made. All the senses hitherto men- any otherwise known material subtioned speak to us of the presence of stance. ordinary matter— gross matter, as it is It should be a commonplace to resometimes called-though when ap-hearse how we know this. Briefly, pealing to our sense of smell, and more thus: Radiation conspicuously comes especially to a dog's sense of smell, it to us from the sun. Now, in the interis not very gross; still, with the senses vening space, if any free or ordinary hitherto enumerated we should never matter exists, it must be an exceedhave become aware of the ether. A ingly rare gas-in other words, a few stroke of lightning might have smitten our bodies back into their inorganic constituents, or a torpedo-fish might have inflicted on us a strange kind of torment; but from these violent tutors we should have learnt little more than a schoolboy learns from the once everready cane.

scattered particles of matter, some big enough to be called lumps, some so small as to be merely atoms, but each with a considerable gap between it and its neighbor. Such isolated particles are absolutely incompetent to transmit light. And, parenthetically, I may say that no form of ordinary matter, solid, But it so happens that the whole sur- liquid, or gaseous, is competent to transface of our skin is sensitive in yet mit a thing travelling with the speed another way, and a small portion of it and subject to the known laws of light. is astoundingly and beautifully sensi- For the conveyance of radiation or light tive, to an impression of an altogether all ordinary matter is not only incompedifferent character · one not necessa- tent, but hopelessly and absurdly inrily associated with any form of ordi- competent. If this radiation is a thing nary matter -one that will occur equally transmitted by anything at all it must well through space from which all solid, be by something sui generis. But it is liquid, or gaseous matter has been re- transmitted, for it takes time on the moved. Hold your hand near a fire, journey, travelling at a well-known and put your face in the sunshine, and what definite speed, and it is a quivering or is it you feel? You are now conscious periodic disturbance, falling under the of something not arriving by ordinary general category of wave-motion. Nothmatter at all. You are now as directly ing is more certain than that.

No

physicist disputes it. Newton himself, | eye is acutely, surpassingly, and most who is commonly asserted to have pro-intelligently sensitive.

66

mulgated a rival theory, felt the neces- This little fragment of total radiation sity of an ethereal medium, and knew is in itself trivial and negligible. Were that light consisted essentially of waves. it not for men, and glowworms, and a A small digression here, to avoid any few other forms of life, hardly any of it possible confusion due to the fact that would ever occur, on such a moderateI have purposely associated together sized lump of matter as the earth. Extemperature nerves and sight nerves. cept for an occasional volcano, or a They are admittedly not the same, but flash of lightning, only gigantic bodies they are alike in this that they both like the sun and stars have energy afford evidence of radiation; and, were enough to produce these higher flutewe blind, we might still know a good like notes, and they do it by sheer main deal about the sun, and if our tempera- force and violence the violence of ture nerves were immensely increased their gravitative energy producing in delicacy (not all over, for that would not only these, but every other kind of be merely painful, but in some pro- radiation also. Glowworms, so far as tected region), we might even learn I know, alone have learnt the secret about the moon, planets, and stars. In of emitting the physiologically useful fact, an eye, consisting of a pupil (pref- waves, and none others. erably a lens) and a sunken cavity lined Why these waves are physiologically with a surface sensitive to heat, could useful, why they are what is called readily be imagined, and might be light," while other kinds of radiation somewhat singularly effective. It would are "dark," are questions to be asked, be more than a light recorder, it could but, at present, only tentatively andetect all the ethereal quiverings caused swered. The answer must ultimately by surrounding objects, and hence would be given by the physiologist, for the see perfectly well in what we call the distinction between light and non-light .dark." But it would probably see far can only be stated in terms of the eye, too much for convenience, since it and its peculiar specialized sensitivewould necessarily be affected by every ness; but a hint may be given him kind of radiation in simple proportion by the physicist. The ethereal waves to its energy; unless, indeed, it were which affect the eye and the photoprovided with a supply of screens with graphic plate are of a size not wholly suitably selected absorbing powers. incomparable with that of the atoms of But whatever the advantage or disad- matter. When a physical phenomenon vantage of such a sense-organ might be, is concerned with the ultimate atoms of we as yet do not possess one. Our eye matter, it is relegated at present to the does not act by detecting heat; in other vaguer group of knowledge summarized words, it is not affected by the whole under the head of chemistry. Sight is range of ethereal quiverings, but only probably a chemical sense. In the retby a very minute and apparently insig- ina may be complex aggregations of nificant portion. It wholly ignores the atoms, shaken asunder by the incident ether waves whose frequency is com- light vibrations, and rapidly built up parable with that of sound; and for again by the living tissues in which thirty or forty octaves above this noth- they live; the nerve endings meaning about us responds; but high up, in while appreciating them in their tem a range of vibration of the inconceiv- | porarily dissociated condition. A vague ably high pitch of four to seven hun- speculation, not to be further countedred million million per second-a nanced except as a working hypothesis range which extremely few accessible bodies are able to emit, and which it requires some knowledge and skill artificially to produce to those waves the

leading to examination of fact, but, nevertheless, the direction in which the thoughts of some physicists are tending - a direction towards which

many recently discovered experimental not yet eclipsing our sense-organs of facts point.1

flesh, but in a few cases coming within It would take too long to do more measurable distance of their surpristhan suggest some other functions for ing sensitiveness. And with these what which a continuous medium of commu- do we do? Can we smell the ether, nication is necessary. Nothing is be- or touch it, or what is the closest coming more certain than that action at analogy? Perhaps there is no useful a distance is impossible. A body can analogy; but nevertheless we deal with only act immediately on what it is in it, and that closely. Not yet do we contact with; it must be by the action fully realize what we are doing. Not of contiguous particles, that is, prac- yet have we any dynamical theory of tically, of a continuous medium, that electric currents, of static charges, and force can be transmitted across space. of magnetism. Not yet, indeed, have Radiation is not the only thing the we any dynamical theory of light. In earth feels from the sun; there is in fact, the ether has not yet been brought addition its gigantic gravitative pull, a under the domain of simple mechanics force or tension more than what a mil--it has not yet been reduced to motion lion million steel rods, each seventeen and force; and that probably because feet in diameter, could stand. What the force aspect of it has been so singumechanism transmits this gigantic larly elusive that it is a question whether force? Again, take a steel bar itself: we ought to think of it as material at when violently stretched with how all. No, it is apart from mechanics great tenacity its parts cling together; at present. Conceivably it may remain yet its particles are not in absolute con- apart, and our first additional category, tact, they are only virtually attached to wherewith the foundations of physics each other by means of the universal must some day be enlarged, may turn connecting medium, the ether-a me-out to be an ethereal one; and this indium that must be competent to trans-clusion may have to be made before we mit the greatest stresses which our can attempt to annex vital or mental knowledge of gravitation and of cohe-processes. Perhaps they will all come sion shows us to exist. in together.

Hitherto I have mainly confined myself to the perception of the ether by our ancient sense of radiation, whereby we detect its subtle and delicate quiverings. But we are growing a new sense; not perhaps an actual senseorgan, though not so very unlike a new sense-organ, though the portions of matter which go to make the organ are not associated with our bodies by the usual links of pain and disease; they are more analogous to artificial teeth or mechanical limbs, and can be bought at an instrument-maker's.

Howsoever these things be, this is the kind of meaning lurking in the phrase that we do not yet know what electricity or what the ether is. We have as yet no dynamical explanation of either of them; but the present century has taught us what seems to their student an overwhelming quantity of facts about them, and when next century or the century after lets us deeper into their secrets, and into the secrets of some other phenomena now for the first time being rationally investigated, I feel as if it would be no merely material prospect that will be opening on our view, but some glimpse into a region of the universe which science has never entered yet, but which has been sought from far, and perhaps blindly

Electroscopes, galvanometers, telephones delicate instruments these; 1 Cf. sections 157A, 143, 187, and chap. xvi., of my "Modern Views of Electricity," second edition. On the subject of universal contact action, also, as opposed to action at a distance, I may be permitted to refer to a lecture on "The Ether and its Func-apprehended, by painter or poet, by tions," reprinted at the end of the same book. philosopher or saint.

"What an awful prig I must have been ! "

"The little man is affected, gauche, and servile. The big one picturesque "Don't interrupt. That was before and superior, in a raw kind of way. you went a-roving in savage countries, He wishes to be rude to some one, and and picked up all sorts of acquaintis disappointed because, just at the ances, making friends with the most moment, Lord Hampstead is too polite impossible folk. I should never be surto give him his cue. A dangerous per-prised to see you drive Shon McGann son in a drawing-room, I should think ; - and his wife, of course and Pretty but interesting. You are a bold man Pierre - with some other man's wife — to bring them here, Duke. Is it not up to the door in a dog-cart; their awkward for their host ?" clothes in a saddle-bag, or something less reputable, to stay a month. Duke, you have lost your decorum; you are a gipsy."

"Hampstead did it with his eyes open. Besides, there is business behind it railways, mines, and all that; and Hampstead's nephew is going to the States fortune-hunting. Do you

see ?"

Lady Lawless lifted her eyebrows. "To what base uses are we come, Horatio!' You invite me to dinner and I'll fix things up right.' That is the proper phrase, for I have heard you use it. Status for dollars. Isn't it low ? I know you do not mean what you say, Duke."

"I fear McGann and Pierre wouldn't enjoy being with us as I should enjoy having them. You can never understand what a life that is out in Pierre's country. If it weren't for you and the bairn, I should be off there now. There is something of primeval man in me. I am never so healthy and happy, when away from you, as in prowling round the outposts of civilization, and living on beans and bear's meat."

Sir Duke's eyes were playing on the He stretched to his feet, and his wife men with a puzzled expression, as rose with him. There was a fine color though trying to read the subject of on his cheek, and his eye had a pleastheir conversation; and he did not ant fiery energy. His wife tapped him reply immediately. Soon, however, he on the arm with her fan (she underturned and looked down at his wife stood him very well, though pretending genially, and said: "Well, that's about otherwise). "Duke, you are incorrigiit, I suppose. But really there is noth-ble. I am in daily dread of your starting unusual in this, so far as Mr. John ing off in the middle of the night, Vandewaters is concerned, for in his leaving me own country he travels the parlors of the Four Hundred,' and is considered tears?" 'a very elegant gentleman.' We must respect a man according to the place he holds in his own community. Besides, as you suggest, Mr. Vandewaters is interesting. I might go further, and say that he is a very good fellow indeed."

"Watering your couch with your

and hearing nothing more from you till a cable from Quebec or Winnipeg tells me that you are on your way to the Arctic Circle with Pierre or some other heathen. But, seriously, where did you meet Mr. Vandewaters

-heavens, what a name!—and that | And that's as it was in the beginning other person? And what is the other with Mr. John Vandewaters and me." person's name?"

"The other person carries the contradictory name of Stephen Pride." "Why does he continually finger his face, and show his emotions so? He assents to everything said to him by an appreciative exercise of his features." "My dear, you ask a great and solemn question. Let me introduce the young man, that you may get your answer at the fountain head."

"Wait a moment, Duke. Sit down and tell me when and where you met these men, and why you have continued the acquaintance."

Lady Lawless had been watching the two strangers during the talk, though once or twice she turned and looked at her husband admiringly. When he had finished she said: "That is very striking. What a pity it is that men we want to like spoil all by their lack of form!"

"Don't be so sure about Vandewaters. Does he look flurried by these surroundings?

"No. He certainly has an air of contentment. It is, I suppose, the usual air of self-made Americans.”

"Go to London, E.C., and you will find the same, plus smugness. Now, Mr. Vandewaters has real power-and taste, too, as you will see. Would you think Mr. Stephen Pride a self-made man?"

"I cannot think of any one else who would be proud of the patent. Please to consider the seals about his waistcoat, and the lady-like droop of his shoulders."

"Yet he is thought to be a young man of parts. He has money, made by his ancestors; he has been round the world; he belongs to societies for culture and

"Molly," he said, obeying her, "you are a terrible inquisitor, and the privacy of one's chamber were the kinder place to call one to account. But I bend to your implacability. Mr. Vande waters, like myself, has a taste for roving, though our aims are not identical. He has a fine faculty for uniting business and pleasure. He is not a thorough sportsman- there is always a certain amount of enthusiasm, even in the unrewarded patience of the true hunter; but he sufficeth. Well, Mr. Vandewaters had been hunting in the far north, and looking after a promising mine at the same time. He was on his way "And he will rave of the Poet's Corsouth at one angle, I at another angle, ner, ask if one likes · Pippa Passes,' and bound for the same point. Shon Mc- expect to be introduced to every woman Gann was with me; Pierre with in the room at a tea-party, to say nothVandewaters. McGann left me, at a ing of proposing impossible things, such certain point, to join his wife at a bar-as taking one's girl friends to the opera racks of the riders of the plains. I had about a hundred miles to travel alone. Well, I got along the first fifty all right. Then came trouble. In a bad place of the hills I fell and broke an ankle bone. I had an Esquimaux dog of the right sort with me. I wrote a line on a bit of birch bark, tied it round his neck, and started him away, trusting my luck that he would pull up somewhere. He did. He ran into Vandewaters's camp that evening. Vandewaters and Pierre started away at once. They had dogs, and reached me soon. It was the first time I had seen Pierre for years. They fixed me up, and we started south.

alone, sending them boxes of confectionery, and writing them dreadfully reverential notes at the same time. Duke, the creature is impossible, believe me. Never, never, if you love me, invite him to Craigruie. I met one of his tribe at Lady Macintyre's when I was just out of school; and at the dinner-table, when the wine went round, he lifted his voice and asked for a cup of tea, saying he never drank liquor. Actually he did, Duke.”

Her husband laughed quietly. He had a man's enjoyment of a woman's dislike of bad form. "A common criminal man, Molly. Tell me: Which is