MATTER, SPACE, AND TIME 235 



of Intrinsic strain. Unlike the vortex atom, this 

 strain-centre is not a part of the medium for ever 

 separated from the rest ; the strain alone persists, 

 the part of the aether which is affected by it con- 

 stantly changes as the sub-atom is moved. The 

 aether is stagnant, and the sturdy ghosts which 

 constitute matter float to and fro through it as 

 waves pass over the surface of the sea. Such a 

 persistence in time with mobility in space would 

 be impossible for a strain-form in any elastic solid 

 aether, but can be secured by a rotational aether 

 of the type described by Lord Kelvin. 



According to this view, then, an electron or 

 unit charge of electricity is a centre of intrinsic 

 strain, probably of a gyrostatic type, in an aether, 

 which is also the medium in which are propagated 

 the waves of light and wireless telegraphy. More- 

 over, the electron is identical with the sub-atom 

 which is common to all the different chemical 

 elements, and forms the universal basis of matter. 

 Matter, at any rate in its relation to other matter 

 at a distance, is an electrical manifestation ; and 

 electricity is a state of intrinsic strain in a universal 

 medium. That medium is prior to matter, and 

 therefore not necessarily expressible in terms of 

 matter ; it is sub-natural if not super-natural. 



To reduce all physic to a theory of the aether 

 as described above is a bold attempt to achieve 

 uniformity. Twenty years ago it seemed almost 

 on the threshold of success. But since then science 

 has developed along other lines, which we shall 

 trace on future pages. For these developments 

 it has proved unnecessary to invoke the idea of 

 a universal aether. For the time, at all events, 

 the tendency is to ignore the problem of the 



