NATURAL PHILOSOPHY — SWANN 239 



the frovernor of one of our States, form some sort of an opinion as 

 to the probable actions of these individuals under given circum- 

 stances. His understanding of the whole situation would, however, 

 be much less complete than it would be were* he acquainte^l with the 

 whole mechanism of our Constitution, or even with some part of it 

 which was fairly complete in itself. If his knowledge is confined 

 Avithin the limits we have supposed, however, he might take such 

 information as he had, and try to reduce it to some sort of order 

 by building in his mind a constitution of which such individuals as 

 he knew formed a part. In this creation of his mind, he would have 

 to picture, many new individuals and offices in order to complete the 

 framework of his thought. He would naturally suggest a search for 

 these individuals. Every additional one found would add more cer- 

 tainty to his general plan, while every one he failed to find would 

 give him a clue as to how his plan should be modified in order to 

 conform to the facts. When all was complete, or, indeed, long 

 before all was complete, long before he knew the status of every 

 minor clerk in the Government's employ, he would be conscious of 

 a much better understanding of the whole situation, and would be 

 in a much better position to draw upon the services of the Govern- 

 ment than he was when the whole of his knowledge was confined to 

 the actions of the three individuals we named at the start. If this 

 man, who corresponds to our mathematical physicist, should now go 

 back to his own people, he would doubtless have much difficulty in 

 making them understand the plan of our Government. The facts 

 they would have to accept, but it might be only after prolonged 

 experience of our actions that the mechanism of our procedure would 

 enter into their inner consciousness with that force which implies 

 understanding. 



So, Maxwell sought and found a beautiful scheme of thought 

 in w^hich to comprehend and harmonize the discoveries of his prede- 

 cessors. The form of his scheme was such as to suggest that it 

 should be possible to propagate electromagnetic disturbances in the 

 form of waves in an all-pervading medium, and that certain of 

 these waves should have the properties of light waves, and that all 

 should travel with a velocity equal to that of light. His conclusions 

 in the latter respects were beautifull}^ verified by his calculation of 

 the correct velocity of light from purely electrical data, and his 

 predictions in the former have received wonderful justification, first 

 in the experimental work of Hertz and Lodge, and finally in the 

 modern developments of wireless telegraphy and telephony in the 

 hands of Marconi and others, developments which at every stage 

 of their progress have drawn upon the princijiles outlined in ]\Iax- 

 well's great work. We now know that the electromagnetic waves 

 of wireless, heat raj's, light rays, the ultra-violet rays used thera- 



