174 J. MORISON : ADDRESS 



and has from a remote antiquity stimulated the curiosity 

 and exercised the minds of all thinking men. Amongst the 

 earliest theories and speculations which have come down to us, 

 are those of some of the ancient Greek philosophers, such as 

 Democritus and Anaxagoras, who may be taken as repre- 

 sentatives of two entirely different schools of thought. Some of 

 the Hindoo philosophers also meditated and speculated on the 

 subject, amongst them Kabir, who lived in the fifteenth century 

 of our era. He denied that matter had any real existence, and 

 affirmed that it was simply an illusion of the senses. He held 

 that spirit was the only reality. For our own country Bishop 

 Berkeley, in the early part of the eighteenth century, promulgated 

 a somewhat similar creed, namely, that matter apart from 

 sensation did not really and actually exist. But most of us will 

 be disposed to agree with Lord Byron, who says, somewhat 

 crudely, though forcibly : 



" When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter 

 And proved it — 'twas no matter what he said." 

 At any rate, I will assume that matter is an objective reality. 



Now when we consider the various phenomena of the Universe — 

 dive down, so to speak, to the very foundation of everything — we 

 find that there are not more than three essential verities or entities 

 underlying all things. Leaving out Mind and Thought, which 

 we may consider not material, also Time and Space, which we 

 may look upon as conditions but not actual things, those three 

 essential realities are Matter, Energy, and the liuniniferous 

 Ether. Matter may be defined as something which occupies 

 space, and is characterized by inertia. It possesses mass and 

 weight, and is more or less evident to our senses. The ether is 

 believed to fill all space, so far at any rate as our universe is 

 concerned, and it permeates all material things. It is not in 

 itself evident to our senses, but is only known to us through the 

 vibrations or waves which pass through it and which constitute 

 light, heat, and other forms of energy. It is considered to be 

 a fluid perfectly homogeneous and without parts. Energy may 

 be defined as essentially motion. It may be motion of matter 

 in mass ; motion of the minute particles of which matter is 

 composed ; or it may consist of waves or vibrations in the 

 Ether. It is of several different kinds, such as mechanical 

 energy, light, heat, electricity, magnetism ; all capable of being 

 transformed into each other. More briefly', matter may be 

 defined as that which is moved or acted upon ; energy as that 

 which moves or acts ; and the ether as the medium through 



