SCIENCE, YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW — SWANN 231 



stand how lie and his surroundings could be controlled from the out- 

 side, he invented beings like himself who, indeed, had the power to 

 control these things, even as he and his fellows had, on a smaller 

 scale, power to control those who served them. Reversing the policy 

 cited in Holy Writ, man invented these omnipotent beings in his own 

 image, and with many of his own vices and shortcomings, as well as 

 with his beneficent characteristics. The gods were angry, and they 

 hurled thunderbolts. The gods were pleased, and they showered the 

 earth with the blessings of spring. Anger and pleasure are such com- 

 mon attributes of mankind that they seem to call for no explanation 

 in themselves. As regards a wider range of characteristics, the capri- 

 ciousness of the gods, the uncertain temperament of the gods, and so 

 forth, man, in seeking a basis for the acceptance of these things as 

 normal, had to do no more than think of all the prima donnas of his 

 age, and indeed of all the ladies of his own acquaintance. Alas, in 

 those days there were no psychiatrists to analyze man's emotions as 

 the outcome of more fundamental "causes"; and so mankind was con- 

 tent to "understand" in terms of the laws which governed his primi- 

 tive feelings and experiences. 



Early in his history. Homo sapiens became conscious of the efforts 

 of his muscles, and the need for exertion in order that things should 

 be accomplished. To bring stationary things into a state of motion, 

 man found that he had to do something; and in the doing of it he 

 became conscious of effort, so that there arose a vague concept of force. 

 However, to push anything and to make it move, one had to come into 

 contact with it. A man could not, by merely flexing his muscles, 

 cause something at a distance to start moving. The force had to be 

 transmitted from point to point in order to become effective. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, insofar as there is any difficulty in understanding motion 

 at all, there is just as much difficulty in understanding it through the 

 transmission of force from point to point in a medium as there is in 

 understanding action at a distance. The late Sir Oliver Lodge once 

 remarked that it is as yet an inexplicable fact that when one end of a 

 rod is pushed, the other end moves, to which observation PUNCH 

 replied that it is also an inexplicable fact that when one end of a 

 man is trodden upon, the other end shouts. However, the layman 

 readily accepted the philosophy that what the eye cannot see the mind 

 need not trouble about. And so, the transmission of force through 

 minute distances seemed to present much less of an obstacle than did 

 its transmission over great distances. 



THE AETHER. AND THE TRANSMISSION OF FORCE 



The motions of the heavenly bodies became explained in the hands 

 of Newton as motions which should be thought of as caused by 



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