22 ORIGINAL CONDITION OF MATTER, 



Some philosophers have even maintained 

 that originally all was " spirit " ; that 

 there was and perhaps is no such stuff as 

 " matter." 



Now, whether matter was originally 

 spirit and eternal, or whether it was called 

 into existence by a pre-existing spirit-power, 

 and its innate motion is potential life or 

 spirit, it is not necessary for us to fry to 

 determine or wise for us to dogmatise on. 

 It is sufficient for all scientific purposes 

 to admit that universal ether became 

 differentiated into matter with innate 

 motion as we now find it : by what steps 

 or stages ; whether by way of the " protyle " 

 of Sir W. Crookes, or the " cosmic haze " 

 or " nebulous matter " of other physicists, 

 and by what power, we need not inquire. 



stituted would exist, but without any of the characteristics 

 that we assign to matter in any of its forms. .... Such 

 an atom is a particular form of motion of the ether in the 

 ether y in the same sense as what is called light is a form of 

 motion of the ether in the ether. One is an undulation, 

 the other a vortex. One we call an ether wave, the other 

 a vortex Thus, one after another of the proper- 

 ties of matter are found to be resolvable into ether motions, 

 ether being the primal, and matter only one of its mani- 

 festations." DOLBEAR, p. 350. 



" The phases of this evolution consist in a periodic change 

 of consistency, of which the first outcome is the primary 

 division into mass and ether." H^iCKELy p. 248, " Riddle 

 of the Universe." (See p. 21.) 



