"THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE" 237 



for Chapters in and iv, on the Present Physical Universe and on Matter and 

 Ether. Whatever may be thought of the argument of the book, one merit 

 was that, by means of these physical chapters, the great ideas associated with 

 the names of Carnot and Joule were presented to the minds of vast numbers 

 of readers who would never otherwise have come into touch with them. 



The book was heralded in a curious old-world fashion by means of an 

 anagram, which was published in Nature, October 15, 1874, and signed 

 West, that is, according to Tail's elucidation, We S(tewart) T(ait). This 

 anagram spelled out the sentence 



" Thought conceived to affect the matter of another universe simultaneously with 

 this may explain a future state." 



This sentence may therefore be regarded as one of the central doctrines of 

 The Unseen Universe. It occurs at the end of paragraph 199 in Chapter VH. 



The book created a great sensation. It was at once recognised as the 

 work of a scientific author or authors. The fourth edition, which was 

 published in April 1876, exactly a year after the first publication, appeared 

 with the authors' names on the title-page, and subsequent reprints did not 

 differ materially from this edition. The one conspicuously new feature was 

 an introduction setting forth succinctly the motive of the book, which had 

 been strangely misunderstood by some of the earlier critics. Also a few 

 important changes were made throughout, but on the whole the book was 

 essentially the same through all the editions. 



One addition to the original form of the text is well worth attention, 

 being a fine example of the kind of humour which Tait occasionally delighted 

 in. The end of paragraph 103 originally ended with the sentence: 



" The one (i.e., matter) is like the eternal unchangeable Fate or Necessitas of the 

 ancients ; the other (i.e., energy) is Proteus himself in the variety and rapidity of its 

 transformations." 



In the later editions this sentence is followed by six lines of Greek verse, 

 namely : 



<f>v<n,y, BiaBo^aiy a-)(T)fjLdr<av rpi<r/j,vploi<i, 

 d\\d<ra-erai Tuirtopa, TLptareax; Biierjv, 

 irdvrcov o<r' eaTi 7rotKt\a>Ta,TOV repay 

 T?}? 8' aJn' 'A.vdy/cr)<{ ear' dxivijTov aOevot, 

 fj,6vr] y dirdvTuv ravro Siafi.evovff' del 

 /3poT<v re /cat 0ev TTUVT' aTrorpvei yew). 



