56 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



units of Ether. The quantity of Ether depends upon 

 external conditions, especially atmospheric pressure ; 

 and all over the dimensions of fig. C we call vapour, 

 but when it approaches the capacity of, say, 3, 600 units 

 we call it in the mass, steam. Now this object can be 

 seen by the naked eye, and it is an intensely interest- 

 ing object under the microscope. 1 When we search for 

 a thing and we find Nature shows us that thing ; when 

 the condition of that thing follows an absolutely 

 harmonious line of thought, and brings all Natural 

 phenomena into one order one harmonious whole, it 

 is impossible to get away from the idea that that thing 

 exists. 2 



When Ether is still further forced upon this water 

 molecule, that is, when the molecule holds more than 

 3,600 units, then these atomic objects unwrap them- 

 selves, divide a portion of the Ether amongst them- 

 selves each takes, say, more than 1,200 units of Ether. 

 This overwrapping, forces upon us the conception that 

 each atom and molecule has polar openings by which, if 

 we may use such an expression, they swallow each other. 3 

 The excess of Ether of over 1,200 units radiates through 

 matter, generally through the air until the atoms become 

 of the temperature of the air, then each of the gaseous 



1 Idem, p. 265. 



2 " The ultimate aim of pare science is to be able to explain the 

 most complicated phenomena of nature as flowing by the fewest 

 possible laws from the simplest fundamental data." (Professor 

 W. M. Hicks' Address, British Association Meeting, Mathematical 

 and Physical Section, Ipswich, 1895.) 



3 " In a certain sense the iron may be said to eat the oxygen, reject 

 the hydrogen, and grow or increase in weight by what it feeds on ; 

 but the result is not a bigger piece of iron, but a new substance, rust, 

 or oxide of iron." (" A Modern Zoroastrian," S. Laing, 1895,, p. 81.) 



