THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 127 



surrounding steady state of strain or other disturb- 

 ance." This ether is unaffected by any type of me- 

 chanical action since ethereal strains are of an unknown 

 kind responding only to electro-magnetic stresses. 

 This definition seems general enough to satisfy the 

 most critical, but Professor Einstein goes much fur- 

 ther. He says we must abolish the ether because the 

 only difference between empty and occupied space is 

 that the latter is the seat of an entity, energy, and 

 contains a light vector. Such a definition, in the sense 

 of explaining a complex idea in terms of simpler ones, 

 is wholly incomprehensible and at the same time ap- 

 parently denies and affirms the existence of the ether. 

 But Professor Einstein is not averse to paradoxes. 

 These ideas evidently reduce matter to an attribute of 

 electricity, and make all forces of the type called elec- 

 trical forces. But if electricity is everything, we must 

 inevitably some time explain pure mechanical actions 

 in terms of this electrical substance. Sir J. Larmor 

 clearly foresees this, as shown by his statement : " The 

 electric character of the forces of chemical affinity was 

 an accepted part of the chemical views of Davy, Ber- 

 zelius, and Faraday ; and more recent discussions, while 

 clearing away crude conceptions, have invariably 

 tended to the strengthening of that hypothesis. The 

 mode in which the ordinary forces of cohesion could 

 be included in such a view is still quite undeveloped." 

 He thus rather leaves this question in the air by con- 



