CHAPTER V. 



THE VALIDITY OF THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. 



We began our present work by attempting to show the 

 need felt by men of science of reducing the physical uni- 

 verse to a condition of " Oneness" of finding some One 

 Thing out of whose qualities or properties might proceed all 

 that is. We have not done this, quite. By means of 

 theoretical speculations based upon scientific experimenta- 

 tion, we have shown how it may be true that all bodily 

 existence is but the manifestation of units of negative 

 electricity lying embosomed in an omnipresent ether of 

 which these units are, probably, a conditioned part. Matter 

 has disappeared as a fundamental existence, or at any rate 

 it is explained as a manifestation of electricity. Mass, a 

 supposedly indestructible thing, has disappeared with matter 

 and comes into existence only as the negative electron, as- 

 suming motion, carries with it a bound portion of the ether 

 in which it is bathed; and furthermore this mass which we 

 thought so invariable depends solely upon the velocity with 

 which the negative unit moves. 



Our negative unit on receiving mass becomes a " cor- 

 puscle" endowed with the primary qualities of matter 

 super-imposed upon those of electricity. Corpuscles con- 

 gregating into groups or various configurations constitute 

 .essentially the atoms of the chemical elements, locking 

 up in these configurations super-terrific energies and leav- 

 ing but "a slight residual effect" as chemical affinity or 

 gravitation with which we attempt to carry on the work 

 (252) 



