42 



NATURE 



{May 20, 1875 



work. There is indeed a sort of wild and far-off possi- 

 bility by which a little more work might be got out of a 

 uniform temperature universe, if we could suppose Clerk- 

 Maxwell's demons — "mere guidance applied by human 

 intelligence"— occupied in separating those particles of a 

 heated gas which are moving faster than the average 

 from those which are moving slower. But this is but a 

 broken reed to trust, and it would at the best avail us 

 little. What must happen in the existing physical system 

 would be this : the earth, the planets, the sun, the 

 stars, are gradually coohng ; but infinitely numerous cata- 

 strophes by which the enormous existing store of energy 

 of position may be drawn upon, may over and over again 

 restore unequal temperature. The fall together, from the 

 distance of Sirius, of the sun and another equal sun would 

 supply the former with at least thirty times as much 

 energy as can have been obtained by the condensation of 

 his materials out of a practically infinite nebulous mass of 

 stones or dust. But these catastrophes can only delay the 

 inevitable. If the existing physical universe be finite— and 

 the authors never seem to realise the speculative possi- 

 bility that it may not be so — the end must come, unless 

 there be an invisible universe to supplement and con- 

 tinue it. 



What is the ultimate nature of matter, and especially 

 of the ether, which is the vehicle of all the energy we 

 receive from the sun ? There have been four theories, 

 for each of which something may be said. There is the 

 Lucretian theory of an original, indivisible, infinitely hard 

 atom, "strong in solid singleness;" Boscovich's theory 

 that the atom or unit is a mere centre of force ; the 

 theory that matter, instead of being atomic, is infinitely 

 divisible, practically continuous, intensely heteroge- 

 neous ; and, finally, the theory of the vortex atom, a 

 thing not infinitely hard and therefore indivisible, but infi- 

 nitely mobile, so that it| escapes all force which makes 

 effort to divide it. What we call matter may thus consist 

 of the rotating portions of a perfect fluid, which con- 

 tinuously fills space. Should this fluid exist, there must 

 be a creative act for the destruction or production of the 

 smallest portion of matter. Whichever of these theories 

 we adopt, we must explain the simplest affection of 

 matter— that by which it attracts other matter. There 

 seems little possibility of doing so. The most plausible 

 explanation is in Le Sage's assumption of ultramundane 

 corpuscles^ infinite in number, excessively small in size, 

 flying about with enormous velocities in all directions. 

 These particles must move with perfect freedom among 

 the particles of ordinary matter, andif they do so we can 

 understand how, through the existence of the ultramun- 

 dane particles, two mundane particles attract inversely as 

 the square of the distance. On this theory the energy of 

 position is only the energy of motion of ultramundane 

 and invisible particles— and a bridge is built between the 

 seen and the unseen. These ultramundane particles are 

 something far more completely removed from all possi- 

 bility of sensible qualities than the ether which Sir 

 William Thomson has attempted to weigh. Struve has 

 speculated upon the possibility that it is not infinitely 

 transparent to light, and his calculations, based on the 

 numbers of stars of each visible magnitude, lead him to 

 suppose that some portion of the light and energy from 

 ' distant suns and planets may be 'absorbed in it. The 



ether is thus a kind of adumbration or foretaste of the 

 invisible world. It may have certain of the properties of 

 that world which is perceived by sense, but it is probably 

 subject only to a few of the physical conditions of ordinary 

 matter. 



Let us look once more at the substance of the universe. 

 We recognise that it is impossible to suppose any existing 

 state but as the'^'development of something pre-existing. 

 To suppose] creation, is to suppose the unconditioned. 

 Creation belongs to eternity,' and not to time. This 

 being so,' it is difficult'to believe in the vortex ring theory, 

 which regards the invisible universe as an absolutely 

 perfect fluid. With an imperfect fluid, the eternity of 

 visible matter which the vortex theory requires, disappears. 

 Such a visible universe would be as essentially ephemeral 

 as a smoke-ring — so that we may accept it as possible, if 

 not probable, that the visible universe may pass away — 

 that it may bury its dead out of its sight. In its present 

 state we have three forms of development — Chemical, or 

 Stuff Development, Globe Development, and Life Deve- 

 lopment. It is a question whether the ultimate atoms of 

 chemists are really ultimate ; whether some agent, like 

 great heat, for instance, could not split them up into various 

 groups of some primal substance like hydrogen. We 

 see the prospect of a similar simplicity in the development 

 of worlds on the theory of Kant and Laplace, which 

 makes the systems of the universe the result of the 

 gradual condensation of nebulous masses. In the end, 

 all the masses of the universe must fall together — in the 

 beginning there can have been no masses, everything 

 being nebulous and discrete, even if ordinary matter be 

 indestructible. The last state and the first state of the 

 visible universe are thus separated from each other by a 

 finite duration. A hke simplicity may be reached in the 

 development of life. Darwin has made it at least possible 

 that all hfe may issue from some primordial life-germ. 

 The complete refutation of the doctrine of abiogenesis — 

 the practical proof that life issues only from life — leaves 

 us still bound to account for that germ. There is no 

 doubt that species develop varieties which may ultimately 

 become distinct species, although there is little indication 

 that the varieties of what was once one species are ever 

 separated like species originally different, by a barrier of 

 mutual infertility. A sufficient length of time might 

 enable us to overcome this barrier. In all our develop- 

 ments — the substance development, the globe develop- 

 ment, the life development — we are thus brought, in the 

 end, to a something which we are not yet able to com- 

 prehend. 



Turning from matter to the phenomena which affect 

 it, we notice one singular set of phenomena in which 

 things insignificant and obscure give rise to great lines 

 of events. A whole mass of water, the temperature 

 of which has been reduced below the freezing-point, 

 suddenly crystallises on the slightest starting motion ; a 

 whole series of tremendous meteorological phenomena, 

 such as hurricanes in the Indian Ocean, happen because 

 certain positions of Mercury and Venus affect the sun's 

 atmosphere, causing spots in his, and the condition of 

 the sun affects the earth. Like the complicated series 

 of effects which follow the pulling of the trigger of a gun, 

 the effects are utterly disproportionate to their causes. 

 Man is a machine of this unstable kind — some trivial 



