THE FINITE UNIVERSE 



has shown that the so-called actions-at-a-distance, 

 which are the stumbling-block of all physical in- 

 quiry, could be very simply explained by suppos- 

 ing that we are afloat in the depths of an ether- 

 ocean. He has made some very interesting mod- 

 els from objects floating in water to illustrate and 

 clinch his ideas. 



If these speculative notions should prove well 

 founded, then we should have to accept the ether 

 as the natural substratum of all existing things. 

 It would be the stuff of which the universe is made. 

 Without going so far now, we may hold fast to the 

 proved fact that all the various forms of energy 

 light, electricity, heat, X-rays, and probably mag- 

 netism as well move at an identical rate of speed, 

 and that this, though inconceivably swift, is meas- 

 urable. Before delicate instruments had been de- 

 vised to effect the measure of such velocities, it 

 was thought that the passage of light was instan- 

 taneous, that its speed was infinitely great. 



To the conception of a finite and one day meas- 

 urable universe, we may then add that of a cosmos 

 whose interchanges of energy are effected at a finite 

 and measurable speed. It has the fixity and cer- 

 titude of a perfect machine. It is assuredly a 

 curious thing that the light of a fire-fly and the 

 dazzling radiance of the distant stars, the warmth 



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