ELECTRICAL CONFERENCE AT PHILADELPHIA 635 



changes from rest to motion, all known liquids have a property known 

 as inertia; furthermore, they have weight. But the electric fluid has 

 neither inertia nor weight as far as we have yet experimented, and in 

 this respect differs from all known matter. Furthermore, we have never 

 yet been able to separate electricity from ordinary matter. When we 

 pass electricity through a vacuum, the resistance becomes less and less, 

 and one may have hopes of finally having an electric current through a 

 vacuum. But, as the exhaustion proceeds, we observe that the resist- 

 ance begins to increase until it reaches such a point that no discharge 

 can take place. Electricity cannot exist, then, without matter, a fact 

 fatal to the idea of a fluid, however useful that may be. We have but 

 one conclusion from this, and that is that electricity is a property of 

 matter. Do with it what we may, it can never be separated from matter, 

 and when we have an electrical separation the lines of force must always 

 begin and end in matter. 



The theory of matter, then, includes electricity and magnetism, and 

 hence light; it includes gravitation, heat, and chemical action; it forms 

 the great problem of the universe. When we know what matter is, 

 then the theories of light and heat will also be perfect; then and only 

 then, shall we know what is electricity and what is magnetism. 



It is the problem of the universe which looms up before us and before 

 which we stand in awe. The intellect of the greatest among us appears 

 but feeble and we all, like Newton, appear but as children on the sea- 

 shore. But how few of us find the shells which Newton did. and how 

 few of us try. The problem is vast and the means for its solution must 

 be of corresponding magnitude. Our progress so far has been but small. 

 AY hen we push our inquiry in any direction we soon reach a limit; the 

 region of the unknown is infinitely greater than the known, and there 

 is no fear of there not being work for the whole world for centuries to 

 come. As to the practical applications which await us, the telegraph, 

 the telephone, and electric lighting are but child's play to what the 

 world will see in the future. 



But what is necessary to attain these results? We have seen how the 

 feeble spirit, which was waked up by friction in the amber and went forth 

 to draw in light bodies, has grown until it now dazzles the world by its 

 brilliancy, and carries our thoughts from one extremity of the world to 

 the other. It is the genius of Aladdin's lamp which, when thoroughly 

 roused, goes forth into the world to do us service, and returns bearing 

 us wealth and honor and riches. But it can never be the servant of an 

 ignorant or lazy world. Like the genius of Aladdin's lamp it appeared 



