Continuity 51 



Ether, then. Very well, where shall we 

 find it? 



To illustrate the difficulty I will quote 

 a sentence from Sir Joseph Larmor's 

 paper before the International Congress 

 of Mathematicians at Cambridge last 

 year. 



If it is correct to say with Maxwell that all 

 radiation is an electrodynamic phenomenon, 

 it is equally correct to say with him that all 

 electrodynamic relations between material bod- 

 ies are established by the operation, on the 

 molecules of those bodies, of fields of force which 

 are propagated in free space as radiation and in 

 accordance with the laws of radiation, from one 

 body to the other. 



The fact is we are living in an epoch 

 of some very comprehensive generalisa- 

 tions. The physical discovery of the 

 twentieth century, so far, is the Electrical 

 Theory of Matter. This is the great new 

 theory of our time; it was referred to, 

 in its philosophical aspect, by Mr. Bal- 

 four in his Presidential Address at Cam- 

 bridge in 1904. We are too near to it to 

 be able to contemplate it properly; it 



