Continuity 65 



negative proposition, a statement that 

 observation of certain facts can never be 

 made, a denial of any relation between 

 matter and ether, a virtual denial that 

 the ether exists. Whereas if we admit 

 the real changes that go on by reason of 

 rapid motion, a whole field is open for 

 discovery; it is even possible to investi- 

 gate the changes in shape of an electron 

 appallingly minute though it is as it 

 approaches the speed of light ; and prop- 

 erties belonging to the Ether of Space, 

 evasive though it be, cannot lag far 

 behind. 



Speaking as a physicist I must claim 

 the Ether as peculiarly our own domain. 

 The study of molecules we share with the 

 chemist, and matter in its various forms is 

 investigated by all men of science, but a 

 study of the ether of space belongs to 

 physics only. I am not alone in feeling 

 the fascination of this portentous en- 

 tity. Its curiously elusive and intangible 

 character, combined with its universal 

 and unifying permeance, its apparently 

 infinite extent, its definite and perfect 



