ETHER THE VEHICLE OF THE SOUL 347 



possessed the psychometric powers. Nothing in the 

 writing could afford the least clue as to the writer or to 

 his whereabouts. All that she had to do was to hold the 

 latter, when his "aura," as it is called, influenced her in 

 some mysterious way that not only did she perceive that 

 the writer was in a village in India, but located it as some 

 forty miles from Madras ; which was correct. 



If the writer had derived pleasure or sorrow from 

 certain events, the corresponding sensations are felt by 

 the psychometrist. 



If such are referable to vibrations in ether " clinging " 

 to the object held in the hand, then we seem to have an 

 analogy with light ; that as the letter, so to say, was 

 charged with vibrations by the writer, these were repro- 

 duced as conscious sensations by the receiver ; just as 

 ether-vibrations are translated into light by the brain. 



A passage which seems to bear on this subject is by 

 the authors of T/ie Unseeyi Universe who observe : ^ " We 

 may go even further than luminiferous vibrations which 

 take their rise chiefly at the surfaces of bodies, and extend 

 our speculations into the interior of substances, since the 

 law of gravitation assures us that any displacement which 

 takes place in the very heart of the earth will be felt 

 throughout the universe, and we may even imagine that 

 the same thing will hold true of those molecular motions 

 which accompany thought. For every thought we think 

 is accompanied by a displacement and motion of the 

 particles of the brain, and we may imagine that somehow 

 — in all probability by means of the medium — these 

 motions are propagated through the universe." Views of 

 this nature were long ago entertained by Babbage, and 

 they have since commended themselves to several men 

 of science, and amongst others to Jevons. " Mr. Babbage," 



1 P. 198. 



