SCIENTIFIC FAITH ONCE MORE 



all around us. Gross matter has its interior in the 

 molecule; the molecule has its interior in the atom; 

 the atom has its interior in the electron; and the 

 electron is matter in its fourth or its ethereal estate. 

 We easily conceive of matter in the three states, — 

 the solid, the liquid, the gaseous, — because experi- 

 ence is our guide; but how are we to figure to our- 

 selves matter in the ethereal estate? In other words, 

 how are we to grasp the electric constitution of 

 matter? 



Ill 



In Sir Oliver Lodge we have an example of a thor- 

 oughly trained and equipped scientific mind which 

 yet, to account for things as we find them in this 

 world, has to postulate another world of a different 

 order — the world of spiritual reality — interpene- 

 trating and interacting with the visible and tangible 

 world about us. In doing this, Sir Oliver takes an 

 extra-scientific step and lays himself open to the 

 same criticism that has been visited upon Alfred 

 Russel Wallace. 



Our Professor Loeb would account for all our gods 

 through physical and chemical changes in matter, 

 and would probably look as much askance upon 

 Huxley's "consciousness" as belonging to the trin- 

 ity of cosmic realities, as upon Sir Oliver Lodge's 

 hierarchy of spirits. Huxley's coat of mail is his 

 agnosticism: he does not know, and sees no way of 



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