RELATIONS OF ETHER TO MOLECULES 69 



ported on by its own number of vibrations. The green 

 fields, the woods and streams, and houses, and living 

 forms arrest for an inconceivably minute fraction of a 

 second the rays that fall on them, but in that fraction of 

 a second they have moulded them to their will, they 

 have shorn them according to their fashion, they have 

 made them their servants, they have sent them on their 

 errand, and long before the second is over, if we may use 

 such language, their errand has been run, their message 

 has been delivered. What magic is here ! What work 

 is accomplished ! What journeys are made ! How lightly 

 are burdens taken up ! With what speed they are 

 carried ! With what accuracy they are delivered ! This 

 is surely the perfection of burden-bearing, the very 

 grandest triumph of message-carrying. 



And the universe is filled with such work. And 

 everywhere the same perfection reigns, the same brilliant 

 order holds the field. Over the whole earth, throughout 

 the heaven of heavens, there is not a touch of chaos. 

 Rays come from the moon. From the planets they make 

 their way to our planet. They pour down from the sun. 

 They descend from the most distant stars and star 

 clusters. No distance is too great for them to travel. 

 They faint not, neither are weary. They journey through 

 space for thousands of years, never relaxing their speed, 

 but darting onward, ever onward, till they are perchance 

 arrested by some world to which they deliver up their 

 message. Can then any machine, instrument, or agency 

 be compared with this 1 The work done is enormous, 

 beyond the power of words, illustrations, or imaginings 

 to indicate even an insignificant part of it. It is accom- 

 plished with ease, smoothness, and exquisite perfection. 

 The widest principles, the most beautiful laws, the 

 simplest arrangements are seen in it. Is then the ex- 



