70 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



istence of such an instrument due to chance? Is a 

 machine so vast and perfect the work of haphazard? 

 Is it by merest accident that a sea so extended and so 

 fine, of a nature so different from ordinary matter and 

 yet in so many ways measured and adjusted to it, a sea 

 so exquisitely adapted for the illumination of the uni- 

 verse is it by merest accident that such a sea has being 1 

 No sane mind can believe absurdity so extreme. 



Considering the ether sea as a whole, how great and 

 marvellous it is ! Its vastness astounds. Its nature, 

 continuity, and sameness through all known space amazes. 

 Its modes of action within itself, and in its relationships 

 to ordinary matter, transport with admiration. The great 

 Apostle of the Gentiles speaks of an hour in which he was 

 caught up to the third heaven and heard words not to 

 be uttered on earth. The things of that celestial region 

 needed a language of their own to express the magnifi- 

 cence of their glory. And such are the qualities of the 

 ether, so far do they surpass those of ordinary matter, 

 that the language which men have been accustomed to 

 employ in speaking of the familiar things of the world, 

 is but veriest feebleness when employed to set them 

 forth. Its every quality is transcendent. It is of tran- 

 scendent fineness. Choose we those threads that are 

 finest as of silk or gold, what are they but grossness 

 compared with sunbeams. Its elasticity is transcendent, 

 hundreds of times greater than of spring steel. The 

 velocity of its forward and transverse motions convey 

 to the mind an overpowering sense of the measure in. 

 which in this respect it goes beyond the action of any 

 kind of matter. And yet widely separated as it is from 

 atoms and molecules, its every property is adjusted to 

 and measured for them. Its qualities are in every respect 

 collocated at the right point, to enable it to minister to 



