56 THE UNIVERSE 



or change of equilibrium. The power of transfer is 

 the basic principle of the electric current, and as 

 long as the direction of the current lies in one of the 

 lines of atomic motion the current passes without 

 resistance and is imperceptible ; but if it chances to 

 meet in its pathway a line of force passing from 

 atom to atom in a different direction, there is in- 

 stantly a neutralization of motion and the arrest of 

 each atom at the point of crossing which gives 

 polarity, and the molecule is the result. In space 

 the electric current is the first form of creative 

 manifestations the atoms assume. 



Electricity belongs to the atomic forces, has 

 intimate relations with organic life, and gives us a 

 key to unlock its mysteries. Electric energy plays 

 such an important part in cosmic construction that 

 without some knowledge of its nature it is impossible 

 to explain the processes which are the basis of world 

 building. 



The crystal rock under microscopic examination 

 shows the same beautiful figures and marvelous 

 lines of arrangement that in winter the new fallen 

 snow-flakes exhibit, and indicate that the lines of 

 form are essentially the same that gave the planet- 

 ary rock its forms of crystalline beauty and massive 

 structure. And the beautiful snow that falls so 

 gently upon the wintry lap of earth is one of the 

 best representatives of creative power acting in the 

 primitive states of formative forces. This tends to 

 show that the earth began its formative period in 

 extreme cold and not heat, for the formative lines of 

 shape and force are the same in the crystal ice and 

 crystalline snowflake as they are in the crystalline 

 rocks of earth's primary foundations. And they all 



