196 THE UNIVERSE 



transformations. Everything progresses toward 

 supreme perfection. The material world has but 

 an apparent existence, and the reality underlying 

 it is a force imponderable, invisible and intangible." 

 Man is apparently an animal, but he is not; that is 

 the visible side of his nature and is deceptive. 



All he beholds is apparent. The reality is some- 

 thing altogether different. The sun seems to re- 

 volve around the earth, and the earth seems to 

 stand still. The reverse is true. We dwell upon the 

 surface of a body revolving in space and projected 

 with a velocity seventy-five times greater than the 

 speed of a cannon ball. 



We hear a harmony of sweet sounds which charm 

 our senses. The sound does not exist; it is an im- 

 pression made upon our sense of hearing by vibra- 

 tions of the atmosphere which themselves emit no 

 sound. Without the auditory nerve and brain there 

 would be no sound. In reality there is only motion 

 in the ether. 



The rainbow expands its radiant circle, the rose 

 and lily sparkle in the sunshine; the green fields 

 and golden grain diversify the landscape by their 

 vivid colors. But there are no colors; there is no 

 light; there are only undulations in the air that 

 set the optic nerve vibrating. The sun warms and 

 fertilizes, the fire burns, but there is no heat, only 

 the sensation of heat. Heat, like light, is only the 

 result of motion invisible, all-potent, supreme. Here 

 is a solid iron joist sustaining tons of enormous 

 weight, yet the joist is composed of molecules which 

 do not touch each other and are in continual mo- 

 tion. What constitutes the solidity of this bar of 

 iron? Not the atoms that compose it; but the cause 



