284 THE UNIVERSE 



electric, natural laws and forces. This " elemental 

 essence from which all forms are built" I have 

 shown elsewhere to be the ocean of electro-magnet- 

 ism permeating all space and all life forms. 



He says : " The processes of digestion and assimila- 

 tion in man furnish evidence" of these things. That 

 "the vegetable kingdom has power to assimilate 

 earth and mineral and change it into vegetable, 

 and in turn is digested and assimilated by the 

 animal, and converted into an entirely different 

 kingdom of nature." This is true, and I have shown 

 how this is purely an electric process. 



The dream of the alchemist, of the transmutation 

 of metals, is mere child's-play compared with the 

 processes of nature occurring every day in the hu- 

 man body. These are all electric transmutations by 

 means of respiration, by digestion and assimilation 

 of food, whereby a great variety of substance is 

 converted into blood and bone, tissue and muscle, 

 and all the functions of life preserved. It is also a 

 correct statement that "all forms of matter have as 

 their basis one common element, denominated pri- 

 mordial matter, protoplasm and homogeneous sub- 

 stance, all intended to designate the first form of 

 matter." 



This is true, and we found the first form of matter 

 to be the electric currents of space, and the second 

 form of matter to be the atom or molecule, and 

 afterwards came the primordial cell or protoplasm. 

 We also found that there was and is a common 

 reservoir of life which stands back of its myriad 

 manifestations upon the physical plane; a great 

 ocean of vitality, which each organized being ab- 

 sorbs and gives out as we inhale and exhale the air 



