288 THE UNIVERSE 



called for volunteers, and Thomas MacKaye came 

 forward onto the platform. He then placed two 

 steel rods on each side of him, and started his ap- 

 paratus, when tiny sparks began to jet off of Mr. 

 MacKaye' s clothing. Soon the sparks grew to curl- 

 ing flames, and the man's entire body became as a 

 mass of writhing blue and white flame. Yet after- 

 wards when he stepped from the platform not a 

 thread of his clothing was singed. Rev. Father 

 Ruppert, at the close, said: " Nothing I have ever 

 seen has brought me to so fully understand God's 

 miracles." 



These pantheistic devotees are even trying to 

 make waves of ether, air and water intelligible 

 things, and seem to think they are in the nature 

 of a circulating medium for this world-God, like 

 blood is the circulating medium of man's body. 

 Even so orthodox a scientist as Prof. Serviss, in 

 the New York American of May 16th, 1903, goes 

 into panegyrics over waves and wave motion as 

 follows: "The undulatory theory of energy is 

 carrying everything before it. It is not saying too 

 much to aver that wave motion is concerned in 

 nearly all the phenomena of physical life . . . 

 Think for a moment of what is included in the 

 science of waves. In the air all sounds, all musical 

 harmonies are waves; in the solid globe, all earth- 

 quakes are waves; in the ether light, electricity 

 and heat are waves. It is waves that make the 

 stars visible, and yet more mysterious oscillations 

 picture for us on photographic plates marvelous 

 nebulous objects. Lord Kelvin has been credited 

 with the statement that the fluttering of a butter- 

 fly 'swing sets up vibrations that shake the universe." 



