A WONDERFUL WORLD 



matter and electricity are one, and both are doubt- 

 less a phase of the universal ether — a reality which 

 can be described only in terms of the negation of 

 matter. In a flash of lightning we see pure disem- 

 bodied energy — probably that which is the main- 

 spring of the universe. Modern science is more and 

 more inclined to find the explanation of all vital 

 phenomena in electrical stress and change. We 

 know that an electric current will bring about chem- 

 ical changes otherwise impracticable. Nerve force, 

 if not a form of electricity, is probably inseparable 

 from it. Chemical changes equivalent to the com- 

 bustion of fuel and the corresponding amount of 

 available energy released have not yet been achieved 

 outside of the living body without great loss. The 

 living body makes a short cut from fuel to energy, 

 and this avoids the wasteful process of the engine. 

 What part electricity plays in this process is, of 

 course, only conjectural. 



ii 



Our daily lives go on for the most part in two 

 worlds, the world of mechanical transposition and 

 the world of chemical transformations, but we are 

 usually conscious only of the former. This is the 

 visible, palpable world of motion and change that 

 rushes and roars around us in the winds, the storms, 

 the floods, the moving and falling bodies, and the 

 whole panorama of our material civilization; the 



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