230 THE KIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



until the second half of the nineteenth century that 

 we became more closely acquainted with this remark- 

 able substance, in connection with our astonishing 

 empirical discoveries in the province of electricity, 

 with their experimental detection, their theoretical 

 interpretation, and their practical application. The 

 path was opened in particular by the famous 

 researches of Heinrich Hertz, of Bonn, in 1888. 

 The premature death of a brilliant young physicist 

 of so much promise cannot be sufficiently deplored. 

 Like the premature death of Spinoza, Raphael, 

 Schubert, and many other great men, it is one of 

 those brutal facts of human history which are enough 

 of themselves to destroy the untenable myth of a 

 "wise Providence" and an "All-loving Father in 

 heaven." 



The existence of ether (or cosmic ether) as a real 

 element is a positive fact, and has been known as 

 such for the last twelve years. We sometimes read 

 even to-day that ether is a "pure hypothesis " ; this 

 erroneous assertion comes not only from uninformed 

 philosophers and " popular " writers, but even from 

 certain " prudent and exact physicists." But there 

 would be just as much reason to deny the existence of 

 ponderable matter. As a matter of fact, there are meta- 

 physicians who accomplish even this feat, and whose 

 highest wisdom lies in denying or calling into question 

 the existence of an external universe ; according 

 to them only one real entity exists — their own precious 

 personality, or, to be more correct, their immortal 

 soul. Several modern physiologists have embraced 

 this ultra-idealist view, which is to be found in 

 Descartes, Berkeley, Fichte, and others. Their 

 " psycho-monism " affirms : " One thing only exists, 



