WITH THE DOMAIN OF THE INORGANIC 69 



way they came. It is no dance of molecules, but a chaotic 

 jostling. Every drop of liquid is in a state of commotion 

 and turmoil indescribable (ibid., p. 89). Of solids relatively 

 little is known, but in a crystalline solid where we have 

 to deal with fixed architecture there can be no translatory 

 motion. " But vibratory motion in constrained paths there 

 must be among the molecules of a solid, increasing with 

 the temperature until the molecules drag their anchors, as 

 it were, and the substance melts " (ibid., p. 94). 



Thus the concept of matter leads us to a very ethereal 

 picture. What is to be said of energy ? It is the power of 

 doing work, and may be actual or potential, in motion or in 

 position. But except when it changes, its existence can only 

 be inferred. Professor Soddy writes : " The Apostle Paul 

 had no thought of physical things in his mind when he used 

 the words, l The things which are seen are temporal, but the 

 things which are not seen are eternal.' But the words can 

 be applied with profit to illustrate, perhaps more forcibly 

 than any other single sentence, the essential nature of energy. 

 It is only the temporary changes in the form and relative 

 amount of energy which are manifest. So long as energy 

 neither changes in amount nor in position, it belongs to the 

 unseen and eternal. No direct evidence of its existence can 

 be obtained." Yet we are never in doubt as to its reality, for 

 it is always conserved. And besides Matter and Energy 

 there is the Ether which Sir Oliver Lodge describes as " the 

 universal connecting medium which binds the universe to- 

 gether, and makes it a coherent whole instead of a chaotic 

 collection of independent isolated fragments. It is the ve- 

 hicle of transmission of all manner of force, from gravita- 

 tion down to cohesion and chemical affinity; it is therefore 

 the storehouse of potential energy. ... It does not 



