98 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



molecule is the constituent of a mass of matter, 

 such as a table or chair. Hence, on this view, the 

 inertia of any material body, or the mass of it 

 measured by the inertia, is due simply to electrical 

 charges in motion." 



Professor J. J. Thomson declares : " In fact, all 

 mass is mass of the ether ; all momentum, 

 momentum of the ether ; and all kinetic energy, 

 kinetic energy of the ether." 



Accordingly, matter is merely electricity in 

 motion. When we sit on a chair we are sitting 

 on little whirling systems of electricity ; when we 

 eat our dinner we are munching molecules of 

 electricity ; and when the notorious Count Mattei 

 sold his little phials of coloured water and called 

 them green and blue electricity, he was telling the 

 truth, though he probably did not know it. 



We may, however, here point out that the 

 identification of electrons with electricity does 

 not necessarily mean the identification of matter 

 " en masse " with electricity. It may be that 

 matter is transformed by the mere fact of division, 

 and that electrons and electricity are not identical 

 with matter ^^ en massed' but are simply products 

 or by-products of its disruption. Thus carbon 

 and oxygen are not identical with water, but 

 products of its disruption. Certainly, when 

 negative and positive electricity join, electricity 



