MATTER loi 



into various forms, at first by the immediate hand 

 of the Creator, and ever after by the power of 

 Nature." (And what is this, again, but the " rare- 

 factions " and " condensations " of Anaximenes 

 and Diogenes ?) 



New or old, the proposition had new and start- 

 ling implications. For if matter consist merely of 

 electricity in motion, or if it may be decomposed 

 into electrical charges, then it is surely on the 

 brink of destruction ; for who shall say, who can 

 believe, that an electric charge, which is nothing 

 more than a perturbation of the ether, is eternal ? 

 Of course, the same force which perturbed the 

 ether once may perturb it again, and even now 

 new electrons and new strange atoms may be in 

 process of formation ; but the electrons — the ether 

 ripples — into which matter dissociates will almost 

 certainly die away into the nothingness of ethereal 

 calm. 



" The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces. 

 The solemn temples, the great globe itself. 

 And all which it inherit shall dissolve, 

 And like this unsubstantial pageant faded 

 Leave not a rack behind.'''' 



"There is no reason," said W. K. Clifford long 

 ago, "why vibratory motion of the ether should 

 not be transformed into other kinds of ethereal 

 motion ; in fact, there is no reason why it should 



