198 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



intricate, complicated, infinite energy that bound 

 solar systems into a thinking brain can become as 

 nought ? Even in a corpse " the intense atom 

 glows," and in eternal energy there is surely 

 promise of immortality. 



And if, in face of these considerations, there 

 still be some who think matter a mean and mortal 

 mother, we may point out that nothing more 

 spiritual than matter can be conceived ; for science 

 has followed where great philosophic thinkers long 

 ago led, and has come to the conclusion that matter 

 is really energy and nothing more — the Energy, 

 if we will, of the Spirit in whom we live and move 

 and have our being — the Power 



"Which wields the world with never wearied love. 

 Sustains it from beneath and kindles it above." 



The corpuscles of the atom have been proved 

 to be nothing but electricity ; and electricity, like 

 light and heat, is nothing but waves of ether. 

 Matter, which seems so heavy and gross, is only 

 waves of ether. And what is ether ? What are 

 these ripples known as heat, light, electricity, 

 matter ? Ether is nothing save force ; it is no 

 more solid than a symbol, no heavier than an 

 hypothesis. We assume something as a medium 

 for the propagation of waves, even as we formerly 

 assumed a substance in which the properties of 



