THE NATUKAL AND THE AETIFICIAL. 179 



simple matter to find out that each of these imaginary ether 

 ring vortex atoms would be ^-L_ millionth of an inch in 

 diameter, or in other words if a drop of water were the size 

 of the earth each component atom or ether ring would be 

 the size of a golf ball. It was also " found " that each 

 could exist in a solid, liquid and gaseous state, and that in 

 the latter each ring would be yTro-^o ootli of an inch from its 

 neighboiu', which in the case of hydrogen it would strike 

 some 17,700 times a second. 



Now all this may or may not be so. Its mere consideration 

 is a valuable exercise in mental gymnastics, even if it leads to 

 nothing more ; but at any rate, though the result is rather 

 difficult of conception, the ingenious methods by which it is 

 reached are logical and fairly coherent. When we turn, 

 however, from matter to force many of the theories we are 

 expected to lielieve are far otherwise. 



Matter and force are both objective, but it is well to 

 remember, in passing, that many of the phenomena of the 

 former are purely subjective. We talk of light and sound, 

 the former consisting of supposed waves of ether of an 

 average length of -^-^^-^q inch, and the latter of waves of air 

 averaging about a foot, but light and sound are nevertheless 

 both subjective phenomena, aud do not exist outside con- 

 sciousness; as a stick travelling through the air is not 

 *' pain" till it strikes. These waves are not in themselves 

 •either light or sound. 



To return. When we compare the carefully considered 

 though startling statements of Helmholtz and Thomson on 

 matter with such a sentence as the following : " Energy is al- 

 ways associated with matter aud probably {« matter in motion," 

 we feel that the latter clause essentially confuses cause and 

 effect, and must therefore be rejected, whereas the former is 

 at any rate not contrary to reason. 



What then is force or energy ? We talk of the laws of 

 nature, but these laws are not made by nature nor are they 

 even in themselves the origin of power. They are merely 

 the expressions of a power that acts uniformly. 



Professor Tait, in a close chain of reasoning that cannot be 

 too highly valued, points out that the fact of motion and the 

 determination or direction of motion are essentially different. 

 The forces of nature are heat, light, electricity, gravitation, 

 chemical affinity, etc. The mystery is not Avhat are the 

 forces that move particles, but what is it that guides and 

 determines the manner and direction of the movements ; for 



