:272 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



substance. Substance is " the ultimate point in analyzing the complex idea of any 

 object." Accident denotes all those ideas which the analysis excludes as not be- 

 longing to the mere being or nature of the object." 



The substance of all matter is the ether. The accidents of any material thing 

 are its peculiar modifications of ethereal action. The ether acts in space directed 

 and compelled in its action by the Divine Will. They are : 



1. Simple ethereal action, as electricity and light. 



2. Combined modifications of ethereal action, constituting matter. 



The ether exists independently of the Creator, but while this substance of all 

 matter exists independently, the accidents of material things are constantly sus- 

 tained by the Divine Will in accordance with fixed and permanent laws. This 

 theory explains the phenomena of matter by the action of the ether ; but it teaches 

 neither that the ultimate reason of all movement is a force primitively communi- 

 cated at creation, a force which is everywhere, present in all bodies but different- 

 ly limited; not that any such force is inherent in the ether ; nor yet that force is 

 transmitted through the ether; but I hold that the Divine Will constantly sustains 

 by sympathetic induction the modifications of ethereal action, both simple and 

 combined. 



At any point in space such action of the ether directed by the Divine Will is 

 ever going on, that an object there situated has no real existence there, whether 

 any one is there to perceive it or not, its real existence being a combination of 

 certain modifications of ethereal action ; and the same object is presented to 

 every spirit which happens to be brought into communication with that point in 

 space, this presentation being governed by fixed laws, and any one who has al- 

 ready perceived a particular object knows that upon going again to the place 

 where it is, the same object, or combination of modifications of ethereal action 

 will be communicated to his soul by means of the same ether as a medium and 

 by certain other modifications, and combinations of modifications of ethereal 

 action. 



Our perception, therefore, of real ideas or material objects is the result of 

 the action of the Divine Will on our minds through the medium of the ether, and 

 the Eternal Spirit constantly sustains and presents these real ideas for the con- 

 templation of ''created spirits," but they have a real existence in space out of the 

 minds which perceive them. 



This theory does not merge the creature in the Creator; and does not make 

 God the agent or power in everything that is done, and thereby lead us to the 

 same point with Hume, viz : that the mind is but a mere series of impressions, 

 and that we can have no knowledge of it. 



