226 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
The substance of all matter is the ether, this "creating and informing spirit, 
which is with us and not of us." The accidents of any object are its peculiar 
modifications of ethereal action. 
The ether acts in space, directed and compelled in its action by the Divine 
Will. There are : 
1. Simple modifications of ethereal action. 
2. Combinations of such modifications. 
The accidents of objects are constantly sustained by the Divine Will in ac- 
cordance 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 communicated at creation, a force which is 
everywhere present in all bodies, but differently limited ; nor that any such force 
is inherent in the ether ; nor yet that force is transmitted through the ether. I 
hold that the Divine Will constantly sustains by sympathetic induction all the 
modifications of ethereal action which constitute matter. 
At any point in space the ether is constantly governed by the Divine Will in 
such a way that an object there situated, has a real existence //z^r^, whether any 
one is there to perceive it or not, its real existence being a combination of cer- 
tain modifications of ethereal action; and the same object is presented to every 
spirit who happens to come or be brought into communication with that point in 
space, this presentation being governed by fixed laws, and any one who has 
already perceived a particular object knows that upon going again to the place 
where it is, the same object will be perceived by him, /. e., the same combination 
of modification of ethereal action will be communicated to his soul by means of 
this same ether as a medium and by certain other modifications, and combina- 
tions 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, and the Eternal Spirit constantly 
sustains and presents these real ideas for the contemplation of created spirits, 
but they exist 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. 
THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF HUMAN NATURE IN SCHOOLS. 
C. A. SHAW. 
I once, in conversation with a superintendent of schools, suggested that a 
text-book of human nature be introduced. He wearily replied that the list of 
studies was now so great that mastery of any one was impossible, and that to- 
introduce a few more would make the varnish of public instruction so thin that 
