HELP FROM THE PHYSICISTS 41 



unlike my ordinary self as, say, a sparrow-hawk is 

 unlike a barn-door fowl. Will the physicist help me 

 to understand it? 



He, the physicist, tells us that we are only half 

 matter — we are matter and ether; and ether isn't 

 matter, but is the original space-pervading stuff out 

 of which matter is evolved; and albeit not itself 

 matter, since it is intangible, ungraspable, and has 

 subtle qualities which do not pertain to matter, its 

 elasticity and tenacity show its relationship to matter, 

 and one of its functions here on this earth, to which 

 it brings the light of sun and moon and stars, is to 

 hold matter together, binding atom to atom, so that 

 if its hold were relaxed this sensible being and the 

 globe itself would instantly dissolve into thin air, 

 leaving not a wrack behind. We are also told that 

 when the atoms are violently agitated and puUed 

 and thrown to this or that side, the corpuscles of 

 which the ether is composed, or supposed to be, 

 retain their hold on them and puU them back to 

 their proper places. 



This, too, we are told, is not hypothesis run mad, 

 but sober matter of fact, and I am not going to say 

 that I disbelieve it or even doubt. We are all, vitalists 

 and anti-vitalists alike, always anxiously 



Watching and hearkening for ethereal news, 

 and when it comes, when more of it comes, as 

 doubtless come it will, we shall know more than 

 we do now, and by that time the physicists may 

 be able to assist the other researchers in helping 

 us to understand our insides. 



