THE UNDERLYING FACTS OF SCIENCE 583 



That such a propagation should take place without friction is pos- 

 sible, if friction is purely intermolecular and not an atomic operation 

 like non-radiant heat. Heat, as already stated, is due to molecular 

 agitation and all matter possessing heat above absolute zero is under- 

 going that particular form of molecular agitation; if the period of 

 agitation is greatly increased by heating an article or greatly reduced 

 by immersing it in liquid air, the effect on the hand at normal tem- 

 perature will be much the same, physically, in either case ; it is as if it 

 were applied to a revolving emery 'wheel. The difference of period 

 between the agitation of the molecules of the hand and that of the 

 substance, whether positive or negative, will result in damage, the 

 organic molecules being unable to respond without destructive decom- 

 position to the periodicity with which they are put in contact. 



If atoms can not vibrate in the order of heat or friction waves, any 

 more than the optic nerve can vibrate in the order of sound waves, there 

 can be no friction in the propagation of matter as postulated. Even if 

 friction were interatomic, there would not necessarily be friction be- 

 tween atoms and sub-atoms. If there is any loss from the passage of 

 atoms through space, it can not be as heat, unless the ether be atomic 

 or molecular ; it must be more in the nature of optical diffusion and the 

 continual degradation of matter may be the effect of its propagation 

 through space. Electrons may be strewn in the wake of each heavenly 

 body to be swept up by comets in their courses and effect their growth, 

 or gathered some day into nebular clouds from which new worlds will 

 originate to take the place of those which wasted away in ages past. 



The theory of the propagation or conduction of matter is equal 

 mathematically to the ether moving with the earth. There is no actual 

 relative displacement of the constituent corpuscles and it was therefore 

 to be expected that, in the light of Eeynolds's theory, Erofessor Michel- 

 son's elaborate experiment would fail to show aberration due to motion 

 through the ether. 



Man is a mass of prejudice: he is limited to one set of standards. 

 Erom the first development of his organism from a zoophite, his senses 

 have evolved in relation to matter alone, and it is only within recent 

 times that he has commenced his evolution towards the understanding 

 of submaterial truths. It may be untold ages before he may strike the 

 endless path leading to the answer of the one and only problem in 

 which he is interested and towards which he strives by the study of 

 nature : the mystery of his self-consciousness. 



The helplessness of the human mind in presence of the underlying 

 facts of science is the deepest argument for a faith in some inconceivable 

 universal mind of which our own is, at the very best, but an imperfect 

 reflection. 



