4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



which makes a family move into it. He is satisfied that houses do 

 gravitationally attract people, but this is not in any way the attraction 

 which produces the observed motion. He finally learns that it is the 

 architectural features and the internal arrangement of the houses, and 

 the landscape features immediately about the houses, which appeal to 

 the minds of the people. Being a philosopher, he straightway forms 

 an explanation which involves the existence of a mental field of force, 

 emanating from these conscious beings, and laying hold of these archi- 

 tectural and other characteristics of the houses. Next he finds that 

 ether waves are involved in the phenomenon. The people must see the 

 houses before the attraction begins. This involves the existence of an 

 all-pervading ether through which waves due to molecular agitation on 

 the sun may pass. These waves, which we call light waves, fall upon 

 these houses. From thence they pass into the eyes of the people, where 

 they form images of the houses. The people do not see these images 

 in the same sense that they see the houses, but in some unknown way 

 these images make it possible for them to become conscious of those 

 things, which determine for them the attractiveness of these houses. 



It is through this complex train of machinery that the mental action 

 is aroused, which results in this mental attraction. But this is not all. 

 There must be involved in this transaction a transfer of the value 

 equivalent of a certain number of foot-pounds of mechanical work pre- 

 viously done. The value equivalent of this work is produced by the 

 family about to move into the house, and is delivered to the former 

 owner who has moved out. This value equivalent of work is delivered 

 in the form of a definite quantity of some valuable substance, as gold. 

 He next finds that this transfer may also be made, by means of written 

 entries on the books of two banks, through the agency of a check, which 

 passes through the clearing house. By this means a credit to one cus- 

 tomer at one bank is transferred to another customer at another bank. 

 This value equivalent of work previously done exists potentially in the 

 form of credit at a bank, and its quantity may be increased or drawn 

 upon, as energy itself may be stored in a pond of water, which may be 

 drawn upon to drive a mill. 



The average citizen will tell you that we do not know what elec- 

 tricity is, and that the sending of wireless messages, and the driving of 

 our street-cars, are operations which are full of mystery. But it never 

 occurs to him that there is anything mysterious about the attraction 

 which empty houses have for homeless families. He would think it 

 wonderful that a balloon could be controlled by wireless methods, from 

 a station on the earth, but it would never occur to him that there was 

 anything remarkable about one conscious being influencing the outward 

 action of another conscious being, by talking to him or by looking at 

 him. We are surrounded on every hand by phenomena which we think 



