347 
made at that very instant a strongly marked jerk. It was learned that 
at that moment a magnetic storm prevailed at the West Indies, in South 
America, and in Australia. The signalmen in the telegraph stations at 
Washington to Philadelphia received strong electric shocks. The pen of 
Bain’s telegraph was followed by a flame of fire, and in Norway the telegraph 
machinery was set on fire. At night great auroras were seen in both hemi- 
spheres.* 
“ The magnetic vibrations thrill in one moment through the whole frame of 
our earth ! ” — Proctor, Light Science , p. 34. 
Note I. — The Rainbow, according to the old legend, indicates gold hidden 
at the point of junction with the earth. 
Note J. — I think the suggestions of Mungo Ponton in The Beginning are 
well worth attentive consideration in this connection. 
The Chairman. — I am sure, Mr. Howard, that I may tender you the thanks 
of this meeting for your interesting paper. (Hear.) By way of opening the 
discussion, I will just refer to an expression contained in these pages, — 
“Counter eddy of thought.” If there should be any such in the minds 
of those present, I shall be very pleased to have it fully enunciated, in 
order that we may receive the information which other minds may bring to 
bear upon the subject. I have no doubt that there is abundant subject- 
matter in this paper for differences of opinion. With regard to the scientific 
argument here broached, for the existence of bodily organization in angels ; I 
know that is only a subordinate part of the paper, but it fell in with a line 
of thought in which I often indulge. The theory set forth is that probably 
angels have spiritual bodies ; with the composition of which the luminiferous 
ether, of which he speaks in Part III., may have some connection. Into 
that point I shall scarcely enter ; but that angels, as created spirits, must 
be supposed to have bodies — impalpable, invisible, refined, and subtly 
etherealized, as distinct from pure spirit, I take to be essentially necessary. 
God is the only spirit purely such, unconditioned, and separated by an 
almost infinite interval from any created being whatsoever. It is often 
said, and especially by the Positive school of philosophy, that as an angel 
is never seen — “as the microscope or telescope cannot detect one” — it is 
absurd to think about the matter, and therefore it must be confined to the 
* Sir J . Herschel’s Familiar Lectures, p. 81. Chambers’s Hand-Book of 
Astronomy , p. 6. Carrington and Hodgson’s Monthly Notes, R.A.S., vol. xx. 
pp. 13, 16. Proctor, The Sun, &c., p. 206. Proctor, Other Worlds them 
ours, p. 33. Meteorological Society’s Proceedings, vol. i. p. 66. Monthly 
Mic. Journal, March, 1873, p. 132. 
