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MAGNETISM 
 
 ITS 
 
 POTENCY AND ACTION 
 
 WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR A NEW 
 
 COSMOGRAPHY 
 
 AND A NEW 
 
 CELESTIAL GEOGRAPHY 
 
 BY GEORGE W. HOLLEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF " NIAGARA, ITS HISTORY AND GEOLOGY." 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 ARENA PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 Copley Square 
 
 \ 
 
F\42S\']'1 
 
 Copyrighted, 1894^ 
 By GEORGE W. HOLLEY. 
 
 All righU reserved. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Fob many years the writer of the following 
 pages has been much interested in, given much 
 thought to, and made sundry notes on the subjects 
 of which they treat. Not, however, until his re- 
 moval to Ithaca, in 1882, where he could avail him- 
 self of the facilities for further study and ex- 
 periment afforded by Cornell University, has he 
 been able to make a systematic attempt to formu- 
 late his ideas and conclusions. 
 
 Still he has been obliged to quote some author- 
 ities at second hand, while some he wished to con- 
 sult he could not procure. He has also been 
 obliged to omit some experiments he would have 
 been glad to perform. A slight fire in his room 
 partially destroyed some of his notes, the result of 
 which is that some passages appear in quotation 
 marks for which his memory does not enable him 
 to quote the authorities. 
 
 The reader will observe that much consideration 
 has been given to the subject of magnetism, a form 
 of energy whose universal action, the various and 
 
2 FBEFACE. 
 
 numerous ways in whicli it is manifested, the sub- 
 tle influences which it exerts and exhibits in dif- 
 ferent conditions have not, as the writer believes, 
 been accorded the importance they deserve. Ex- 
 cept in its most striking manifestations in connec- 
 tion with electricity — electro-magnetism — and in 
 animal magnetism it has not been fully investi- 
 gated. In its finer and more subtle form as man- 
 ifested in animal and vegetable life, especially in 
 the minutest bodies, it seems to have been still less 
 studied. Those forms of energy, the universality, 
 pervasiveness and constancy of their action, it is 
 one object of the writer to set forth and demon- 
 strate. The same form of energy that swings the 
 stars in their well-ordered courses forever wings 
 the flight of the tiniest moth that perishes in a 
 day. 
 
 The facts and observations concerning the influ- 
 ences that prompt the action of animals, kine, dogs, 
 birds and insects, the multifarious forms and con- 
 ditions of animal and vegetable life, and the per- 
 sistence of the life force are chiefly new so far as 
 shown by the authorities we have consulted in the 
 excellent reference libraries of Cornell University 
 and Columbia College. The field is wide and fer- 
 tile and we have entered into details that would 
 be irrelevant except that they elucidate the varied 
 forms of magnetic energy. 
 
 Some of our readers may prefer to consider elec- 
 tricity rather than magnetism to be the most effi- 
 
PREFACE. 3 
 
 cient o£ the natural forces. We have given our 
 reasons for preferring the latter. Our views con- 
 cerning magnetism will be held to be entirely un- 
 tenable by those who believe it to be " only elec- 
 tricity in rotation " and that electricity is not a 
 " form of energy." After the writer had finished 
 his notes on the properties of magnetism he saw 
 for the first time Dr. Hodge's " Modern Elec- 
 tricity " and was gratified to find that some of his 
 (the writer's) views and suggestions are fortified 
 by so acute a thinker and so vigorous a writer. 
 He was also gratified to note the just tribute of- 
 fered by Dr. Hodge to the memory of the late Prof. 
 Joseph Henry, the first discoverer of Telegraphy. 
 
 If the writer has seemed to express himself with 
 undue earnestness and confidence in some portions 
 of his work, he begs the reader to believe that it 
 has been in no spirit of dogmatism. Further ob- 
 servations and experiments with improved instru- 
 ments and under favorable conditions may tend to 
 prove the truth of our main hypothesis. If we 
 have presented any new truth, or any new fact or 
 suggestion of permanent value that may help other 
 students to take other onward and upward steps in 
 this sublime field of investigation, we shall be sat- 
 isfied. The labor has been one of ever increasing 
 love, admiration, and adoration. 
 
 Ithaca, N. Y., July 18th, 1891. 
 
Explanation. 
 
 The reader will note that the author in treating of " matter " 
 in several portions of the work, has used terms not contradic- 
 tory, but disconnected. Instead of rearranging and correcting 
 them in order to present a more logical conclusion, he deeidbd 
 to leave them, with this explanation, as they were copied from 
 his original notes. 
 
 Page 65, first line, read "an" instead of "and". 
 
 Page 171, second line, «0|jt "pairjof"- 
 
 Page 1 74, sixteenth line, omit " pairs of ". 
 
 Page 128, twelfth line from the top, read "rhythmic" for 
 " rhythmatic " 
 
 Page 224, third line in first stanza of poem, for " story " read 
 " starry ". 
 
 The first three lines in the last paragraph on page 277 should 
 read: 
 
 " The hyperboloid that revolves about its transverse axis gener- 
 ates half a nappe. The nappes are surfaces of double curvature. 
 They are " etc. 
 
MAGNETISM. 
 
 I. 
 
 Subject Proposed. — Object to be Attained. 
 
 Since Sir Isaac Newton's announcement and ex- 
 position of the laws of gravitation, so called, and 
 their application to all matter, but more especially 
 to the stars and planets and all other celestial bodies, 
 no other subject, probably, has so fully occupied 
 and exercised the minds of investigators of natural 
 phenomena. This is especially true in regard to 
 the stellar systems, and what may be called the 
 Geography of the Heavens. The profound and 
 intensely interesting investigations of Swedenborg, 
 the Herschels, Laplace, Kant, Struve, Father 
 Secchi and others, large as is the store of knowl- 
 edge they have supplied, still leave much to be 
 learned. 
 
 The facts concerning the stars, suns, planets, 
 
 nebulae and other celestial bodies considered as 
 
 things, as material bodies moving in space, their 
 
 5 
 
6 SUBJECT PROPOSED. 
 
 elements, motions, periods, their mass, volume and 
 weight, their relations to and influence on each 
 other, have been more or less fully and satis- 
 factorily ascertained and described. But the 
 system under which the whole mass, the grand 
 aggregation of the celestial bodies is arranged, 
 their common centre, if they have one, their pres- 
 ent and future positions, the probable or possible 
 changes to which they may be subjected and the 
 probable or possible periods of their existence, are 
 still undetermined. 
 
 The object of this memoir is to consider the 
 present state of our knowledge on the subject, 
 to glance at the different theories of the stellar 
 cosmography, and then, after classifying and collat- 
 ing such truths and facts as observation — which is 
 a mental act, — experiment — which is a physical 
 one, — and experience — which is the knowledge 
 gained by experiment — have supplied us, to con- 
 sider what further progress may be possible in our 
 explorations of this most extensive and sublimest 
 field of human knowledge. 
 
 From Prof. Newcomb's lucid and admirable 
 work " Popular Astronomy " we quote a striking 
 paragraph which will more fully suggest the 
 range and scope of our design. It is as follows : 
 " The widest question which the study of the 
 stars presents to us may be approached in this 
 way : We have seen in our system of sun, planets, 
 and satellites, a very orderly and beautiful struct- 
 
OBJECT TO BE ATTAINED. 7 
 
 ure, every body being kept in its own orbit through 
 endless revolutions by a constant balancing of 
 gravitating and centrifugal forces. Do the millions 
 of suns and clusters scattered through space and 
 brought into view by the telescope, constitute a 
 greater system of equally orderly structures ? and 
 if so, what is that structure ? If we measure the 
 importance of a question, not by its relations to 
 our interests and our welfare, but by the intrinsic 
 greatness of the subject to which it relates, then 
 we must regard this question as one of the noblest 
 with which the human mind has ever been 
 occupied. In piercing the mystery of the solar 
 system, and showing that the earth on which we 
 dwell was only one of the smaller of, eight planets 
 which move around the sun, we made a great step 
 in the way of enlarging our ideas of the immensity 
 of creation and of the comparative insignificance of 
 our sublunary interests. But when, on extending 
 our view, we find our sun to be but one out of 
 unnumbered millions, we see that our whole 
 system is but an insignificant part of creation, and 
 that we have an immensely greater fabric to study. 
 When we have bound all the stars, nebulse and 
 clusters which our telescopes reveal into a single 
 system, and shown in what manner each stands 
 related to all the others, we shall have solved the 
 problem of the material univerae considered, not 
 in its details but in its wL iest scope." 
 
 While most profoundly impressed with the 
 
8 OBJECT TO BE ATTAINED. 
 
 magnitude of our task we may say, varying and 
 extending slightly the phrase of Bacon, that " if 
 we shall succeed in effecting anything to the pur- 
 pose, what led us to it was a true and genuine 
 humiliation of mind " and a sincere desire to some- 
 what enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge 
 and manifest forth the Divine Glory. 
 
SPACE, MATTER AND TIME. 
 
 II. 
 
 Space, Matter and Time. 
 
 Before considering the stellar systems and 
 more particularly the planetary system of which 
 our sun is the centre, it will be profitable to con- 
 sider some preliminary and most important ques- 
 tions which stand in direct and most intimate 
 relation to the whole subject. They relate to 
 Space, Matter and Time. It is not proposed to 
 consider the abstruse metaphysical nor the elabo- 
 rate physical definitions of these elements, but 
 merely to define them in the simplest terms that 
 will enable the general reader to understand their 
 value. While we have many speculations and 
 suggestions concerning them, we have no succinct, 
 comprehensive and satisfactory definition of either. 
 Still we know their functions, their uses, and dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics. Space is the medium 
 which contains all Matter and in which all forces 
 are developed and manifested. It can be bounded 
 only by itself, and, since any limit whatever must 
 be contained within another limit, it follows inevi- 
 tably that it has no limit. 
 
10 SPACE, MATTER AND TIME. 
 
 Matter is an accretion, larger or smaller, of 
 atoms or molecules that exist in a gaseous, liquid 
 or solid state. It cannot exist without Space. It 
 can have no extension or motion without Time. 
 The swing of a pendulum records a second of 
 time ; it also passes, simultaneously, through a 
 second of arc in space, and by friction at the pivot 
 of the pendulum-rod a molecule of matter is dis- 
 sipated. 
 
 Matter may fill all space, or, in isolated portions, 
 it may fill dififerent parts of space. It may exist 
 under an infinite variety of conditions and forms, 
 and consequently may be changed, transformed 
 and transmuted, but can never be destroyed. It 
 may have an infinite number of deaths, it must 
 have an equal number of resurrections. 
 
 It is interesting to note one of the earliest ex- 
 pressions of this idea of the indestructibility of 
 matter. Marcus Aurelius in Meditation V. 13, 
 writes : " I am composed of the formal and the 
 material ; and neither of them will perish into non- 
 existence, as neither of them came into existence 
 out of non-existence. Every part of me then will 
 be reduced by change into some part of the uni- 
 verse, and that again will change into another 
 pai-t of the universe, and so on forever." Again, 
 in Med. VI. 15, " Some things are hurrying into 
 existence and others are hurrying out of it ; and 
 of that that is coming into existence part is already 
 extinguished. Motions and changes are forever 
 
SPACE, MATTER AND TIME. 11 
 
 renewing the world, just as the uninterrupted 
 course of time is always renewing the infinite 
 duration of ages." 
 
 Again, in Med. IX. 28, " Soon will the earth 
 cover all : then the earth too will change, and the 
 things also which result from change will continue 
 to change forever, and these again forever." 
 
 Time is the element — Bacon and Kant called 
 time and space " forms" — which marks the growth, 
 development, continuance, change or decay of all 
 things and of all forms and conditions of life, or- 
 ganic or inorganic. In particulars it is limited ; in 
 the concrete it is limitless. Strato of Lampsacus 
 wished time to be called the " measure of move- 
 ment and rest." Aristotle called it the " measure 
 of duration." Newton would make " duration 
 another name for absolute time." Condensing 
 these suggestions we may say that Time is the 
 measure of motion and rest. The motion of a point 
 in space generates a line ; the motion of a line in 
 the direction of its greatest dimension generates a 
 plane ; the motion of a plane in the direction of 
 its greatest dimension generates a solid. 
 
 The infinitesimal quantity of space is a point ; 
 the same quantity of matter is an atom or a mole- 
 cule ; the same quantity of time is an instant. If 
 we could conceive of the beginning of all things 
 and at the same time imagine the existence at once 
 and together, of a point in space, an atom of matter 
 and an instant of time, then the addition of another 
 
12 SPACE, MATTER AND TIME. 
 
 atom of matter would require the addition of an- 
 other point in space, and to make this addition 
 would consume another instant of time. By the 
 continuous and perpetual repetition of this process 
 we should make an infinite accretion of the differ- 
 ent constituents. Thus in this trinity we have 
 the germ of a physical universe, and in it we also 
 observe the direct, intimate and perpetual union 
 of Space, Matter and Time, their perfect and abso- 
 lute correlation. In and by and through them we 
 become acquainted with the somatology of matter 
 and all the forms, varieties, properties and uses of 
 force or energy. 
 
THE STELLAR AND PLANETABY SYSTEMS. 13 
 
 III. 
 
 The Stellar and Planetary Systems. 
 
 In studying the stellar and planetary systems 
 the first objects to demand our attention are the 
 stars themselves, including both suns and planets ; 
 and after these, asteroids, nebulae, comets and 
 meteorites. It is not proposed to enter into any 
 historical details concerning them. We know, as 
 already stated, their position, their composition, 
 their characteristics and the laws which govern 
 their motions. Of the medium, space, that they 
 occupy and in which all their motions are exe- 
 cuted; of the force or forces which insure their 
 stability; of the manner in which those forces act ; 
 of the system and order in which they are arranged 
 and distributed in space ; concerning all these we 
 have much to learn. It is proposed to collect and 
 collate such facts and theories as bear upon these 
 points, and then to determine whether, from strict 
 analogy and legitimate deduction, we are not en- 
 titled to advance still farther from the known into 
 the unknown. 
 
 " I am," says Faraday,* " exceedingly adverse 
 * Conservation of Force. 
 
14 THE STELLAR AND PLANETAJiT SYSTEMS. 
 
 to the easy and unconsidered admission of one 
 supposition upon another, suggested as they often 
 are by any imperfect induction from a small num- 
 ber of facts, or by a very imperfect observation of 
 the facts themselves ; but, on the other hand, I 
 think the philosopher may be bold in his applica- 
 tion of principles which have been developed by 
 close inquiry, have stood through much investigar 
 tion, and continually increase in force." 
 
FORCE AND MOTION. 1ft 
 
 IV. 
 
 Force and Motion. 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to force and mo- 
 tion. The chief forces of nature, so called, are 
 magnetism, electricity, heat, light, chemical affin- 
 ity and gravitation. From these, singly or in com- 
 bination, all motion is derived, what are called the 
 " mechanical powers " not, of course, being consid- 
 ered. Since the general acceptation by physicists 
 of the validity and efficacy of what Grove calls 
 the " correlation," Faraday the " conservation " and 
 Herbert Spencer the " persistence " of force, all 
 meaning the same thing, th§ law which Faraday 
 characterizes as " the highest in physical science 
 which our faculties permit us to perceive," the 
 progress of physical science has been unprecedent- 
 ed in extent and never exceeded in importance. 
 In the long and earnest endeavor to establish the 
 principle of the correlation of forces some physi- 
 cists entertained the idea, amounting almost to a 
 conviction, that it might ultimately be proven that 
 there is, if not an absolute unification of all physi- 
 cal forces, which are differentiated only by varia- 
 
16 FORCE AND MOTION. 
 
 tion of conditions, at least a single force which 
 should permeate all others, and connection with 
 which should be indispensable for their efficiency. 
 Says Faraday * (§ 2146), " I have long- held an 
 opinion amounting to conviction, in common I be- 
 lieve with many other lovers of natural knowledge, 
 that the various forms under which the forces of 
 matter are made manifest have one common origin, 
 or, in other words, are so directly related and mu- 
 tually dependent that they are, as it were, convert- 
 ible into one another and possess equivalents of 
 power in their action. Again, farther on, he says 
 (§ 2702), " The long and constant persuasion that 
 all the forces of nature are mutually dependent, 
 having one common origin, or rather being differ- 
 ent manifestations of one fundamental power, has 
 made me often think of the possibility of estab- 
 lishing by experiment a connection between grav- 
 ity and electricity, and so introducing the former 
 into the group, the (jhain of which, including also 
 magnetism, chemical force and heat, binds together 
 so many and such varied exhibitions of force by 
 common relations." 
 
 " All the non-magnetic metals," he says (§ 2295), 
 " are subject to the magnetic power," and further 
 after the discovery of diamagnetism he says (§ 
 2420), that " all matter appears to be subject to the 
 magnetic force as universally as it is to the gravi- 
 tating, the electric and the chemical or cohesive 
 * Experimental Researches in Magnetism. 
 
FORCE AND MOTION. 17 
 
 forces ;" also (§ 3174), " that whatever idea we 
 employ to represent the (magnetic) power ought 
 ultimately to include electric forces, for the two 
 are so related that one expression ought to serve 
 for both. 
 
 Magnetic and electric lines of force are analo- 
 gous, and considering the existence of these lines of 
 force he says (§ 3273), " The magnet is evidently 
 the sustaining power. In every point of view, 
 therefore, the magnet deserves the utmost exer- 
 tions of the philosopher for the development of its 
 nature both as magnet and a source of electricity." 
 Such are the opinions of this distinguished philos- 
 opher. They are more or less fully corroborated 
 by many others. One of his most distinguished 
 contemporaries, the late Prof. Maxwell, comment- 
 ing upon his experiments in magnetism in its re- 
 lation to the ether and the electro-magnetic rota- 
 tion of light says (Address before the London In- 
 stitution), " The vast planetary and inter-stellar 
 regions will no longer be regarded as waste places 
 in the universe which the Creator has not seen iit 
 to fill with the- symbols of the manifold order of 
 His kingdom. We shall find them to be already 
 full of this wonderful medium ; so full that no 
 human power can remove it from the smallest por- 
 tion of space or produce the slightest flaw in its 
 infinite continuity. It extends unbroken from 
 star to star ; and when a molecule of hydrogen 
 vibrates in the Dog-star the medium receives the 
 
18 FORCE AND MOTION. 
 
 impulses of these vibrations." Of similar purport 
 is the following extract from Sir W. Thomson's 
 Papers on electrostatics and magnetism : " It is 
 often asked, are we to fall back on facts and phe- 
 nomena and give up all idea of penetrating that 
 mystery which hangs around the ultimate nature 
 of matter? ... It does seem that the marvellous 
 train of discovery, unparalleled in the history of 
 experimental science, which the last years of the 
 world have seen to emanate from experiments, 
 must lead to a stage of knowledge in which laws 
 of organic nature will be understood in this sense : 
 that one will be known as essentially connected 
 with all, and in which unity of plan through an in- 
 exhaustibly varied execution will be recognized as 
 a universally manifested result of creative wisdom." 
 More emphatically accordant with the foregoing 
 views are those expressed by Helmholtz in his 
 "Aim and Progress of Physical Science " : " It has 
 actually been established as the result of investiga- 
 tions, that all the forces of nature are measurable 
 by the same mechanical standard, and that all 
 pure motive forces are, as regards .performance of 
 work, equivalent." . . . . " Whether the foregoing 
 considerations chiefly seek to elucidate the logi- 
 cal value of the law of conservation of forces, its 
 actual signification in the general conception of the 
 processes of nature is expressed in the grand con- 
 nection which it establishes between the entire 
 processes of the universe through all distances of 
 
FOnCE AND MoTton. 19 
 
 place or time. The universe appears, according 
 to this law, to be endowed with a store of energj'- 
 which, through all the varied changes in natural 
 processes, can neither be increased nor diminished ; 
 which is maintained therein in ever-varying phases 
 but, like matter itself, is from eternity to eternity 
 of unchanging magnitude." 
 
 Says Grove in " concluding remarks " on the 
 " Correlation of Physical Forces " : " The convic- 
 tion that the so-called imponderables are modes 
 of motion, will, at all events, lead the observer of 
 natural phenomena to look for changes in these 
 affections, whenever the intimate structure of 
 matter is changed ; and conversely to seek for 
 changes in matter, either temporary or permanent, 
 whenever it is affected by these forces. ... It 
 is a great assistance in such investigations to be 
 intimately convinced that no physical phenomena 
 can stand alone ; each is inevitably connected 
 with anterior changes, and as inevitably productive 
 of consequential changes, each with the other, 
 and all with time and space ; and either in trac- 
 ing-back these antecedents or following up their 
 consequents, njany new phenomena will be discov- 
 ered, and many existing phenomena, hitherto be- 
 lieved distinct, will be connected and explained. 
 Explanation is, indeed, only relation to something 
 more familiar, not more known, i. e., known as to 
 causative or creative agencies. 
 
 " In all phenomena the more closely they are 
 
20 FORCE AND MOTION. 
 
 investigated^ the more we are convinced that, 
 humanly speaking, neither matter nor force can 
 be created or annihilated, and that an essential 
 cause is unattainable. Causation is the will, crea- 
 tion the act, of God." " The natural philosophy 
 of the future," says Tyndall (Heat as Motion, p. 
 351), " will certainly, for the most part, consist in 
 the investigation of the relations subsisting be- 
 tween the ordinary matter of the universe and the 
 wonderful ether in which this matter is immersed." 
 These citations are sufficient to indicate the cur- 
 rent of scientific opinion on the point above re- 
 ferred to, and also to convince us that there is an 
 earnest, abiding hope and conviction that grand 
 results are yet to be attained by further faithful 
 work in this direction. 
 
 In this chapter we have preserved the nomencla- 
 ture of the distinguished scientists whom we have 
 quoted, in order that we might show the change 
 that has taken place in that nomenclature, by giv- 
 ing the terminology finally adopted by modern 
 scientists. The terms "correlation," "conserva- 
 tion," and " persistence " of force are no longer 
 used. It is now settled that energy, to which we 
 have referred in the sequel, is the thing conserved, 
 and forces are factors of energy, of which there are 
 different kinds or varieties exhibited under differ- 
 ent and varying conditions. Of the unity of what 
 are called the " forces of nature " all physicists are 
 practically convinced, but what term shall define 
 
FORCE AND MOTION. 21 
 
 tliat unity is not settled. The unity consists in 
 reducing them all to modes of motion of which 
 there is an almost infinite variety, many of which 
 we have set forth in the sequel. 
 
22 MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 
 
 V. 
 
 Magnetism and Electricity. 
 
 We propose now to set forth in detail the more 
 important results of observation and experiment 
 which have been reached up to the present time, 
 results of truths and facts in the grand curriculum 
 of physical science which furnish the material for 
 both the foundation and the superstructure of a 
 new Cosmography and a new system of Celestial 
 Geography. Let us begin with magnetism and 
 electricity. To the strong, earnest, reverent 
 genius of Faraday, science is indebted for the 
 most original, extended, subtle and lucid exposi- 
 tions of the properties, characteristics and effects 
 of magnetism considered as a force, and also of 
 those of electricity, though less fully. After fin- 
 ishing his famous experiments in which he suc- 
 ceeded in rotating a ray of polarized light by mag- 
 netic and electric forces he says : * " Thus is 
 established, I think for the first time, a true, direct 
 relation and dependence betweeh light and the 
 magnetic and electric forces, and thus a great ad- 
 dition made to the facts and considerations which 
 * Exp. Kes. in Magnetism, Vol. III. pp. 19-20. 
 
MAGNETISM AND JELECTEICITT. 23 
 
 tend to prove that all natural forces are tied to- 
 gether and have one common origin." 
 
 " A magnet placed in the best vacuum we can 
 conceive acts as well upon a needle as if it were 
 surrounded by air, water or glass, and therefore 
 these lines exist in such a vacuum as well as where 
 there is matter." * " All magnets first originate 
 lines of magnetic force which other magnets under 
 one .condition will receive and conduct, and, under 
 another condition resist and repel, exhibiting the 
 ordinary conditions of magnetic attraction and re- 
 pulsion. But currents of electricity are competent 
 to produce or induce collateral currents, and mag- 
 nets are proved competent to produce like cur- 
 rents, thus showing the identity of action of mag- 
 nets and currents, in producing effects different 
 from those of ordinary magnetic attractions and 
 repulsions. External to the magnet, those concen- 
 trations which are named poles may be considered 
 as connected by what are called magnetic curves 
 or lines of magnetic force, and which exist in the 
 space around." " These phrases have a high 
 meaning, and represent the ideality of magnetism. 
 They imply not merely the directions of force 
 which are made manifest by the smallest magnet, 
 but also those lines of power which connect and 
 sustain the magnetic polarities and which exist as 
 much when there is no magnetic needle to show 
 their presence as when there is." 
 
 * Exp. Ees. in Magnetism, p. 415. 
 
24 MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 
 
 The earth, according to Gauss, is a great mag- 
 net whose power is expressed by the utterly in- 
 comprehensible sum of eight octillions of pounds. 
 "Experiments prove that there is no loss, or 
 destruction, or evanescence, or latent state of mag- 
 netic power, caused by distance, nor in consequence 
 of the convergence or divergence of the lines of 
 force or obliquity of their intersection." (§§ 
 3110, 3112, 3113.) " Such an action (Magnetism, 
 § 3075) may be a function of the ether, for it is not 
 at all unlikely, if there be an ether, it should have 
 other uses than simply the conveyance of radia- 
 tions." " It may be a vibration (§ 3263) of the 
 hypothetical ether, or a state of tension of that 
 ether equivalent to either a dynamic or static con- 
 dition." 
 
 " A magnet presents a system of forces perfect 
 in itself, and able, therefore, to exist by its own 
 mutual relations." Let us especially note that 
 there is no otJier force of which this, can be said. 
 " It has a dual and antithetic character belonging 
 to both static and dynamic electricity, as is demon- 
 strated by the opposite powers of like kind formed 
 at its poles. These poles are related to each other 
 not only through or within the magnet itself, but 
 also by external curves or lines of force, without 
 which they cannot exist," * since it is impossi- 
 ble to construct a magnet with a .single pole. 
 " Though the physical lines of force of a magnet 
 * Exp. Res., Vol. III., p. 441. 
 
MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 20 
 
 must be considered as extending to an infinite dis- 
 tance around it, so long as it is isolated, yet they 
 may be condensed, compressed into a very small 
 local space by other systems of magnetic power." 
 
 From ordinary magnetism, Faraday (Vol. I., 
 § 157) developed electricity, and refers (Vol. III., 
 p. 524) to Carnot's experiment with a revolving 
 disk, in which he found currents of electricity com- 
 petent to produce collateral currents and magnets 
 proved competent to produce like currents. And 
 notwithstanding the generally accepted impression 
 that all metals lose their magnetism when raised 
 to a red heat, he declares that the magnetic metals 
 retain a certain amount of magnetic power, what- 
 ■ ever their temperature. 
 
 Arago discovered the fact that when a copper 
 plate or disk is rotated below a freely suspended 
 magnet, the* latter tends to follow the motion of 
 the plate. This is the effect of a magnetic force 
 pure and simple. And Faraday explains it as 
 arising from electrical currents induced by the 
 magnets in the rotating disk, thus proving, in this 
 case at least, that the action of magnetism and 
 electricity are identical. He also states (§ 2514) 
 that " if a copper disk suspended by a long string is 
 set whirling, and is then introduced into the field 
 of an electro-magnet, its motion will be instantly 
 arrested, and it cannot be further rotated in the 
 field." In this case, also, it is the magnetic force 
 that proves effective. 
 
26 MAGNETISM AND ELECTBICITT. 
 
 Again, Helmholtz * writes, a copper disk set in a 
 wood frame, with multiplying gear, and rotated 
 with great rapidity, was placed between two pieces 
 of iron which did not touch it, being part of the 
 armor of an electro-magnet. Turn the current of a 
 3-cell battery round this magnet, and the pieces of 
 iron act like a break that entirely stops the rota- 
 tibn of the disk, and it can only be started again 
 by the application of a strong force. Here, also, 
 the result is due to magnetism, or the magnetic 
 force. Prof. Tait, also, a conservative and accom- 
 plished physicist, notes f that " where a conducting 
 body is made to move in the neighborhood of a 
 magnet, the relative motion of the two produces 
 currents of electricity in the conductors. If a 
 copper disk be kept so moving, the faster it moves 
 the stronger the currents become, until, finally, the 
 disk is heated and melted ; " thus proving that in- 
 tense heat is evolved from magnetism alone, there 
 being no friction of surfaces. This is in conform- 
 ity with Oersted's investigations, which linked to- 
 gether magnetism and electricity, and also with 
 Ampere's conclusion, that all the properties of a 
 permanent magnet can be explained on the hypoth- 
 esis of electrical currents circulating in a fixed 
 direction around the magnet. If two polished 
 disks of zinc and copper be brought into close prox- 
 imity and kept there for some time, and either of 
 
 * PhU. Mag., 1867. 
 
 t Recent Advances in Physical Science. 
 
MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 27 
 
 them has irregularities upon its surface, a super- 
 ficial outline of them will be traced by each upon 
 the other, showing the action of magnetic force. 
 If the disks be connected with a delicate electro- 
 scope, and then suddenly separated, the electroscope 
 is affected, showing that superficial radiation from 
 surface to surface has produced electrical force.* 
 
 " All substances conduct electricity in some de- 
 gree." f " There are no bodies," says Daniel, J 
 " which are absolutely non-conductors ; all conduct 
 electricity more or less slowly. There are no 
 bodies that are perfect conductors ; all offer more 
 or less resistance to the fiow of electricity." 
 
 One of the most important and comprehensive 
 actions of magnetism is that manifested in chemic 
 force. Its wide range of affinities and activities is 
 marvellous ; its various combinations and mixtures 
 are infinite in number. Every stomach, every ap- 
 paratus for secretion and digestion in every living 
 organism is a chemical laboratory in constant 
 operation. Every vegetable growth, from the 
 least to the greatest, is a product of chemic force. 
 The earth is one vast laboratory for the produc- 
 tion of germs, roots, stems, cells and protoplasm 
 for every possible variety and form of plant-life. 
 It energizes all living matter and reproduces new 
 life from death and decay. Its most amazing ex- 
 
 * Grove, Con. of Forces, p. 58. 
 
 t Ganot's Physics, p. 566. 
 
 i Principles of Physics, p. 537. 
 
28 MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 
 
 hibition is its selective faculty. The vast fertile 
 portions of the earth are covered with innumerable 
 forms and varieties of vegetation, of every shape 
 and color, producing every variety of fruit to grat- 
 ify the taste and of flowers to charm the eye. 
 
 Plant organisms of different size, form, function, 
 and color gvow side by side in the same soil, the 
 same atmosphere and under the same conditions. 
 The fruits and flowers that they produce are as 
 various in flavor and in fragrance as they are al- 
 most infinite in number. 
 
 To the electro-chemic force we are indebted for 
 all forms of crystallization — for gems and precious 
 stones, for the agates and malachites, for the nu- 
 merous variegated marbles, and, especially, for the 
 lodestone, without which ocean navigation would 
 be nearly paralyzed by day and entirely so oh star- 
 less nights. 
 
 We have in the sequel (p. 33) noted the fact 
 that the greatest magnetic tensity in different 
 bodies is manifested at their edges and pointed 
 ends. In cylindrical bodies or any bodies with 
 curved surfaces it is distributed more or less uni- 
 formly through the exterior surface. In trees, 
 shrubs and plants the character of the organism 
 as to density, elasticity, color, graining, etc., is 
 determined by the electrical and chemical action of 
 the nutritive material with which, through the aid 
 of light, heat and moisture the organism is built 
 up. Miiller found that the electrical action in 
 
MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 29 
 
 growing trees and shrubs was most effective in 
 the extremities of the roots and branches, thus con- 
 firming Darwin's observation, as to the roots, that 
 their irritability — sensitive growth — was local- 
 ized in t)ieir tips. This also corresponds with the 
 action of magnetism in solids. 
 
 The dynamic energy of magnetism is very strik- 
 ingly shown in the growth of shrubs, plants and 
 trees. All these except air-plants derive their 
 nourishment from the earth and the air. 
 
 One of the most conspicuous exhibitions of at- 
 mospheric magnetism, if we may so designate it, 
 is seen in the growth of trees standing in groves 
 in an open country. All the branches of the trees 
 growing on the edges of the grove are strongly 
 drawn outward by the magnetism in the atmos- 
 phere and in the unshaded earth, while the inward 
 growth, towards the shaded earth and shadows of 
 the trees, is exceedingly limited, except near and 
 at the tops which are fully exposed to the light on 
 all sides so that the branches stretch out equally 
 in all directions. This characteristic of tree- 
 growth is especially exhibited in trees that stand 
 isolated in open fields. They present broad, beau- 
 tiful, bushy tops, and attain a larger growth than 
 the same class of trees standing in forests. 
 
 Young trees of any kind, .but especially fruit 
 trees standing on either side of a thick grove, 
 will be stunted in growth, and after reaching a 
 certain height the branches will be drawn toward 
 
30 MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 
 
 the light and in due time will be so curved as to 
 stand nearly at right angles with the bole. No 
 branches will grow towards the grove. Light, the 
 magnetic force that compels all these branches to 
 grow in one direction, is as efficient as any me- 
 chanical force could be, though slower in action. 
 
 One of the most beautiful exhibitions of tree- 
 growth is the graining of the wood. The word is 
 not found in the best text-books in botany, and the 
 fact is only slightly indicated in the description 
 of the stratified gi'owth of the organism. The 
 principal elements in building up the organism are 
 the roots and stems, the former drawing from the 
 earth the substantial ingredients that furnish 
 the protoplasm of the stem with its branches and 
 leaves. 
 
 The nutriment of different kinds utilized in 
 tree-growth is stored in cells. These cells are of 
 different form and size and are disposed in different 
 positions in the tree trunks and branches. Some 
 of them stand upright, nearly parallel to the axis 
 of the stem. But much the larger number of them 
 stand at different angles with the axis, as may be 
 seen when they are strongly magnified. Each cell 
 has its own wall, and as the tree advances in age 
 their composition is changed. When the cells are 
 small, thin, short and narrow and lie parallel with 
 the trunk-axis, the grain of the tree will be straight, 
 fine and uniform. When the cells are longer and 
 broader with thicker and more porous walls and 
 
MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 31 
 
 when they are disposed at different angles with the 
 axis of the trunk then the fibrous stratification is 
 more manifest and tiae curved, wavy and forked 
 lines and veins of the grain are more fully devel- 
 oped. In some species of trees the cells are vario- 
 late, presenting an appearance similar to the pit- 
 tings of small pox ; others are verticulate, dis- 
 posed in sworls. These two classes of cells are 
 strongly developed in the curl and spotted maple, 
 the graining of which is often very beautiful. In all 
 trees the laminated structure that forms the rings 
 which mark the annual circumferential growth of 
 the tree is most rapidly developed while the tree 
 is young. The width of the rings is always greatest 
 next to the centre of the stem and they grow nar- 
 rower each succeeding year. 
 
 We have seen the butt of a white oak the annular 
 rings of which proved it to be more than four 
 hundred years old, and after being sawed some axe- 
 marks near its centre were showi> to have been 
 made more than one hundred and fifteen years 
 before Columbus discovered America. 
 
 That the density and strength of the cell walls 
 is greater than that of their contents may be de- 
 monstrated by applying an acid of proper strength 
 to the clean surface of the heart-wood of any tree. 
 The contents of the cells will be eaten out and the 
 cell walls will appear like a collection of small 
 pits, as indicated below. If these be rubbed hard 
 with a bit of polished steel a smoother aijd harder 
 
32 MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITT. 
 
 surface will be made than can be made in any- 
 other way. 
 
 The rapidity of growth and graining of the tree 
 varies with the season. In the spring, after the 
 winter's rest and after the rain showers have 
 thoroughly moistened the earth and the rays of the 
 sun have become more ardent, then the roots are 
 most active and the growth of the tree is most 
 rapid. And the graining is then also most rapidly 
 developed, being aided by strong winds and gales 
 which sway and bend the stem in all directions, 
 resembling what would be the action of a wet 
 cylindrical sponge when bent, in forcing the moist- 
 ure to the surface of the inner curve. There is 
 also absorption of what Sachs calls the " nutrient 
 fluid " from without. Thus the growth progresses 
 rapidly until the autumn when the leaves fall and 
 the sap descends through the roots to the earth. 
 Then follow the colder months of the autumn and 
 winter. During this period the bole and branches 
 undergo a hardening process, making the wood 
 more dense, tough and strong. In tropical climates 
 they are hardened by heat, by baking as it wei-e. 
 To this high temperature also, is due the gigantic 
 vegetable growths of those climates. 
 
 Says Sachs, * " Chemical processes in the interior 
 
 of the growing body is always connected with these 
 
 (micellse) processes of growth. The nutrient fluid 
 
 which penetrates from without contains in fact the 
 
 * Text Book of Botany, pp. 666-7. 
 
MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 33 
 
 material for the formation of micellae of a definite 
 chemical nature; but the material is chemically 
 different from the micellae which it produces. 
 Thus starch grains are nourished by a fluid which 
 clearly does not contain any starch in secretion, 
 and again the cell wall grows by the absorption of 
 substances out of the protoplasm which are not 
 dissolved cellulose Growth by intussus- 
 ception is therefore connected not only with a con- 
 tinual disturbance of the molecular equilibrium, but 
 also with chemical processes in the interior of the 
 growing structure. Chemical compounds of the 
 most various kinds meet between the micellae of an 
 organized body so that they act upon and decompose 
 one another. It is certain that all growth continues 
 only so long as the growing parts of the cell are 
 exposed to the atmospheric air. The oxygen of the 
 air has a decomposing effect on the chemical com- 
 pounds contained in the organized structure ; with 
 every act of growth carbon dioxide is produced and 
 evolved. The equilibrium of the chemical forces is 
 also continually disturbed by the necessary produc- 
 tion of heat and this may also be accompanied by 
 electrical action. The movement of the atoms and 
 molecules within a growing organized body repre- 
 sent a certain amount of work, and the equivalent 
 forces are set free by chemical changes. The essence 
 of organization and of life lies in this : that organized 
 structures are capable of a constant internal change, 
 and that so long as they are in contact with water 
 3 
 
34 MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 
 
 and witli any oxygenated air only a portion of 
 their forces remains in equilibrium even in their 
 interior, and determines the form and framework 
 of the whole, while new forces are constantly 
 being set free by chemical changes between and 
 in the molecules, which forces in their turn oc- 
 casion further changes. This depends essentially 
 on the peculiarity of micellar structure, which per- 
 mits dissolved and gaseous (absorbed) substances 
 to penetrate from without into every point of 
 the interior and to be again conveyed outwards." 
 From this extract we learn that in all growing 
 plants the moisture of the atmosphere exercises an 
 important function. It acts like a balance wheel 
 in an engine ; it secures uniformity of action, of 
 energy, and this secures uniformity of growth. 
 The atmosphere is never entirely free from moists 
 ure as was abundantly demonstrated by Tyndall. 
 To this fact is due the abundant juiciness of tropi- 
 cal and semi-tropical fruits, melons, oranges, pine- 
 apples, etc., that grow on light soils with infrequent 
 rains. 
 
 Says Grey,* "The color in trees is owing to 
 special vegetable products, or sometimes to alter- 
 ations resulting from age." Chemical action and 
 electricity, as noted above, also exert an influence. 
 This is true as to single, separate trees. But why 
 trees of different species growing in the same soil, 
 the same climate and the same atmosphere should 
 » Text Book of Botany, Sec. 147. 
 
MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. 35 
 
 differ entirely in grain and color, one being of a pui-e 
 white like the outer layers of rough-bark hickory, 
 another the dark shade of the black oak, another 
 with the deep red of the mahogany, another with 
 the soft, bright j'ellow of satin wood, we do not 
 know. Through some subtle alchemy of nature 
 the roots and sap seem to be endowed with a selec- 
 tive faculty that enables them to supply the par- 
 ticular protoplasm necessary for each variation of 
 wood, form and color. This selective faculty must 
 be mainly due to chemical afSnity and combination. 
 There are also various nutrient vegetables grown 
 beneath the earth's surface. There are others that 
 are rank poisons. All these are indebted to the selec- 
 tive faculty of the roots, especially to what the old 
 botanists called the nib, for their distinctive charac- 
 teristics. It is the chemic force that dyes the foli- 
 age of tree, shrub and flowers, that paints the neck 
 of the dove and the breast of the robin. The red 
 rose and blue violet are as red and as blue at mid- 
 night as at mid-day. Light is the subtle and 
 potent alchemist that reveals them to our con- 
 sciousness. 
 
36 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Electridty ; Magnetism; Vacua; Radiant Seat; 
 The Universal Force. 
 
 In some experiments made by Mr. John Hop- 
 kinson, quoted by Sir Wm. Thomson,* he found that 
 the electric current traversed witli difficulty a partial 
 vacuum, and that the more perfect the vacuum 
 became the more effectually the current was im- 
 peded, until, in a vacuum as perfect as it is possible 
 to create by artificial means, the current was entirely 
 checked. M. Pliicker employed Geissler a skilful 
 glassblower of Bonn, to make permanently ex- 
 hausted tubes for experiments in electric discharges 
 in vacuo. In his experiments Pliicker found that 
 the luminous strata developed by these discharges 
 and also the streams and glows after the discharges, 
 obeyed magnetical influences in a remarkable way. 
 Here we are reminded of the Aurora and the 
 Zodiacal light, and still farther by the fact that, 
 in one case — the discharge between two aluminium 
 balls, — the striae nearest the negative ball were 
 * Proceedings of Royal Society, Dec. 11, 1863. 
 
VACUA. 37 
 
 truncated and of a pale green color, the color 
 observed in those lights through the spectroscope, 
 as we shall see in the sequel. 
 
 These discharges were also studied by Gassiot by- 
 means of a galvanic battery and other forms of elec- 
 tric generators. We also learn from Ganot * con- 
 cerning Geissler's tubes that, " at the moment of 
 being closed these tubes are exhausted and before 
 sealing them a small quantity of gas or vapor and 
 potash is introduced, so that its pressure does not ex- 
 ceed half a millimetre." Hence they were not perfect 
 vacua. "When a tube three inches long and one 
 inch in diameter, provided with very thin platinum 
 electrodes five-eighths of an inch apart, was employed 
 no discharge passed till the potash which it con- 
 tained was heated, when a faint luminosity appeared, 
 and immediately afterwards one and then two 
 cloud-like striae came from the positive wire, while 
 round the negative a large brilliant glow was pro- 
 duced ; as the discharge continued the negative 
 wire became red-hot." In this experiment proof 
 is obtained that the discharge will not pass in a 
 very perfect vacuum, the presence of a certain 
 amount of matter being indispensable, and then 
 heat is developed. Of course the " heated " potash 
 supplied the " matter " which destroyed the vacuum 
 and was " indispensable " before the discharge could 
 pass. Faraday demonstrated that the magnetic 
 force freely traversed the same kind of vacuum, also 
 * Ganot's Physics, p. 733, Atkinson's Translation. 
 
38 VACUA. 
 
 that similar electrical currents placed side by side 
 add their quantities together and similar magnetie 
 lines of force do the same, hence electric lines of 
 force are analogous to magnetic lines of force 
 (§§ 268, 269). 
 
 As indicating the compressibility of magnetism 
 — a term repeatedly employed by him and other 
 scientists— is the fact that a helix-carrying current 
 can develop in an iron core a magnetic force of 
 a hundred fold greater power than that possessed 
 by itself (§ 3273). " All bodies are affected by 
 helices as by magnets, and according to laws which 
 show that the causes of the action are identical as 
 well as the effects " (§ 22869), thus confirming 
 the correctness of the opinion of Ampere as to the 
 identity of the action of helices and magnets. 
 
 We also know that when the plane or square 
 ends of a bar magnet are made conical or pointed 
 their intensity and power are much increased. 
 And we are led still further in the same direction 
 by the experiments of M. Plantd who constructed 
 some powerful secondary batteiies by connecting 
 the secondary elements side by side or in series. 
 By thus connecting four or five elements and dis- 
 charging them through a short, thick iron wire, he 
 heated it to what may be called the boiling point, 
 the centre of it being fused into a ball with bub- 
 bles of gas bursting from the interior. He also 
 found that the secondary currents would magnetize 
 electro-magnets much more powerfully than the 
 
RADIANT HEAT. 39 
 
 primary currents from which they were derived. 
 The miiximum magnetization which a steel bar can 
 acquire depends not only on the nature of the 
 steel and its mode of tempering, but also on the 
 dimensions of the bar. It is greater as the bar 
 has the form of a longer and thinner cylinder. By 
 working very thin rods Kohlrauch observed that 
 the magnetic moment of steel may attain 100 
 units per gramme, which would give a strength of 
 magnetization . . . nearly 10,000 times that of 
 the earth.* Joule proved that bars of iron, nickel 
 and cobalt were lengthened by magnetization and 
 that when the action of the field is suppressed the 
 bars shorten without returning to their original 
 length. The elongation of cobalt is nearly twice 
 that of iron. I 
 
 The blacksmith would find it necessary to 
 apply many sturdy blows of his sledge hammer in 
 order to elongate a bar of cold iron ; but here is a 
 silent, invisible, irresistible force that accomplishes 
 this work, in a longer time, perhaps, but with 
 equal efficiency. It is also proved that a bar of 
 soft iron becomes heated when subjected to suc- 
 cessive magnetizations and demagnetizations or to 
 magnetizations in opposite directions, J The elongar 
 tions by heat and the shortening by frost of iron 
 
 * Marcart and Joubert : Elect, and Mag., translated by E. 
 Atkinson, 
 t Joule's Scientific Papers, Vol. I., pp. 235-264. 
 X Grove : Art. VI. Magnetism. 
 
40 RADIANT HEAT. 
 
 rails and other bars of iron exposed to tlie alternar 
 tions of the weather are familiar facts. Prof. 
 Crookes, by means of what he calls radiant matter, 
 operating in vacuum tubes or bulbs of glass, pro- 
 duced the shadow of an aluminium cross on the 
 phosphorized end, so to speak, of a bulb. The 
 radiant matter thus projected not only made the 
 glass phosphorescent, but also warmed it, a very 
 remarkable result, indicating that if the strength 
 of the induction coil were increased and its action 
 longer continued the temperature of the glass 
 would have been raised even, perhaps, to the 
 melting-point.* 
 
 The mechanical action of this radiant heat is 
 shown by the glass railway bulb, within which, on 
 a pair of glass rails, a small wheel with wide mica 
 spokes is propelled. This mechanical action is 
 further exhibited in the beautiful electrical ra- 
 diometer which carries within the bulb a fly — as 
 Crookes calls it — with four square vanes of mica 
 supported on aluminium arms, having beneath a 
 ring of fine platinum wire, the ends of Avhich pass 
 through the glass and may be connected with an 
 induction coil. On this being so attached as to 
 make the platinum wire the negative pole the 
 vanes were rotated with great velocity. Now as 
 Faraday and Hopkinson demonstrated that elec- 
 tricity cannot freely traverse a vacuum, it follows 
 that these and all similar results obtained by means 
 Gorton : Electricity and Maj;., pp. 121, 123. 
 
RADIANT HEAT. 41 
 
 of these tubes must have been produced by 
 magnetism or a magnetic force, since it has also 
 been demonstrated that magnetism easily traverses 
 a vacuum. Further, in regard to vacua we may 
 note that Morgan, quoted by Grove, — Art. Light 
 — "found no conduction by a good Torricellean 
 vacuum," and that Masson found that the barom- 
 etric vacuum does not conduct a current of elec- 
 tricity, or even a discharge, unless the tension is 
 sufficient to detach particles from the electrodes;" 
 and further that Gassiot " by adopting a plan of 
 Dr. Andrews, viz. : absorbing carbonic acid by 
 potash, succeeded in forming vacua across which 
 the powerful discharge from the Rhumkorf coil 
 will not pass." The old Realists — so called — 
 spake more wisely than they knew when they de- 
 clared that "Nature abhors a vacuum." This is 
 sufficiently demonstrated by the fierce alacrity 
 with which it hastens to fill one that has been 
 produced by the operation of its own laws. When 
 a vacuum is created in the air by the explosion of 
 a thunderbolt the vast pressure of the whole 
 terrestrial atmosphere instantly rushes in to fill it. 
 Now, if it be true, according to the abundant 
 evidence we have cited, that electricity cannot 
 traverse a vacuum, it must be particularly noted 
 that there can be no electricity in the medium or 
 force that fills that vacuum, for all the electricity 
 in the vicinitj- had been exhausted by the dis- 
 charge of the bolt, and even if electric currents 
 
42 THE UNIVERSAL FORCE. 
 
 could have been present they would been ineffec- 
 tive. But magnetic currents or lines of force freely 
 traverse a vacuum, and these must have supplied the 
 force which restored the atmospheric equilibrium. 
 Leibnitz saj-s, " The ultimate source of all motion 
 is the original force lying in all bodies which may 
 be restricted or limited in various ways by the 
 conflict or collision of other bodies. This force 
 lies in all substances and a certain action always 
 arises from it." This was written nearly 200 years 
 ago, and is a very good description of the magnetic 
 force as we know it to-day. Kant claims that 
 Leibnitz founded the dynamic conception of 
 nature which has since continued to prevail. The 
 following may be accepted as a free translation of 
 a significant passage in his (Leibnitz's) doctrine 
 of Monads : " Matter must be always the same, 
 since the monads are always the same ; and force 
 can never be destroyed since the monad can never 
 be destroyed. The whole interchange of forces is 
 simply the result of a greater or less degree of 
 movement on the part of the universal force which 
 every atom' possesses, and all forces are, therefore, 
 correlated with each other through motion." "And," 
 continues Kant, " if the student of nature at the 
 present day, in all his experiments and inferences, 
 starts from and returns to this idea, if in all the 
 varying phenomena and manifold magic of the outer 
 world, his endeavor is always to grasp the one 
 natural force and bring it into subjection to 
 
THE UNIVERSAL FORCE. 43 
 
 thought and law, this mode of viewing things 
 traces its origin to Leibnitz." And in summing 
 up the doctrine of Leibnitz he argues that it was 
 based " partly upon errors and partly upon truths," 
 both of which he specifies. Among the truths is 
 his express belief in " the animation of all things ; 
 the recognition of an inner, active principle co- 
 operating or rather operating in everything which 
 stirs or moves."* 
 
 Magnetism may be imparted to different metals 
 and other substances by slight contact, by friction, 
 by induction and by impact, gentle or smart raps. 
 
 The latter method was suggested by Sir Isaac 
 Newton when one of his contemporaries informed 
 him that he could not succeed in repeating Sir 
 Isaac's experiment of magnetizing by friction with 
 a magnet, small bits of paper under glass, the two 
 being slightly separated from each other. He in- 
 formed his correspondent that if after duly applying 
 friction, the paper did not rise to the magnet, he 
 would gently rap the glass he would succeed, as 
 he did. In this direction, after successfully re- 
 peating Sir Isaac's experiment, we further tested 
 the method in the following manner, using flat- 
 headed, soft, bright iron French nails, three inches 
 long, i inch in diameter, a lodestone hammer 
 weighing four ounces and a small pocket compass. 
 Making a rest for the nails in a bit of wood we 
 treated them as follows, the head of each being 
 * Kant : Crit. of Pure Eeason, pp. 379, 299. 
 
44 THE UNIVEBSAL FORCE. 
 
 presented to the positive pole of the needle im- 
 mediately after contact. 
 
 Wire No. 1 slight contact for ^ second deflected 
 
 the needle 34° 
 
 " " 2 " " " a seconds" " 44° 
 
 " " 3 one light rap " " 30° 
 
 " " 4 one smart rap " " 38° 
 
 " " 5 ten •' " " " 55° 
 
 We have used these facts, as will be noted in 
 the sequel, when treating of hunting dogs. 
 
LIGHT AND BEAT. 45 
 
 VII. 
 
 Light, Heat and Magnetism; Chemical Action; 
 , All Natural Forces Equivalent. 
 
 * We know that light and heat are easily developed 
 from artificial magnets. " Heat," says Bacon,* 
 "is an expansive motion whereby a body strives 
 to dilate and stretch itself to a larger sphere or 
 dimension than it had previously occupied. Cold 
 contracts or narrows most substances so that in in- 
 tense frosts nails fall out from walls and brass 
 cracks." Few residents of New England seventy 
 years ago can have failed to hear, on a bitter cold 
 morning, the sudden, sharp report that followed 
 the starting of some of the wroughl>iron nails that 
 were used at that time in the erection of wood 
 buildings. 
 
 When a bar of soft iron is held in the hand in a 
 temperature of 60° F. no inconvenience is felt 
 whether the hand be dry or moist, but let the iron 
 be exposed in the open air over night when the 
 temperature is 30° F. below zero, if it then be 
 touched with a moist finger, it cannot be removed 
 without abrading the flesh. A small horse-shoe 
 * Novum Organum, App. XX. 
 
46 LIGHT AND HEAT. 
 
 magnet, as was proved by the writer, Lad its 
 magnetic power very materially increased by out- 
 side exposure for 12 hours in a temperature of 10° 
 F. Mr. Coxhall relates that, in the famous balloon 
 ascension made by himself and Glashier in 1862, 
 just before they had reached their greatest altitude 
 and while Glashier was lying exhausted in the car, 
 he wished to let out the gas, and on remot^ing the 
 thick glove from his hand to do so, his fingqfs 
 were frozen the moment they touched the wire. 
 
 It is definitely proved that the temperature falls 
 as we ascend above, and rises as we descend below, 
 the surface of the earth, and that the magnetic in- 
 tensity is least at the equator and greatest at the 
 poles ; also that the tensity in the magnetism in 
 different bodies varies according to their form 
 or shape. If the body be oblate or an oblong 
 spheroid, the intensity is greatest at the poles, and 
 still greater if it be of a cylindrical form with conical 
 or pointed ends, as we have before noted. The 
 depth of the electric fluid on an angular conductor 
 increases in rapid proportion on approaching the 
 edges, is still further augmented at the corners, 
 which may be regarded as two edges combined, 
 and is a maximum if the conductor have the form 
 of a point, thus exhibiting at each change a greater 
 condensation of the fluid.* 
 
 When a fine point is used to produce a dis- 
 
 * Noad : Text Book of Electricity, pp. 18, 19. 
 
LIGHT AND HEAT. 47 
 
 ruptive discharge from a positively charged con- 
 ductor the brush discharge (from the conductor) 
 gives place to a quiet, phosphorescent, continuous 
 glow covering the whole end of the wire and ex- 
 tending into the air. Faraday covered, with a 
 beautiful and luminous glow, a brass ball one and 
 a quarter inches in diameter.* Several instances 
 are reported in which the electric spark has been 
 drawn from a natural magnet. It was done by 
 Faraday and also by Prof. Forbes of Edinburgh in 
 1832. By the use of a powerful lodestone he 
 succeeded, repeatedly, in producing the sparks, f 
 This experiment is important as further proving, 
 if such proof were necessary, the identity of the 
 action of natural and artificial magnets. The 
 identity or oneness of condition of the electric and 
 magnetic forms of power is abundantly manifested. 
 Thus, unlike magnetic lines when end on, and 
 when similar poles are face to face, repel each 
 other ; unlike electric currents when in the same 
 relation, also repel each other ; like magnetic forces 
 when end on coalesce ; like electric forces do the 
 same ; like electric currents end to end, do not 
 add to their sums, and like magnetic lines 'of force 
 do not increase each other ; lastly like currents 
 side by side add their quantities together, and like 
 magnetic forces do the same,"f all of which we 
 have before set forth. 
 
 * Noad, p. 36. * \ Id. p. 303. % Id. p. 271. 
 
48 CHEMICAL ACTION. 
 
 Has magnetism any dynamic, mechanical force? 
 Faraday reminds us that when a magnet, either 
 artificial or natural, is in a quiescent state or state 
 of rest the magnetic force exists, is latent in the 
 magnet itself and in the surrounding space just as 
 decidedly and efficiently as when the magnet is 
 excited by any exterior influence. The moment it 
 is so excited its mechanical power is at once 
 manifested. If the like poles of two magnets be 
 approached to each other each repels the other. 
 Metallic contact may be forced but it is not possible 
 to force a contact of the opposing, polar forces. If 
 the positive pole of a natural or artificial magnet 
 be moved at a right angle toward the positive end 
 of a magnetic needle, the needle will be deflected 
 more and more as the approach is nearer. If 
 opposite poles are approached to each other they 
 will draw themselves together and finally clasp 
 and cling to each other with a force that cannot 
 be overcome except by the application of a still 
 greater force. A horse-shoe magnet will draw its 
 keeper to it across a certain distance in space and 
 after contact they cannot be separated except by a 
 force ^eater than the potential of the magnet. 
 Ganot's disk placed in a certain position iii the 
 magnetic field requires a very strong force, com- 
 paratively, to move it. In all these cases a 
 mechanical force is as perfectly exhibited as in the 
 application of steam to the piston of a steam 
 engine. The tail of a cat is a perfect illustration 
 
CHEMICAL ACTION. 49 
 
 of the mechanical action of magnetism. When 
 the animal is quiet its inertia, its state of rest is 
 perfect. The moment the animal becomes excited 
 by fear, fright or friction, the magnetic force, the 
 mechanical action, is immediately and strongly 
 manifested. The relation between magnetism and 
 chemical action, light and sound has been abun- 
 dantly established by Dr. Thomas Young, Sir 
 Humphrey Davy, Prof. Tyndall, Ganot and others, 
 and Prof. J. W. Draper concluded " that electrifica- 
 tion exercises an apparent control over all the 
 phenomena of capillary attraction." 
 
 "There are," says Grove, "few if any chemical 
 actions which cannot be made experimentally to 
 produce electricity." 
 
 In relation to gravitj^ the last of the natural 
 forces we proposed to consider and which Faraday 
 so earnestly but vainly strove to co-ordinate with 
 magnetism and electricity, we can only define it 
 under our hypothesis, as a magnetic force operat- 
 ing constantly in one direction, that is, toward the 
 centre of all suns and planets and the centre of the 
 stellar systems to which they belong. 
 
 Grove,* can conceive of no other relation be- 
 tween gravitation and other forces, than that it is 
 identical with pressure or motion. Mosotti con- 
 sidered gravitation as identical with cohesive at- 
 traction, and cohesive attraction is closely allied to, 
 
 * Correlation of Physical Forces, Youman's Edition, pp. 
 
 171-3. 
 4 
 
50 batuhal forces. 
 
 if not identical with, chemical attraction or affinity. 
 The identity of cohesive and magnetic attraction is 
 strongly indicated by the fact, shown in so many 
 instances where death has resulted from accidental 
 contact with strongly charged electric wires, that if 
 a person seizes such a wire with the bare hand the 
 hand and the wire will be at once so strongly glued, 
 stuck together, that they can only be separated by 
 detaching, tearing the flesh from the hand. We 
 have already noticed a similar effect produced by 
 clasping with moist fingers, an intensely cold wire 
 charged, according to the new theory, with negative 
 magnetism. Pliicker showed that crystalline bodies 
 are definitely affected by, magnetism. " There is 
 scarcely any doubt that the force which is con- 
 cerned in aggregation is the same which gives to 
 matter its crystalline form ; indeed, a vast number 
 of inorganic bodies, if not all, which appear 
 amorphous are, when closely examined, found to 
 be crystalline in their structure. We thus get a 
 reciprocity of action between the force which unites 
 the molecules of matter and the magnetic force, 
 and through the medium of the latter the correla- 
 tion of the attraction of aggregation with the other 
 modes of force may be established." Considering 
 gravity as a form or modification of magnetism we 
 may repeat and add to, the reasons that induce 
 the conclusion that it is so. We repeat the fol- 
 lowing extracts: — I., from Helmholtz : "It has 
 actually been established that all the forces of 
 
NATURAL FORCES. 51 
 
 nature are measurable by the same mechanical 
 standard and that all purely motive forces" — of 
 which gravity is one — " are, as regards performance 
 of work, equivalent." This is not identity, but it 
 is equivalence, which is of nearly the same value 
 and is more significant than analogy. 
 
 II. From Leibnitz : " The ultimate source of 
 all motion is the original force lying in all bodies 
 which may be restricted or limited in various ways 
 by the conflict or collision of other bodies. This 
 force lies in all substances and a certain action al- 
 ways arises from it," and also that " the whole in- 
 terchange of forces is simply the result of a greater 
 or less movement on the part of the universal force 
 which everi/ atom possesses, and all forces are there- 
 fore correlated with each other through motion." 
 
 The very definition of gravity, the attraction of 
 gravitation, indicates its co-relation to magnetism, 
 for there is no other natural force-chemical affinity, 
 cohesion, aggregation and capillary attraction being 
 recognized as correlatives of magnetism — that at- 
 tracts or repels other bodies. The earth, according 
 to Gauss,* as before noted, is an enormous mag- 
 net of immense power. Were not the magnetic 
 force the dominating force of gravitation the 
 planets and their satellites — to revive a very ven- 
 erable idea — could not be retained in their orbits. 
 " The force by which the earth dominates the moon 
 is the same force by which the sun dominates the 
 
 * Gauss : Intensity of Magnetic Force. 
 
52 NATURAL FORCES. 
 
 earth and the moon and also all other planets and 
 satelites connected with our system." * To these ex- 
 tracts from Helmholtz and Leibnitz and Gauss we 
 add the declaration of Sir Isaac Newton, made in 
 his famous 3d letter to Bentley, to wit : " Gravity 
 must be caused by an agent acting constantly accord- 
 ing to certain laws ; but whether this agent be mat- 
 erial or immaterial I have left to the consideration of 
 my reader." There is but one force in nature " act- 
 ing constantly " and freely and that is the magnetic 
 force which is the all-sufficient " agent " to cause 
 the constant action of gravity. 
 
 " However if by this or any other argument you 
 have proved the finiteness of the universe, it 
 follows that all matter would fall down from the 
 outsides and convene in the middle. Yet the 
 matter in falling might concrete into many round 
 masses like the bodies of the planets ; and these by 
 attracting one another, might acquire an obliquity 
 of descent by means of which they might fall, not 
 upon the great central body,. but upon the side of 
 it and fetch a compass about, and then ascend 
 again by the same steps and degrees of motion and 
 velocity with which they descended before, much 
 after the manner that the planets revolve around 
 the sun, but a circular motion in concentric orbs 
 about the sun they could never acquire hy gravity 
 (doner 
 
 The Italics are ours, emphasizing the fact that 
 * Gauss : Intensity of Magnetic Force. 
 
NATURAL FOECES. 53 
 
 " gravity alone," in Newton's opinion, could not 
 give the planets a " circular motion" " about the 
 sun." 
 
 It is evident that the action of gravity con- 
 sidered as mere avoirdupois is zero, except in one 
 direction, and this entirely independent of rotation. 
 We can satisfy ourselves of this fact by the fol- 
 lowing considerations : Let us suppose the sun 
 and all the planets, in their normal condition, to 
 be inclosed in a metallic cylinder, say ten octillions 
 of miles long and standing perpendicular to the 
 plane of the ecliptic, so that up and down shall be 
 above and below that plane. Then let us suppose 
 the space within the cylinder to be converted into 
 a perfect vacuum, and that, at the same instant, 
 the ends of the cylinder shall be hermetically 
 sealed, and further, that the enclosed bodies shall 
 be at once deprived of their magnetic energy and 
 become simply inert. 
 
 From what we know of vacua, it is certain that 
 the enclosed bodies would begin to fall and would 
 continue to descend until they reached the bottom 
 of the cylinder. If the centre of gravity in each 
 body were below the centre of figure, as it neces- 
 sarily would be, then no rotation or change of 
 direction would be possible. 
 
 Let us now imagine that, just before reaching 
 the bottom, the cylinder should be instantly re- 
 moved and the magnetism and atmospheric air 
 that had been temporarily removed should be 
 
54 NATURAL FORCES^. 
 
 instantly restored. Then the released bodies would 
 resume their usual proper motions, rotating on 
 their axes and revolving in their orbits. 
 
 The tides are a perfect demonstration of the ex- 
 istence of an attracting, drawing, levitating force. 
 Without the direct action of such a force they 
 could not exist. Gravity as mere weight can pro- 
 duce no such effect. Now, since it is certain that 
 unlike magnetic poles attract each other and that 
 we neither know, nor can excite, in matter, any 
 other force that may be inherent in, or can be im- 
 parted to, them that can attract or draw them 
 towards each other, we can only conclude when 
 we see two material bodies so attracted or drawn, 
 that the acting force must be magnetic. 
 
 Treating of comets, Sir John Herschel says : 
 " Beyond all doubt the widest and most interest- 
 ing prospect of future discovery which their study 
 holds out to us, is that distinction between gravi- 
 tating and levitating matter, that possible and in- 
 disputable demonstration of the existence of a 
 repulsive force co-extensive with, but enormously 
 more powerful than the attractive force we call 
 gravity, which the phenomena of their tails 
 affords." 
 
 " These forces are specially polar in their action 
 between particle and particle of indefinitely minute 
 dimensions.* We have no knowledge of diUj polar 
 forces except those that are magnetic. 
 
 * Familiar Lectures, p. 140. 
 
NATURAL FORCES. 55 
 
 " Solfir light and solar heat," says Tyndall, * " lie 
 latent in the force-gravity — which pulls an apple 
 to the ground." But light and heat are both forms 
 of magnetic force ; hence, if Tyndall is right, the 
 three forces are correlative. | " Created simply as 
 a difference of position of attracting masses the 
 potential energy of gravitation was the original 
 form of all the energy in the universe." If this be 
 true, then magnetism is a correlative of all natural 
 forces. 
 
 According to KirschofE the sun consists of a 
 solid or partially liquid nucleus in the highest 
 state of incandescence. The number of dark lines 
 measured by Angstrom and Thalen amount to 
 1000 in which they found a coincidence with the 
 Fraunhofer lines, of more than 460 bright lines of 
 iron. This large preponderance of the most 
 magnetic of substances indicates the strong mag- 
 netic power of the sun. 
 
 — From the foregoing facts and considerations 
 there seems no alternative left but to conclude 
 that the sun is a magnet. If we concede the sun 
 to be a magnet and gravity to be a form of magnetic 
 force, we have at command an easy solution of all 
 physical phenomena. 
 
 We are hardly at liberty to suppose that the two 
 last statements above were intended to be of a 
 
 * Heat as Motion, p. 453. 
 
 f Thomson and Tait, in Good Words, quoted by Tyndall : 
 Heat as Motion, f). 453. 
 
56 NATURAL FORCES. 
 
 mere general character, without specific meaning. 
 The distinguished and most competent physicists 
 who made them were specially treating of forces 
 in a most comprehensive manner, Prof. Tyndall 
 of Heat, and Messrs. Thomson and Tait of Elec- 
 tricity and Magnetism. They certainly would not 
 forget a force so conspicuous and important as 
 gravity. 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL MAGNETISM. 57 
 
 VIIL 
 
 Transcendental Magnetism; World System; God 
 in Creation ; Swedenborg ; Kant ; Nebular Gonr 
 glomeration ; World-stuff ; Semi-spiritual Sub- 
 stance ; Attributes of God ; Spiritual Effluence ; 
 Primordial Matter ; Rotary Motion ; Spirit, 
 Mind and Matter ; Extra-stellar space. 
 
 Let us now consider magnetism in what may be 
 termed its transcendental relations, in which we 
 may define it as the connecting link between mind 
 and matter, or rather as the medium by aild 
 through which the Divine Energy is imparted to 
 all matter, is made effective in the outer-stellar 
 spaces when and as far as the Divine Mind shall 
 direct. 
 
 "We know that magnetic energy is influenced 
 by distance ; that is to say, having a stationary 
 magnet at any given point if we place a magnetic 
 needle near it, two of the opposite poles will be 
 drawn together. Now if we move the magnet 
 away from the needle the magnetic force is dimin- 
 ished as the distance between the two is increased, 
 until, finally, the magnet ceases to attract the 
 
58 WORLD SYSTEMS. 
 
 needle. The energy of the magnet reaches its 
 limit. If, now, we substitute a more powerful 
 magnet, it will influence the needle at a still 
 greater distance ; and so on indefinitely. Hence if 
 we have a magnet of infinite potency it will influ- 
 ence a needle placed at an infinite distance from it. 
 If we have an infinite spiritual energy influencing 
 any other form of matter than a magnetic needle 
 the result will be the same. We may suppose 
 that the primary exhibition of this energy was an 
 exercise of God's will ; a divine effluence from in- 
 finite power, an emanation from pure spirit. 
 
 The origin of this, and some cognate ideas, is 
 very old. According to Anaxagoras, B. c. 500, 
 the primitive condition of things was a heteroge- 
 neous commixture of substances which continued 
 motionless and unorganized for an indefinite 
 p^iod. Then Mind began to work upon it, com- 
 municating to it motion and order. The Mind 
 first effected a revolving motion at a single point ; 
 but ever increasing masses were gradually brought 
 within the sphere of this motion, which is 
 incessantly extending farther and farther the in- 
 finite realm of matter." * 
 
 A little later Leucippus and Democritus — 
 " maintained that space was eternally filled with 
 atoms actuated by an eternal motion. The 
 •weight of the larger atoms forced them down- 
 ward, while simultaneously the lighter ones were 
 * Alex. Winchell : World Life, etc., p. 553. 
 
WORLD SYSTEMS. 59 
 
 thrust upward. Mutual collisions produced lat- 
 eral movements. Thus rotary motion was gen- 
 erated which, extending farther and farther, 
 occasioned the formation of worlds." These views, 
 somewhat varied, were extended by Epicurus 
 and the Roman poet Lucretius. 
 
 At a much later date — 1733-1734 — we have the 
 voluminous and complicated speculations of 
 Swedenborg. A very fair summation of them is 
 given in a letter of Mr. T. F. Wright to Prof. 
 WinchelL* as follows : " You will there notice 
 that the idea is that creation is by the self-sub- 
 sisting God ; that His infinite love and wisdom 
 demanded the universe ; that its production was 
 not by extension of the infinite nor by the exten- 
 sion of nothing, but by the determination of the 
 infinite into recipient forms produced by itself by 
 degrees, each of which was the medium of creative 
 energy to that next below ; that this process ter- 
 minated in matter ; that this gradation was, is and 
 always will be, the vehicle of transmission of life 
 from the Divine ; that the preservation exemplifies 
 the creation ; that the production of forms of life 
 on earth was through the production of their spir- 
 itual prototypes when the time came for it in the 
 process of development ; thus, that the evolution 
 was subject at every point to the creative process." 
 
 Omitting the views of Mr. Thomas Wright, 
 referred to by Kant, we come to the grand the- 
 * World Building, etc., p. 571. 
 
60 WOULD SYSTEMS. 
 
 sis, the sublime speculations and reflections of 
 Kant himself, to which we have before made 
 slight reference. We make a few quotations 
 from a summary of them given by the late Prof. 
 Alexander Winchell.* 
 
 " I assume," h-e says, " that all the matter in the 
 solar system, in the beginning of all things, exist- 
 ed dissolved into its elements, and filled the entire 
 space of the system. Its existence is an outcome 
 of the Divine Mind. It was endowed with a ten- 
 dency to form, through natural development, a more 
 perfect constitution." ... " The cosmical fabric, 
 through its immeasurable magnitude and the end- 
 less variety and beauty which shine forth from it 
 on all sides, impresses us with silent amaze- 
 ment. . . ." 
 
 The stars are centres of other systems like our 
 own. They are composed of the same elementary 
 particles. Like the planets of our zodiac, they are 
 arranged in a limited zone which we style the 
 Milky Way. " The Milky Way is the zodiac of 
 the higher world orders." But even beyond the 
 bounds of the system of the Milky Way, are other 
 firmameutal systems — other Milky Ways. We 
 contemplate with amazement their faint figures pic- 
 tured on the concave vault of heaven. One might 
 
 * World Building or Comparative Geology, the most 
 excellent and exliaustive treatise on the subject extant, 
 from the standpoint of the advocates of the nebular and 
 vortex theory. 
 
GOD IN CREATION. 61 
 
 well conceive an endless succession of mutually 
 disconnected world systems ; but such a plan 
 would not provide for the perpetuity of order; 
 and unless the common principle of attraction 
 extended through the entire universe of matter, 
 there would be wanting that character of persist- 
 ence wliich is the mark of the choice of God. But 
 a universal co-ordinating principle implies one com- 
 mon centre, and one vast central mass of matter. 
 Here the process of creation began. From this 
 middle point it has extended continually outward 
 over the infinite chaotic waste of unorganized 
 material atoms. I know of nothing that can lift the 
 soul of man to a nobler amazement than the outlook 
 over this boundless field of Almighty power. 
 Worlds rise into being upon worlds in endless prog- 
 ress ; and beyond other bounds of the widest 
 realms of order, confusion and chaos forever con- 
 tend on a field as limitless as if the work of crea- 
 tion had not already attained an endless develop- 
 ment. Assign whatever diameter we will to the 
 completed creation we are always near the middle 
 point ; beyond the periphery of the sphere, over the 
 infinite expanse, lie buried, in the stillness of the 
 night, the germs of order awaiting the progress 
 of eternity to be quickened into active life. So 
 the process of cosmical organization extends itself. 
 " Creation is not the work of a moment." Millions 
 and mouiitain-ranges of millions of ages will flow 
 away and " the creation never will be complete. 
 
62 GOU IN CREATION. 
 
 It was indeed once begun, but it will never end." 
 . . . . " Whatever has origin and beginning has 
 in itself the characteristic of its finite nature ; it 
 must decay and come to an end. The infinitude 
 of creation is wide enough to spare a world or 
 a Milky Way as easily as a flower or an insect. 
 Meanwhile eternity is adorned by ever-varying 
 manifestations, because God remains active in the 
 unceasing work of creation." But the vastness of 
 objects and events so enstamped with the charac- 
 ters of change and mutability leaves the soul unsat- 
 isfied ; " it feels a desire to know more intimately 
 that Being whose intelligence, whose greatness, 
 is the 'fountain of that light which, as if from a 
 central source, illuminates the totality of nature." 
 " Happy soul if, amid the tumult of the elements and 
 the ruin of nature, it can look down always from 
 its lofty position, and see the current of desolation 
 which brings ruin to all finite things sweep by, as 
 it were, beneath its feet." " When then the fetters 
 which hold us bound to the vanity of created ex- 
 istence, in the moment appointed for the transfor- 
 mation of our being shall have fallen off, then 
 will the undying spirit, freed from dependence on 
 finite things, find the enjoyment of true happiness 
 in communion with the eternal existence." .... 
 Thus there exists a Being of all beings, an in- 
 finite Understanding and a self-existent Wisdom, 
 from which nature, in the whole aggregate of her 
 correlations, derives existence. 
 
nebulah conglomeration. 68 
 
 Winchell in discussing nebular heat adopts the 
 general impression that it arises from the aggre- 
 gative process (pp. 93-4) " that the process of con- 
 glomeration affords an explanation of the intense 
 heat which vaporizes " the nebular matter. " But," 
 he says, " even yet the mystery of beginnings hangs 
 over us. We have not yet seen molecules rolling 
 themselves up into visibility. We have never, 
 even in imagination, seen atoms emerging from the 
 dread abyss of nothingness. Let us explain all 
 we may ; let us seek out all antecedent conditions 
 possible, enough still remains to pique our curios- 
 ity and awe us by its mystery. Nay, the farther 
 we trace the links of the chain of causation, the 
 more palpably we feel the need of some support 
 which is not one of the links in the chain, but is 
 superior to the principle of finite causation, and is 
 self-sufficient, existing out of relation to succession, 
 time and space." 
 
 " It thus appears that the hypothesis of nebular 
 conglomeration explains two otherwise inexplicable 
 phenomena — nebular amorphism and nebular heat. 
 A third phenomenon hitherto mysterious and un- 
 explained is equally accounted for. That is the 
 rotary motion which sometimes arises in nebular 
 masses. This difficulty has often balked belief 
 in the nebular theory of the origin of the solar 
 system." According to Hemholtz,* " the general 
 attractive force of all matter must, however, com- 
 
 * Interaction of Natural Forces. Youman's ed. p. 331. 
 
64 WOBLD-STUFV. 
 
 pel these masses to approach each other and con- 
 dense so that the nebulous sphere became incessantly 
 smaller, by which, according to mechanical laws, 
 a motion of rotation originally slow, and the exist- 
 tence of which must be assumed, would gradually 
 become quicker and quicker." Thus he assumes 
 what Winchell claims is unexplained. 
 
 In a " cosmical speculation " Winchell writes : 
 " The universal world-stuff is scattered generally 
 through boundless space Out of this semi- 
 spiritual substance germinate then the molecules 
 of matter." 
 
 The dominant ideas set forth in the last few 
 pages are : 
 
 I. That, scattered through boundless space is 
 a universal world-stuff, a semi-spiritual substance 
 out of which germinate the molecules of matter. 
 
 II. That from these are formed nebular con- 
 glomerations or masses, accompanied by intense 
 heat. 
 
 III. That hence resulted rotary motion, a phe- 
 nomenon hitherto assumed and unexplained. 
 
 IV. That the " mystery of beginnings " still 
 hovers over us. 
 
 Let us consider them in reverse order. 
 
 Deity in its essence is inscrutable, in its action 
 not wholly so. 
 
 We have (supra') referred to the attributes of 
 God, His omnipotence, omniscience and a qual- 
 ified omnipresence. This latter we conceive to be 
 
SEMI-SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE. 65 
 
 a quiet cognizance, an elementary consciousness 
 ever and instantly responsive to the Divine Will. 
 It is not nothing, it is an emanation from the God- 
 head, an effluence from the Divine embodiment, the 
 spiritual, personal magnetism of Deity. We have 
 its analogue in the Saviour's life. " And Jesus said. 
 Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that 
 virtue hath gone out of me.* As many as touched 
 his garment's hem were made perfectly whole." f 
 
 It is the infinitesimal something from which 
 primordial matter is evoked or evolved, it is the 
 primary element of creation, it is the germ of every 
 material growth from the atom to the molecule, 
 from the molecule to the mountain, from the 
 mountain to the star. It is the life principle of 
 every living oi'ganism since no such organism can 
 exist independent of its agency. There is but 
 one force or form of energy that can fulfil these 
 conditions. It is magnetism. 
 
 As bearing upon this point we make an extract 
 from the interesting work J of Dr. James R. Nichols, 
 noticing the death of a patient of the late Dr. 
 Clark of Boston, as described in an essay entitled 
 " Visions," to which Dr. Oliver W- Holmes wrote 
 an introduction. Dr. Clark says that the lady 
 " after saying a few words, turned her head upon 
 her pillow as if to sleep ; then unexpectedly turning 
 it back, aglow, brilliant and beautiful exceedingly, 
 came into her features, her eyes opening, sparkled 
 with singular vivacity ; at the same moment, with 
 
 * St. Luke viii. 46. t St. Matthew xiv. 36. 
 
 t Whence, What, Where, Boston, 1883. 
 5 
 
66 SEMI-SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE. 
 
 a tone of emphatic surprise and delight, she pro- 
 nounced the name of the earthly being nearest and 
 dearest to her, and then, dropping her head upon 
 her pillow as unexpectedly as she had looked up, 
 her spirit departed to God who gave it. The con- 
 viction forced upon my mind that something departed 
 from her body at that instant of time, rupturing the 
 bonds of flesh, was stronger than language can 
 express. " 
 
 Dr. Holmes referring to this case says, " Dr. 
 Clark mentioned a circumstance to me not alluded 
 to in the essay. At the very instant of dissolution, 
 it seemed to him, as he sat there b}' the dying lady's 
 bedside, that there arose something, — an undefined 
 yet perfectly apprehended somewhat, to which he 
 could give no name, but which was like a depart- 
 ing presence." Dr. Holmes further says, " I 
 should have listened to the story less respectfully, 
 but for the fact that I had heard the same experi- 
 ence almost in the same words from the lips of 
 one whose evidence is to be relied upon ; with the 
 last breath of the parent she was watching, she 
 had the consciousness that something arose, as if 
 the spirit had made itself cognizable at the mo- 
 ment of quitting its mortal tenement." 
 
 Let us now express in our human phraseology 
 the condition and action of the primary forces. 
 Deity is the grand centre and positary of all forces, 
 all forms of energy, a force and energy that are 
 immanent, ominant, positive. Here then is our 
 omnipotent magnet. Its spiritual effluence goes 
 out and is diffused in all directions. As its dis- 
 tance from the grand centre increases, its potency, 
 
SEMI- SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE. 67 
 
 by a divinely imposed condition, is diminished; it 
 grows less and less until it becomes a negative 
 force. As the distance between the asymptote 
 and curve of the hyperbola constantly diminishes 
 but never becomes zero, so this divine effluence 
 constantly diminishes as it retreats from its central 
 source but never reaches zero, although it ceases 
 to be luminous. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton -wrote as follows, Principia, 
 Book III., p. 314. " And now we might add some- 
 thing concerning a certain most subtle spirit which 
 pervades and lies hid in all gross bodies, by the 
 force and action of which spirit the particles of 
 bodies mutually attract each other at near distances 
 and cohere if contiguous ; and elective bodies 
 operate to greater distances, as well repelling as 
 attracting the neighboring corpuscles ; and light 
 is emitted, reflected, refracted, inflected and heats 
 bodies ; and all sensation is excited, and the mem- 
 bers of animal bodies move at the command of the 
 will, namely, by the vibrations of this spirit, 
 mutually propagated along the solid filaments of 
 the nerves, from the outward organs of sense to 
 the brain and from the brain to the muscles." His 
 theory of the emission of light, however, has been 
 superseded by the undulatory theory. 
 
 We have quoted the views of Swedenborg and 
 Kant concerning the evolution of matter through 
 the agency of the Divine Will, which all philoso- 
 phers and physicists admit to be the sole and cen- 
 
68 ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 
 
 tral source of all power. The nidus of the natural 
 forces is magnetism. Its action and functions are 
 regulated by fixed laws. A distinguished poet 
 and essayist * writing without a scientific purpose 
 sets forth some important scientific truths, namely : 
 " Everything in nature is bipolar or has a positive 
 and negative pole. There is a male and a female, 
 a spirit and a fact, a north and a south. Spirit is 
 the positive, event the negative pole. Will is the 
 north, action the south pole." 
 
 Let us imagine Deity, Infinite Power, as occupy- 
 ing alone infinite space, a condition that is conceiv- 
 able. Says Sir Thomas Browne : f — " Before the 
 creation of the world God was really all things." 
 " Before the mountains were brought forth or ever 
 the earth and the world were made, thou art God 
 from everlasting and world without end. J If this 
 condition had continued and God had remained 
 inactive there would have been no entity inde- 
 pendent of his personality. A limited portion of 
 space could have been occupied only by the radi- 
 ant undulations of the Light Ineffable. How, 
 then, came matter? By the action of God's will 
 upon the spiritual effluence from the Godhead. 
 Matter is the incarnation of Spirit, as is irrefutably 
 proved by the birth of the Saviour, who was con- 
 ceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a Virgin." 
 
 * R. Waldo Emerson : Essay, Character, 
 t Religio Medici, p. 374 Bohn's Edition. 
 i Psalm xo. V. 2. 
 
SPIRITUAL EFFLUENCE. 69 
 
 Treating of " Life in Matter " Lotz writes : • 
 "With this hypothesis of unextended atoms, we 
 have removed the only difficulty that could prevent 
 us from giving ourselves up to the thought of an 
 inner mental life pervading all matter. The in- 
 divisible unity of each of these smiple'l&eings, that 
 in it the impressions reaching it from without are 
 condensed into modes of sensation and eiijoyraent. 
 All that stirred our interest in the content of sen- 
 tience may now have a place of objective existence 
 in these beings, and numberless events ascertained, 
 not directly by sensation, but on the circuitous 
 path of scientific investigation, need not now be 
 lost, but may, within the substances in which they 
 occur, be converted into much glow and beauty of 
 perception to us unknown. All pressure and ten- 
 sion undergone by matter, the rest of stable equili- 
 brium and the rending asunder of former connec- 
 tions, all this not only takes place, but also in tak- 
 ing place gives rise to some enjoyment, each several 
 being entwined with various reciprocal actions 
 into the whole of the world, is, in the words of our 
 greatest national thinkers, a mirror of the universe, 
 from its place feeling the connection of all things 
 and representing the special view which it yields 
 to that particular place and standpoint. No part 
 of being is longer devoid of life and animation ; 
 only a certain kind of activity, the motions which 
 adjust the states of the one to those of the other, 
 * Microcosmos, Vol. I. Book III. Chap. IV., p. 360. 
 
70 SPIRITUAL EFFLUENCE. 
 
 are twined like an external mechanism through 
 the fulness of the animated oration, conveying to 
 all, opportunities and incitements to the various 
 development of the iimer life. 
 
 " In this sketch," he says, " we indicate a concep- 
 tion of whose spiritual truth we are convinced, 
 yet to which we can hardly expect any further 
 concession . than, that among the dreams of our 
 imagination it may be one of those which do not 
 contradict actual facts." * 
 
 How completely and admirably the spiritual, 
 transcendental magnetism fulfills these condi- 
 tions and energizes the vital links of the chain 
 that binds every organism to the Omnipotent 
 Will. 
 
 Hence the evolution of the universe. Hence 
 also, by the further exercise of the Divine Will' 
 organic laws were established in accordance with 
 which every combination of matter, solid, liquid 
 and gaseous, and every form of life, animal and 
 vegetable, was developed. 
 
 Says Hegel : f " The whole normal process of 
 history, to which all the life of man, in Family, in 
 Civil society and State, is organic, consists in the 
 progressive realization of concrete human freedom, 
 that is, of the essential spiritual nature of man 
 through the conscious recognition of God as the 
 
 *Microcosmos, Vol. I. Life in Matter, Book III. Chap. IV. 
 p. 360. 
 
 t Ethicality, § 270. 
 
SPIRITUAL EFFLUEXCE. 71 
 
 foundation of all the true life of the human spirit, 
 and of the Divine Will as the true substance or 
 content of the human will. In the whole process 
 of history or of the ' ethical world,' humanity is 
 progressively learning, and showing that it is 
 learning, that its true language is ' Lo, I am come 
 to do Thy will, God.'" 
 
 He also writes : * " History is the formation of 
 spirit into deed, into the form of immediate actual- 
 ity. Hence the phases of the development as im- 
 mediate natural principles." 
 
 Star-dust, world-stuff, suns and planets were 
 first developed. In due time, after these last were 
 sufficiently matured, the various forms of life were 
 evolved, the lower forms first and these succeeded 
 by the higher, the last and highest being man, who 
 derived his spirit, his mentality, direct from Deity. 
 
 " The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." 
 Prov. XX. 27. 
 
 " The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit 
 that we are the children of God." Romans, viii. 16. 
 
 " There is a spirit in man and the inspiration of 
 the Almighty giveth them understanding." Job, 
 xxxii. 8. 
 
 " And I will put my spirit within you and cause 
 you to walk in my statutes." Ezl. xxxvi. 27. 
 
 " — for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the 
 deep things of God." I. Cor. ii. 10. 
 
 After referring to birds, fishes, other aniinals 
 * Ethicality, § 346. 
 
72 MIND AND MATTER. 
 
 and man, the Psalmist says (civ. 30). " Thou 
 sendest forth thy Spirit, they " (men and animals) 
 " are created." 
 
 The mental power in man is called reason, in 
 brutes, instinct. They are the same in kind, dif- 
 ferent only in degree. Man exercises his instinct 
 before he does his reason. He first gains knowl- 
 edge by experience and afterward by observation 
 and instruction. If this were not true he could 
 exercise no influence, could gain no control over 
 other animals. He could establish no friendly re- 
 lations with them. He could not even teach a 
 dog his name. There could be no trained ele- 
 phants, no trick horses or mules, no tame lions or 
 tigers, nor any talking birds. There are innumer- 
 able authentic records of the reasoning, logical 
 capacity of animals, of their friendly and disinter- 
 ested actions. 
 
 Thus in relation to mind and matter we have 
 given a conceivable explanation of the " mystery 
 of beginning " referred to (supra) in paragraph 
 IVi" It will also serve to elucidate paragraph If as 
 to "world stuff" and " semispiritual substance." 
 Paragraphs lit and III+ relate to the intense heat 
 produced by the conglomeration of nebular masses 
 and the resulting "rotary motion." In our own 
 stellar system we know that outside of the atmos- 
 pheres of the sun and the planets the space is 
 totally dark and intensely cold. This must also be 
 true in the intei.stellar space in all stellar systems. 
 
EXTItA-STELLAR SPACE. 73 
 
 And this condition must be more emphatically 
 true of the extra-stellar space, since there is there, 
 no matter, nothing to be consumed or to be sub- 
 jected to frictional force except the spiritual efflu- 
 ence above noted. Necessarily it is impossible 
 that any heat should be evolved. The darkness 
 and the cold are at their maximum. Neither is 
 there any rotary motion except as we will endeavor 
 to explain. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton inferred "from some crude 
 observations " that the power of a magnet decreases 
 in the triplicate ratio of the distance. At a more 
 recent period Coulomb has shown that the law of 
 attraction and repulsion is inversely proportional 
 to the square of the distance. Magnetism, how- 
 ever, as a terrestrial force is very eccentric in its 
 action and is manifested in many ways and under 
 many peculiar conditions by reason of its connec- 
 tion with the densest forms of matter. In the 
 celestial space it is more uniform in its action. 
 
 How then did the Divine mind secure the develop- 
 ment of " a more perfect constitution " and subject 
 it to the " working of a single general law ? " We 
 know that the potency of a given magnet is dimin- 
 ished according to a fixed law. When the potency 
 has reached its limit it becomes negative. If now 
 a stronger force be applied to the border-limit of 
 this exhausted force its action will be renewed 
 and this action will be directly proportional to the 
 force applied. 
 
74 BOTABY MOTION. 
 
 Let us now suppose that the divine effluence is 
 diffused in all directions to such limit as God 
 chooses to assign and that, when by His Will it is 
 energized into matter, he then imparts to every 
 atom of matter its potency, its affinities and its 
 function. Some of the atoms are positive, some 
 negative, some diamagnetic and some of them, like 
 nitrogen, are neutral. Although all matter is 
 more or less magnetic, still in all forms of matter 
 some molecules are more highly charged, are more 
 potent than others. So also there is a wide differ- 
 ence in the chemic force of different molecules and 
 the faciUty with which they unite. Some require 
 more or less time to effect a thorough combination, 
 less time for a simple mixture. Consequently 
 when two molecules are attracted to each other 
 the instant they come in contact a gyratory motion 
 ensues the direction of which is determined by the 
 most potent molecule which is almost invariably 
 positive. Thus motion is set up, friction occurs 
 and heat is developed. The two tjombined atoms 
 in their course meet with a third atom having an 
 affinity for one of them ; it at once unites with the 
 pair and joins in the gyratory evolution. Thus 
 agglomeration is effected, motion and heat increase 
 and finally, under the operation of fixed laws and 
 with the lapse of time, worlds are developed. Suns 
 and planets are formed. They are moving in space 
 in obedience to a single form of energy and all of 
 them in one direction, from left to right and with 
 
ROTABT MOTION. 75 
 
 a rotary motion. Thus we have shown the origin 
 of that motion which, according to paragraph III. 
 (^supra) has been "hitherto assumed and unex- 
 plained." 
 
 We will now state the facts that furnish irre- 
 fragable proof of the truth of our conclusion. 
 
 All the planets revolve in their orbits from left 
 to right. 
 
 The sun rotates on his axis in the same direction. 
 
 All the planets except Uranus and possibly Nep- 
 tune rotate on their axes in the same direction. 
 
 All the satellites revolve in their orhits in the 
 same direction, those of the planets Uranus and 
 Neptune excepted. 
 
 The moon rotates on its axis in the same direc- 
 tion and no satellite is known to have an axial 
 rotation in a contrary direction. 
 
 If a magnetic current is made to descend, from 
 the North Pole a magnet placed vertically, it will 
 rotate the pole from left to right. 
 
 If a magnetic line of force moves from the North 
 Pole along the path of a polarized ray of light, it 
 will rotate the ray in the same direction. 
 
 Water discharging from faucets or other aper- 
 tures, or escaping from funnels, wash-bowl or 
 bath-tubs, invariably gyrates from left to right, 
 provided the edges and inner surfaces are smooth ; 
 and it is immaterial what the shape of the aper- 
 ture is. 
 
 If two different liquids or gases, having mutual 
 
76 BOTART MOTION. 
 
 affinities, are presented to each other they unite 
 and rotate from left to right. 
 
 The gyration of liquids may be shown by drop- 
 ping a tablespoonful of dark-colored French brandy 
 into a tumbler of water. 
 
 When molecules of oxygen and hydrogen — both 
 permanent gases — come in contact, combination is 
 readily effected, aqueous vapor is formed, and by 
 the high diffusive power of hydrogen is rapidly 
 diffused in every direction, resulting ultimately in 
 rain-drops and fresh-water rivers and seas. The 
 addition of sodium — one of the most abundant of 
 the natural elements — and chlorine develops the 
 salt seas and oceans. Oxygen being strongly 
 magnetic, determines the left-to-right gyration of 
 the compounds. 
 
ROTABT MOTION. 77 
 
 IX. 
 
 Experiments in Magnetism. — Effects of Cold; San- 
 itary Effects; Effect on Crroiving Plants; On 
 a Steel Spring ; Hunting Bogs; The Sense of 
 Smell ; Birds of Prey ; Vis-viva of Soaring 
 Birds ; Keenness of Vision ; Sense of Touch ; 
 The Horse. 
 
 Having a small horse-shoe magnet, and wishing 
 to test the effect of temperature upon it, I attached 
 to the keeper — a small thin piece of bright iron — 
 by a silk thread, a small basket, in which I put as 
 many shot as the magnet could sustain, the basket 
 and shot weighing ten ounces. The thermometer 
 in the room standing at 70° F. in a cold January 
 evening I put the magnet outside on the window- 
 sill, where the mercury stood at 10° F. Taking it 
 in early the next morning it. sustained 4 oz. addi- 
 tional weight. I tried this experiment repeatedly, 
 the volts always increasing as the temperature 
 decreased. Possessing a Kidder battery of 5 cells 
 by the use of three and four of them when troubled 
 with catarrh and weakness of voice, both were re- 
 lieved and strengthened at once by application of 
 the electrodes, covered with moist sponge, to the 
 
78 EXPERIMENTS IN MAGNETISM. 
 
 throat. Weakened vision was also strengtliened 
 by application of the same electrodes to the eyes. 
 
 Desiring to test the effect of magnetism on 
 growing plants, I selected in a conservatory two 
 pots of colias, the plants of the same age and size, 
 with variegated leaves in high colors. Having 
 thoroiighly pulverized a strong lodestone, the 
 plants were removed from the pots, fresh earth 
 put in, and a cavity scooped out in the centre. 
 The roots were placed in this cavity in each pot, 
 one of them properly packed with a mixture 
 of six parts of rich earth with one part of com- 
 minuted lodestone, and the other with the rich 
 earth only. They were placed on the bench in 
 their usual position and treated alike. In three 
 months the first was more than one-third larger 
 than the other, and the color in the leaves was 
 brighter. I then selected four pots of the same 
 size, filled them nearly full of rich earth and 
 scooped a cavity in each one. In the first I put 6 
 grains of wheat, in the second 6 grains of rye, and 
 covered both with a mixture of 1 to 8 of rich mold 
 and pulverized lodestone. In the other two I put 
 wheat and rye in the same way and covered them 
 with rich loam only. The four pots were set to- 
 gether in the open air and treated alike. The 
 grain in the lodestone pots germinated earliest, 
 grew most rapidly, was tallest and of brightest 
 color. As the pots were not large enough to 
 mature the stalks, no grain was produced. 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN MAGNETISM. 79 
 
 Two years after our experiments, we found the 
 following item in a public journal : 
 
 " M. SpechnefE, a Russian agriculturist, electrified 
 the seeds of peas, beans and rye, for two minutes, 
 by passing a current through them. The result 
 was that the plants which sprang from the seeds 
 thus treated were much more vigorous than those 
 from unelectrified seeds. He also electrified the 
 soil by burying plates of zinc and copper in it so 
 as to make what is called an " earth battery." 
 The plates were connected above ground by an 
 iron wire. The result was an astonishing crop. 
 A radish grew over seventeen inches in length 
 and five and one-half inches thick ; a carrot grew 
 ten and one-half inches in diameter, and weighed 
 six and one-half pounds." 
 
 Another of our own experiments was made with 
 a steel spring 21 inches long, f of an inch wide 
 and 1-64 of an inch thick. It was marked off 
 into 3-inch spaces. Each division mark was 
 lightly touched with the positive end of a lode- 
 stone hammer 2i inches long and weighing i of a 
 pound. The needle of a small pocket compass 
 responded to each division mark. After a touch 
 of each mark with light pressure the needle vi- 
 brated more actively, and after a small tap on each 
 mark the needle was rotated entii'cly around at 
 each division line as the compass was moved from 
 end to end of the spring. After several smart raps 
 in quick succession, the needle was still more 
 
80 EXPERIMENTS IN MAGNETISM. 
 
 vigorously rotated. I treated both arms of a car- 
 penter's iron square in the same manner with the 
 same result. 
 
 This experiment in connection with the experi- 
 ments recorded on page 39 suggested the probable 
 action of hunting dogs in pursuit of game. The 
 earth and all vegetable fibres are conductors. The 
 fox or the hare when not alarmed travel leisurely- 
 over the roads, across the fields and through the 
 woods, making an impact on the surface such 
 merely as their weight would give. When alarmed 
 they start upon a run and a smart blow is given at 
 every leap. So, when the hound first starts out 
 for the game he moves cautiously in different 
 directions until he gets the clew, then he advances 
 a little more confidently until he recognizes the 
 stronger track, when with his utmost vigor, he 
 runs rej-nard or the hare to cover or the ground. 
 The terrier does the same for the rodent and the 
 pointer and setter secure their game by the exercise 
 of the same faculty. We know that both the dog 
 and the cat are very magnetic animals, as we may 
 readily infer from their physical constitution. 
 Oxygen, the most magnetic of all gases, is found 
 in the blood of all animals, and Speilman found in 
 the ash of brain — substance particles of matter 
 that were attracted by the magnet-iron or manga- 
 nese — and Laer found peroxide of iron, 0.5 to 1.85 
 in hair, indicating its magnetic character. We 
 also know that the sense of smell in some dogs is 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN MAGNETISM. 81 
 
 very acute. Every one who has had experience 
 with hounds and terriers, pointers and setters has 
 observed this fact. He has seen a hound or terrier 
 in full chase on a certain line, halt instantly, 
 change direction and pursue the new course with 
 the same speed and confidence, even when he 
 doubles on tire track of the game. There seems no 
 explanation of this except that their nasal organs 
 are most sensitive magnetic poles, and that, with 
 the wisdom of unerring instinct they " follow their 
 noses." " Reason," says Burke, " often errs ; 
 instinct never." 
 
 But there is a perception, an instinct still more 
 acute than this. We know with what rapidity 
 and how extensively odors are diffused through 
 the gases and through the atmosphere, many gases 
 being themselves highlj' odoriferous and penetrat- 
 ing. Here we have, apparently, a key to another 
 of nature's secrets ; that which enables birds of 
 prey to find their game and animals to seek each 
 other's society. The eagle, the hawk and the raven 
 follow, with unerring certainty, the track of death 
 and decay. It is an impressive sight to watch the 
 eagle, as we have repeatedly done,' when he leaves 
 his eyrie to seek food for himself and his royal 
 mate, wlro is attending to her domestic duties 
 while incubating the eggs that are to furnish the 
 heirs to the lofty throne. Leaving his perch ])e 
 sweeps from it as a centre in a wide liorizon'^'il 
 curve, perhaps ten miles in diameter, wliicli serv(3s 
 6 
 
82 EXPERIMENTS IN MA GNETISM. 
 
 as the base of a spiral in which he continues his 
 flight constantly ascending, each curve being more 
 contracted than its predecessor until he suddenly 
 leaves it and strikes a tangent downward for a 
 distant point. One of two reasons has determined 
 his course. He has two senses of great penetrat- 
 ing power in his eyes and nostrils. In his upward 
 flight both are intensely active, the first in search- 
 ing for fields where lambs, hares, fowls or other 
 small game may be seen ; the other to detect odors 
 that are in the air. If he sees the game he starts 
 directly for it ; if he detects an odor he follows it 
 to the carrion from whence it emanates. 
 
 The soaring flight of the condor, the eagle and 
 other birds of prej"^ furnishes peculiar and interest- 
 ing evidence of an inherent energy that produces 
 motion without apparent action. The eagle while 
 performing his spiral ascent vibrates his wings 
 only in the first few curves of the spiral, after 
 which by some magnetic vis-viva he literally soars 
 upward with outstretched wings. When he first 
 turns on his tangential flight he vibrates his wings 
 for a moment, then bringing them to a poise, he 
 rushes down with a constantly accelerating ve- 
 locity. The condor's long-sustained soaring and 
 floating capacity is well known. No more delight- 
 ful, exhilarating and less fatiguing mode of motion 
 can be imagined. It is not surprising that the 
 popular fancy should suppose wings to be the 
 motors of the angelic host. 
 
EXPET! IMEN TS IN M A G NETISM. f i ?, 
 
 The hawk is apparently more indebted to his 
 eyes than to his nostrils for his supply of food. I 
 saw an interesting instance of this while standing 
 on the bridge over the rapids of the American 
 channel in the Niagara River just above the Falls. 
 A fish hawk soaring some 1200 feet above, suddenly 
 descended into them, seized a mullet some six or 
 eight inches long and rose again into the air. 
 After reaching an altitude of eight or nine hundred 
 feet he lost his hold on the fish, which, of course, 
 began a fall of constantly increasing velocity. 
 The hawk instantly turned in pursuit and recap- 
 tured the fish before it struck the water. As his 
 .wings were folded this violation of the laws of 
 gravity must have been due to the fact that the 
 bird, the living matter, exerted some inherent 
 power, some natui'al vim that enabled it to accele- 
 rate its downward motion while, at the same time 
 the distended air bladder of the fish may have 
 slightly retarded his motion. St. John de Creve 
 ■Coeur in his "Travels " in upper Pennsylvania in 
 1798, describes a similar scene and gives a pictorial 
 representation of it. A hawk, having risen in the 
 air with a fine pike, is set upon by an eagle and 
 compelled to drop his game, whereupon the eagle 
 starts for and secures it before it reaches the 
 water. In these cases the birds may have been 
 aided by a magnetic vis viva different from mere 
 gravity. 
 
 The horse gains knowledge both by touch and 
 
84 EXPERIMENTS IN MAGNETISM. 
 
 smell. If he fears, or has an aversion to any- 
 particular object, as a buffalo-robe or open umbrella, 
 let it be carefully, gently presented, to him so that 
 he can touch it with his lips and smell it at the 
 same -time, and his fears will be quieted, never 
 after to be excited thereby. His lips are his 
 fingers. If he fears a pokerish stone or stump, let 
 a man sit upon, or stand near it, and make any 
 motion that will indicate his presence, and the 
 horse can at once be led up to it, as we have 
 proved experimentally. 
 
 The inter-cranial organ of smell is more largely 
 developed in the lower animals than in man. In 
 birds, however, it is very small and hence its 
 acuteness with them is the more remarkable. It 
 is also remarkable in some aboriginal races. 
 Humboldt informs us that the Peruvian Indians 
 know by smell when a stranger is approaching, 
 and before he is sufficiently near to note his 
 complexion, whether he is a European, or an 
 Indian or a Negro. Late experiments in hypnot- 
 ism prove that the sense of smell is greatly intensi- 
 fied in those who are subjected to its influence. 
 The experiments of Charcot and Bernheim in 
 France and of Braid in England have shown some 
 astonishing developments. 
 
 In one case a visiting-card was torn into strips 
 and given to a lady who was hypnotized, her eyes 
 being closed as in sleep. After she had smelt 
 repeatedly of one of the strips, they were all hidden 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN MAGNETISM. 85 
 
 in different places in another room, more than forty 
 feet distant. She then found them all, smelt of 
 each piece, placed them together in proper order 
 and read correctly the name on the card. 
 
9.Q EXPERIMENTS IN MAGNETISM. 
 
 Force; Unergy. 
 
 In treating of the influence to which matter is 
 subjected in order to produce changes in its posi- 
 tion, condition or action, we use tlie term /oree, 
 not because, in all cases, it is most appropriate, 
 but because it is appropriate in the greatest num- 
 ber of cases, and for the further reason that it is 
 already habilitated in the vocabulary of scientific 
 terminology. Mayer's definition of " force " is 
 " something which is expended in producing 
 motion." English physicists propose to condense 
 this into the single word " energy " and to allow 
 the word " force " to retain the meaning which it 
 bears in common language. Energy, however, is, 
 scientifically, more exact. 
 
 In our citations we have set forth quite fully 
 the strong conviction entertained by the most 
 eminent physicists that there must be a unification, 
 so to speak, of forces, and that there must be one 
 predominating force of which all the othei'S are 
 modifications or variations, and we quoted the 
 
FORCE, ENERGY. 87 
 
 arguments and facts designed to establish this 
 postulate. 
 
 Of course the grand, primeval origin and source 
 of all power, of all force, is the everlasting, al- 
 mighty, omniscient God. Says Meyer — " Force 
 of Inorganic Nature " — " The first cause of all 
 things is Deity — a Being ever inscrutable by the 
 intellect of man." All other powers and forces of 
 every kind, form and degree are derived from this 
 one supreme force, and are differentiated from it 
 by certain fixed, unchangeable laws — unchange- 
 able except by the will of the Lawmaker. Among 
 these are the forces of nature, so called, which we 
 are permitted to investigate, analyze and utilize. 
 
 In treating of magnetism, we specialized and 
 emphasized its power, its condition and its action, 
 and particularly its correlation with other forces, 
 We showed its universality, its presence and in- 
 fluence over all forms of matter, its constant, in- 
 herent energy, attractive and repulsive, accretive, 
 disruptive and explosive ; the amazing and in- 
 dissoluble connection between its poles, the im- 
 possibility of producing one of them without at 
 the same moment producing the other, and the 
 marvellous range of activity between these two 
 extremes from the faintest spark of the Leyden 
 jar to the thunderbolt that rends the mountain and 
 shakes the earth ; from the slight chill that con- 
 denses the dew-drop to the intens.e temperature 
 that solidifies the mountain torrent and builds up 
 
88 FORCE, ENERGY. 
 
 the resistless glacier that plows its rocky furrow 
 dovm the mountain side. 
 
 The conclusion at which we arrive is that all 
 the other forces of nature are, more or less, de- 
 pendent upon this force, whether considered as a 
 monad or a dyad, and that all the other natural 
 forces, electricity, light, heat, gravity, sound, 
 chemical affinity, capillary attraction, repulsion, 
 attraction, disruption amd explosion are modifi- 
 cations of it, or are influenced by it. 
 
 Some physicists prefer to assign this predomi- 
 nance to electricity. It matters little what we 
 name the first term of the series provided we get 
 correct results. Faraday proved the actions of 
 magnetism and electricity to be alike and calls 
 them " analogous." Grove proved the same fact 
 and calls them "correlative but not identical." 
 " But," says Helmholtz,* " there are still other 
 natural forces which are not reckoned among the 
 purely moving forces — heat, electricity, magnetism, 
 light, chemical forces, all of which stand in manifold 
 relation to mechanical processes. There is hardly 
 a natural process to be found which is not ac- 
 companied by mechanical actions or from which 
 mechanical work may not be derived.'' 
 
 The agency of heat in nature is almost universal, 
 and it either primarily occasions or materially in- 
 fluences all the different changes that take place 
 upon our globe. 
 
 * Popular Sci. Lee. translated by E. Atkinson, p. 163. 
 
FORCE, ENERGY. 89 
 
 " It is capable of altering most of the colors of 
 bodies, and it is perpetually producing numerous 
 decompositions and new combinations upon every 
 part of the surface of the globe. * We have 
 before shown (p. 70) the action of magnetism on 
 vegetable colors. There are results that can be 
 produced by magnetism that cannot be produced 
 by electricity. But there are two other cardinal 
 facts which effectually differentiate the two forces. 
 The first is, that electricity, except in its modified 
 form of heat or light, cannot traverse a vacuum. 
 It may be forced through, but cannot freely 
 traverse it. This magnetism does in any vacuum 
 however perfect." 
 
 The second grand fact is that we can get no 
 electric action unless we manufacture it so to 
 speak. [This will be deemed utterly erroneous by 
 those who claim that " electricity is never created 
 or destroyed " but " is simply moved and strained 
 like matter." Is it then matter or analogous to 
 it ?] Two or more substances are indispensable 
 and must be used to secure electric action. If it 
 is desired to obtain currents of frictional electricity 
 the amber, the sealing wax, the glass rod, the silk 
 and woollen fabric must be procured, and then the 
 necessary physical force must be applied to develop 
 the currents. Another method of producing the 
 electric current is through the proper arrangement 
 and physical manipulation of the Voltaic pile. 
 * Sir H. Davy, Works, Vol. II., pp. 393-97. 
 
90 FORGE, ENEBGT. 
 
 If the static or Faradaic current is sought, the me- 
 tallic cylinder, the iron core, and the silk-covered 
 copper wire to form the coil must be prepared and 
 properly arranged, then the manufactured battery 
 must be connected before the current can be gen- 
 erated. With a little less labor, but still labor, a 
 current can be obtained by induction or by impact. 
 In all these cases it has been necessary to manur 
 facture the electric action, or obtain it by artificial 
 appliances. 
 
 But the magnetic force, magnetism, is self-exist- 
 ent, constant, alwaj^s readj'-. From the sun, the 
 lodestone, the atmosphei'e, the earth, it leaps in- 
 stantly into life under proper conditions, manifests 
 its presence and performs its work, on the land, in 
 the sea and in the sky. The sphere of its activity 
 is everywhere, in everything, in all conditions of 
 life and in all forms of matter. It pilots the mari- 
 ner safe through the stormiest seas in the darkest 
 nights ; utterly blind itself,-it safely leads all who 
 see ; it clicks the seconds on the clock of time and 
 with invincible power and unfailing constancy it 
 swings the pendulum of eternity and wlieels the 
 planets in their orbits and the stars in their courses. 
 With its mighty arms extended from a common 
 centre, with its positive right hand and its nega- 
 tive left, it rotates around each other, orbs that are 
 billions of miles apart. And yet, for centuries 
 men have debated whether it "acts at a distance " 
 or can be considered as a physical force. Faraday, 
 
FORCE, ENERGY. 91 
 
 having the courage of his convictions, pronounced 
 it a force and demonstrated the existence of " phys- 
 ical lines " of " magnetic force." His great con- 
 temporary, Mr. Clerk Maxwell, who demonstrated 
 mathematically the correctness of Faraday's pro- 
 positions, advanced a step farther and hints at its 
 existence, in a certain sense, as matter. These are 
 his words : " lu fact a theory of magnetic matter, if 
 used in a purely mathematical sense, cannot fail to 
 explain the phenomena (of magnetism) under cer- 
 tain conditions." * If it is not matter it is inher- 
 ent in all matter. If it is not force, or energy, it is 
 absolutely essential to the efficiency of all force or 
 energy. 
 
 " In heat of varying temperatures different de- 
 grees of magnetic force are manifested. It is al- 
 ways magnetism either active or latent." Faraday 
 showed that " iron and nickel, when heated to a 
 degree far above that required to render them in- 
 sensible to an ordinary magnet, still pointed axially 
 between the poles." And we may again call to 
 mind Faraday's declaration that oxygen is- a mag- 
 netic substance, its magnetic force being in propor- 
 tion to its density. Hence if it were absolutely 
 solid it would be the most perfect of lodestones. 
 " In warm-blooded animals it is more or less active ; 
 in cold-blooded animals more or less latent." 
 
 If our conception — mark the if — of the nature of 
 magnetism be accepted as correct, we may study 
 
 * Elec. and Mag. Vol, II. p. 6. 
 
92 FORCE, ENERGY. 
 
 the correlation of other forces with it. Light is 
 reflected magnetism. Projected from the sun it 
 passes through the total darkness of the ether and 
 the partially rarefied gases lying between the at- 
 mosphere of the sun and the earth and is only 
 made manifest when it strikes the earth, whence it 
 is reflected back, makes our atmosphere, and the 
 hemisphere of the earth exposed to the sun is al- 
 ways luminous — solar light. Electricity is coiv- 
 densed magnetism. It is identical with light dur- 
 ing its passage through the ether. The resistance 
 of friction condenses it and converts it into caloric. 
 The more obstinate and complete the resistance 
 the more intense is the caloric produced, as is 
 abundantly demonstrated by the electric arc light. 
 The intensest power of magneto-caloricism is ex- 
 hibited in disruptive dischai'ges. 
 
 We have stated in our preface that, after finish- 
 ing our notes on the properties of magnetism, we 
 had seen, for the first time, Hodge's Modern Elec- 
 tricity, in which he says, p. 123 : " The commonest 
 way in which electricity makes its way through a 
 gas, setting aside the mere mechanical conveyance 
 by solid matter, is that of disruptive discharge." 
 This is especially true of nitrogen. 
 
 Further, he says : " The atoms of a particular 
 substance — iron, for instance, or zinc — have an 
 electric whirl " — magnetic, we should call it — " of 
 a certain strength circulating in them as one of 
 their specific physical properties." (P. 149.) We 
 
FOnCE, ENERGY. 93 
 
 can predicate nothing concerning physicality, if we 
 may use the term, nor of materiality independent 
 of matter. All matter can be infinitely ex- 
 panded and rarefied, or compressed and condensed. 
 We know that magnetism, light, sound and elec- 
 tricity, since Hertz's experiments, can be com- 
 pressed, condensed, and reflected or refracted. 
 
9i DISRUPTIVE FORCE. 
 
 xr. 
 
 Disruptive Force. 
 
 The most terrific results of the magneto-calo- 
 rific force are manifested in disruptive discharges. 
 The " freaks of lightning," as they are veiy appro- 
 priately called, are of frequent and familiar occur- 
 rence, and often of a most singular character. At 
 times, several persons standing near each other are 
 all instantly killed. Again, a mother, sitting with 
 a child in her arms, is instantly killed, while the 
 child remains uninjured. A large mass of material 
 in a building or other form is, in a few moments, 
 reduced to ashes. Again, another mass of matter 
 is instantly shivered into fragments, without a sign 
 of ignition on any of them. 
 
 Harris reports the case of an English ship, whose 
 main-mast, weighing 18 tons, was three feet in 
 diameter, 110 feet long, and strongly bound with 
 iron hoops, some of which were half an inch thick 
 and five inches wide, yet it was shivered to pieces 
 by an electric bolt, and the hoops burst asunder 
 and scattered around amidst the fragments of the 
 mast. 
 
DISRUPTIVE FORCE. 95 
 
 We were once within a few rods of a beautiful 
 pine tree, 50 feet high, with a bole 16 inches in 
 diameter, a wide-spreading, ovate top, standing 
 near a rustic walk. A thunderbolt, that shook the 
 buildings in the vicinity, reduced it instantly to 
 fragments, not one of which was equivalent to a 
 piece a foot long and an inch in diameter, and not 
 one of them was even scorched. 
 
 The bolt sometimes produces clairvoyant effects. 
 There is an authentic account of an intelligent 
 farmer, who, in a cloudless day, was leading his 
 saddled horse across a pasture. A thunderbolt 
 burst suddenly over his head, instantly killing his 
 horse, gave him a shock that threw him to the 
 ground, but did him no injuiy. His eyes were 
 closed, but his mind was perfectly clear. Through 
 thtf back of his head he saw the horse fall, 
 and could see objects all around while the shock 
 lasted. 
 
 The fact that nitrogen, in some form, is the chief 
 ingredient in artificial explosives seems to confirm 
 the belief that it is largely present in thunder- 
 bolts. 
 
 Confirmatory of this view is the fact stated (^seq., 
 p. 129), that, the higher we ascend from the earth, 
 the more nitrogen and the less oxygen we find. 
 
 Earthquakes, tidal-waves, cloud-bursts, cyclones 
 and hurricanes, all are results of the disturbance, 
 greater or less, of the earth's magnetic equilib- 
 rium, external and internal. When sun-spots are 
 
96 DISR UP TIVE FOR CE. 
 
 largest and most active, and when the sun and 
 moon are then in conjunction with the earth, this 
 disturbance is at its maximum and its effects are 
 most destructive. And there is every reason to 
 believe that this disturbance is increased by the 
 vast number of iron and steel rail-tracks, telegraph, 
 telephone, electric and trolley wires running in all 
 directions over the land and under the water in all 
 parts of the world. Very strong, almost conclu- 
 sive evidence of this fact, is found in the greater 
 frequency of magnetic storms, cyclones and hurri- 
 canes, and the less frequent displays of the Aurora 
 Borealis. These two last phenomena — cyclones 
 and hurricanes — are exhibited more frequently by 
 day than by night. It would be interesting and 
 useful if the Weather Bureau would systemati- 
 cally note their recurrence, as also the auroral 
 displays. 
 
LIGHT— WHAT IS IT f 97 
 
 XII. 
 
 Light — What is it f 
 
 Light is the most wonderful, beautiful and use- 
 ful of all the phenomena of the universe. The an- 
 nouncement of its origin is the most sententious, 
 sublime utterance in any language. Gtod said, let 
 there be light, and there was light. There could 
 be neither tree nor shrub, neither bud nor blossom 
 nor fruit, without light ; the earth would become 
 a desert without light; there can be no color re- 
 vealed to us without light ; the seven-fold glory of 
 the prism could not be developed without light ; 
 the richest odors are born of light. The fragrance 
 of hot-house flowers is far inferior to that of those 
 which lift their fragrant palms to the cloudless 
 blue. Light paints the lily, perfumes the violet, 
 and gives its blush to the rose ; it flashes in the 
 diamond and nestles in the ever-changing tints of 
 the opal ; it reveals the bloom on beauty's cheek, 
 and beams in the love-light of her eyes ; it glows 
 in the early dawn, and robes in a blaze of glory the 
 
 sunset hour; it portrays, actinically, each feature 
 7 
 
98 LIQB T— WBA T IS IT? 
 
 of the warm summer landscape, and glorifies the 
 foliage of the autumn woods ; it fills, like a bene- 
 diction, all the air of a sweet Sabbath in June ; it 
 fairly revels and dances in the gorgeous plumage 
 of birds and the brilliant scintillations of insects' 
 wings ; it sparkles in the morning dew-drop, and, 
 with all the rich, prismatic hues, it portrays upon 
 the rain-drop screen the sign of God's eternal cove- 
 nant of peace with man. We know it in more 
 phases and it blesses us in more ways than any of 
 the other phenomena of nature. And yet, what 
 is it? 
 
 If an individual could be miraculously endowed 
 with a body that he could move in any direction 
 by his own will, and a mental power that could 
 continue active and efficient under all conditions 
 and that could endure all possible alternations of 
 temperature, if such a person at noon, on a cloud- 
 less day were to start directly toward the sun, 
 shining in all its meridian splendor, what would 
 be his experience ? After leaving the earth he 
 would feel the pleasant excitement of a bird on 
 the wing until he reached an elevation at which 
 the air, becoming more rarefied by the loss of one 
 proportion of its oxygen, would become converted 
 into exhilarating gas, since the higher we ascend 
 the more nitrogen and the less oxygen we find. 
 Breathing this in the mild radiance and soothing 
 serenity of the charming temperature, he might 
 believe that he had reached the Elysian fields. 
 
LIGHT— WHAT IS ITf 99 
 
 But as he pursued his upward journey, the air, 
 according to the present theory, would become 
 still more rarefied, and if he were in his normal 
 condition, the blood would ooze from every pore 
 in his flesh and dissolution, with swift descent 
 earthward, would follow. But, preserved by his 
 miraculous endowment, he would continue his 
 ascent and soon reach a region where the air is 
 still more rarefied and the light would begin to 
 fade out of it, turning first to a ghastly white, 
 then to a steel blue, then to a violet, then to in- 
 digo and finally to the blackness of darkness. 
 Then too, being marvellously sustained, he would 
 find himself intensely cold, in an atmosphere in 
 which Icarus might have safely used his waxen 
 wings. Nevertheless he would be cheered by a 
 faint gleam of light, because the dark rays which 
 are streaming towards the earth from the sun 
 would be intercepted by his body and he would 
 be surrounded by a halo, a slight luminous atmos- 
 phere. " However intense a beam of light may 
 be," says Tyndall (743, Heat as Motion), " it re- 
 mains invisible unless it has something to shine 
 upon to reflect it." Again (753), "the blue 
 light of the sky is reflected light, and were there 
 nothing in our atmosphere competent to reflect the 
 solar rays, we should see no blue firmament, but 
 should look into the darkness of infinite space." 
 Our aerial traveller will soon find himself within 
 the resplendent atmosphere of the sun. What 
 
100 LIGHT-WHAT IS IT? 
 
 force carries the light rays through the " darkness 
 of infinite space ? " Let us emphasize this su- 
 preme, cardinal fact ; that there is but one indepen- 
 dent self-acting force that can accomplish this 
 result. That force is the magnetic force. 
 
 If the light of all suns were extinguished the 
 planets would still continue, for a time, to rotate 
 on their axes and revolve in their orbits. The 
 magnetic energy is as potent in total darkness as 
 in the most brilliant sunlight. It guides the ship 
 as safely at midnight as at noon-day. 
 
THE EXPERIMENTS OF M. HERTZ. 101 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Experiments of M. Hertz. 
 
 " The great interest," says M. Joubert, " of M. 
 Hertz's experiments lies in the accurate informa- 
 tion that we gain from them concerning the inter- 
 vention of the external medium in electrical 
 phenomena. The idea of this intervention is not 
 new. After Faraday's experiments and Maxwell's 
 theories, there remained no doubt on this point in 
 the minds of physicists ; but the experimental 
 proof was wanting. This has now been given by 
 M. Hertz. His experiments show particularly 
 that the medium which intervenes in electrical 
 phenomena is the same ether that forms the seat 
 of luminous phenomena ; that the disturbances in 
 both kinds are set up under the same conditions 
 and with the same rapidity ; and lastly that there 
 is identity between certain electrical phenomena 
 and the luminous phenomena," a grand fact that 
 almost fully answers the long and earnestly pon- 
 dered question " what is the ether ? " 
 
 " The effect of an electrical current may be 
 represented as follows : Suppose a conducting 
 
102 THE EXPEItlMENTS OF M. HEBTZ. 
 
 wire to be connected with any number of elastic 
 cords of indefinite length, radiating from all parts 
 of its surface. By the passage of a current through 
 the wire its force will be exhibited diamagnetically 
 and will be imparted to all the cords at their points 
 of connection, and they will be drawn forward in 
 the direction of the main current and will be 
 placed obliquely to it and will so continue as 
 long as the current is maintained. When the 
 cuiTent is withdrawn the cords assume their 
 normal position. As the cords are of indefinite 
 lengths the electrical effect is extended to any 
 distance. ... As we know that time is a function 
 in the transmission of currents, the current in this 
 case is transmitted to the different cords succes- 
 sively." M. Hertz estimates that it would require 
 eight minutes to reach the sun, about the velocity 
 of light. 
 
 Continuing and varying his experiments M. Hertz 
 found that the magnetic electric waves traversed 
 walls of stone and passed through the closed door 
 of a partition ; that the propagation of the current 
 was the same as that of light and that the current 
 was subject to the same laws as those of light, 
 another grand fact that will aid us still further in 
 solving the great mystery as to the nature of the 
 ether. As the currents are sent through these 
 cords to distances proportioned to the power applied, 
 it must follow that with infinite power they would 
 traverse infinite distances. 
 
THE EXPERIMENTS OF M. IIEUTZ. 103 
 
 This action of the currents may be accurately- 
 represented by the tail of a cat, a highly magnetic 
 animal as we have before noted. When the ani- 
 mal is in a quiet condition the filaments or fibres 
 of fur make a slight angle with the axis of the 
 tail, but when the animal becomes greatly excited, 
 these fibres immediately assume a position nearly 
 at right angles with the axis ; and when the ex- 
 citement ceases they assume their normal position. 
 Here again, is a natural magnetic force absolutely 
 identical in its character and in its action with the 
 magneto-electrical force. 
 
 Another of the most singular or rather unique 
 discoveries of Hertz, was an electro-dynamic 
 shadow, cast by an iron post, showing that elec- 
 tricity, like light, may be refracted. This dis- 
 covery may remove ghosts from the category of 
 myths, and place them in that of visible but in- 
 tangible realities. Perhaps the next step in this 
 direction will be the construction of a magneto- 
 electro-dynamic lens with which, properly arranged 
 in a Kodac case, we may secure counterfeit present- 
 ments of the wandering spirits of the night. 
 
 The most significant lesson we learn from M. 
 Hertz's experiments, is the very intimate relation 
 between, if not identity of, the ether, the mag- 
 neto-electric and the luminous forces. 
 
 Concerning the peculiar vibratory discharges of 
 the Leyden Jar, which were long such a mystery 
 to physicists, and which have been so well shown 
 
104 THE EXPERIMENTS OF M. HERTZ. 
 
 in the recent beautiful experiments of Prof. Hertz, 
 it is notable that the late Prof. Joseph Henry- 
 recognized and demonstrated their action. They 
 touch directly the long mooted question of " action 
 at a distance," and also the still longer mooted 
 question " what is the ether ? " Says Henry,* 
 " In extending the researches relative to this part 
 of the investigations, a remarkable result was 
 obtained in regard to the distance at which induc- 
 tive effects are produced by a very small quantity 
 of electricity ; a single spark from the prime con- 
 ductor of a machine of about an inch long, thrown 
 on to the end of a circuit of wire in an upper room, 
 produced an induction sufficiently powerful to 
 magnetize needles in a parallel circuit of iron 
 placed in the cellar beneath, at a perpendicular 
 distance of thirty feet with two floors and ceilings 
 each foui'teen inches tliick intervening." The 
 author, Henry, is disposed to adopt the hypothesis 
 of an "electrical-joZewMm." (Ether, magnetism?) 
 Emphatically a plenum, all stellar space being per- 
 meated with it and all matter amenable to it. In 
 the sequel we give some further illustrations of 
 the prevalence and value of magnetic forces. 
 
 * Soientiflo writings of Joseph Henry, Smithsonian Insti- 
 tution, 1886. 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 105 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Animal Magnetism. 
 
 We are well aware that scientists, particularly 
 Electricians, do not recognize animal magnetism 
 as a legitimate branch of science. Nevertheless, 
 there is no branch of science the truths of which 
 have been more thoroughly demonstrated by long 
 and patient investigations and by almost innu- 
 merable and varied experiments. In the sequel we 
 have quoted many cases and authorities that 
 establish its verity. Our own experience, related 
 in the sequel, is a perfect demonstration of its 
 existence and action. We are familiar with the 
 action of magnets and magneto-electricity, and 
 therefore speak confidently and understandingly 
 on this subject. 
 
 This form of magnetic force — animal magnetism 
 — differs somewhat from that exhibited by cata- 
 leptics, and the victims of delirium tremens. For 
 some years past this force has been most remarka- 
 bly manifested by Mrs. Abbott, the Georgia won- 
 der, so called, a young woman of petite, delicate 
 physique, but sanitarily sound, intelligent and 
 
106 ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
 
 modest in demeanor. Of course, she can give no 
 explanation of the amazing force manifested 
 through her slight frame. 
 
 We give a few incidents of her exhibitions 
 which have been witnessed by thousands of in- 
 terested spectators in all parts of the world. At 
 the commencement of an exhibition six or eight 
 of the most healthy athletic men in the audience 
 are invited on to the stage to act as judges and 
 subjects. Any one or all of these may attempt to 
 resist the mysterious force under various condi- 
 tions. A single person may hold out at arm's 
 length a cane or umbrella, and brace himself as 
 strongly as possible to maintain his position. By 
 sim^y putting her hands on the cane or umbrella, 
 and apparently without making the least physical 
 effort she pushes him all about the stage and he 
 cannot by any exertion stand still if he wishes to. 
 Per contra, Mrs. Abbott will hold out, in the same 
 manner, a cane, or in order to make room for more 
 persons to grasp it, a billiard cue. Then, standing 
 on one foot only she invites them to move her. 
 Four stout men, two on each side of the cue, make 
 the most determined effort to push or pull her 
 from her position. The struggle is vain. Appar- 
 ently they could as easily move an iron lamp-post. 
 Three strong men hold a chair between them, and 
 Mrs. Abbott asks them to press it to the floor. 
 They cannot do it. The judges balance them- 
 selves on the hind legs of a chair without touch- 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 107 
 
 ing it with their hands. Mrs. Abbott with a hand 
 on each side of the sitter's head lifts him and the 
 chair from the floor. Each sitter declares that he 
 feels no hand pressure on his head, and it will be 
 borne in mind that he has no hold of the chair. 
 
 These performances were successfully varied. 
 We have related them for the purpose of suggest- 
 ing an explanation. We have, heretofore quoted 
 Faraday's statement that, " if a copper disk, sus- 
 pended by a long string, is set whirling, and is 
 then introduced into the field of an electro-magnet, 
 its motion will be instantly arrested and it cannot 
 be further rotated in the field." Further ro^tation 
 is impossible except by the destruction of the ap- 
 paratus. We have also quoted Helmholtz's state- 
 ment, that a copper disk, set in motion in a wood 
 frame with multiplying gear and rotated with 
 great rapidity, was placed between two pieces of 
 iron which did not touch it, being part of the 
 armor of an electro-magnet. Turn the current of 
 a three-cell battery around the magnet, and the 
 pieces of iron act like a break that entirely stops 
 the rotation of the disk, and it can only be started 
 again by the application of a strong force. 
 
 In both these cases the resistless force that con- 
 trols the disks is a magnetic force, pure and simple, 
 since there is no contact, no impact, no friction. 
 These disks are said to have weighed from one 
 quarter to half a pound. They were amenable to 
 the magnetism of the earth and the atmosphere 
 
108 ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 
 
 only. We know the great potency of the terres- 
 trial magnetism and that the high magnetic condi- 
 tion of oxygen makes atmospheric air a magnetic 
 medium of no small power. The emphatic point 
 connected with these disks is their fixity under 
 the conditions in which they are placed. And in 
 this fixity they furnish a striking analogy to the 
 phenomena exhibited by Mrs. Abbott. 
 
 As a mass of matter she weighs, instead of a 
 quarter or half a pound, about 110 pounds. The 
 hair of her head, and every hirsute appendage of 
 her body ; all the nerves, muscles and tendons of 
 her body, her blood highly charged with oxygen, 
 all these are magnetic conductors, more or less 
 effective. 
 
 In the case of the disks, when the magneto- 
 calorific current is discontinued, their fixity is at 
 once removed and their freedom of motion restored. 
 
 What is the motor force that enables the living 
 machine to manifest its power? The dynamo 
 that does this must be her will. She stands on 
 one foot with the billiard cue held, with both 
 hands, directly to the front ; it is seized by four 
 powerful men who strive desperately, but in vain, 
 to move her from her position. She ceases to 
 exercise her will, and then either of the men could 
 toss her out of the window. 
 
 One man holds a chair horizontally to the front, 
 and two others add their strength to his in an effort 
 to force the chair to the floor. They do not sue- 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM. 109 
 
 ceed while she wills that they shall not. She 
 ceases to do so and the chair can be dropped at 
 once. 
 
 A heavy man tilts himself back upon the hind 
 legs of a chair with his hands folded on his breast. 
 She gently places her hands on the sides of his 
 head, and without exerting any recognizable press- 
 ure, she lifts him, with the chair, nearly breast- 
 high from the floor. If she were to remove her 
 hands and fully relax her will, if she were to shut 
 off the magneto-calorific current, both man and chair 
 would at once fall to the floor. 
 
 There is no opportunity here for legerdemain 
 or connivance. The subjects do not know what is 
 expected from them until they go upon the stage. 
 The conditions for the exercise of the brute force 
 — the strength of the men — ^are of the most favor- 
 able character. There is no contact with the cor- 
 ners or sides of the room. The abnormal power of 
 the woman is exhibited in visible, open space. In 
 one case she stands on one foot, like a light 
 column standing on one end. And yet the brute 
 force applied to the opposite end cannot move it. 
 
110 THE BRAIN, STRUCTURE, ACTION. 
 
 XV. 
 
 The Brain, Its Structure, Functions and Action. 
 
 In addition to the effects of animal magnetism 
 heretofore described, we propose now to consider 
 the operation of that force as connected with the 
 most perfect organism known to us, and especially 
 with that most marvellous piece of mechanism which 
 dominates it — man and the human brain. Since 
 the experiments of Gall and Spurzheim, and more 
 particularly of David Ferrier, the structure of the 
 brain has been very satisfactorily delineated and 
 its functions described. A general indication of 
 its parts and their functions is all that is necessary 
 for our purpose. 
 
 Concerning a certain " conception " as to the 
 " place of the soul," Lotze writes, * " According 
 to it, the soul would, at a single point at which its 
 activity had reached its maximum, extend its in- 
 fluence directly over all, but with diminished force 
 over different parts of the body. Supposing this 
 diminution to take place rapidly indeed, yet with 
 
 * Microcosmos, Vol. I. pp. 297, 398, 399. 
 
TTIE BliAiy, STBUCTUBE, ACTION. HI 
 
 SO moderate an acceleration that its effects were 
 still perceptible at a sensible distance from the 
 maximum point, there is no actual phenomenon 
 that favors such a supposition. The afferent oper- 
 ation of the sensory, the efferent activity of the 
 motor, nerves always cease however near to the 
 central organs their connection with these is 
 severed, and no trace is ever to be found of any 
 direct action of the soul extending outwards even 
 so far as to pass over the trifling interval created 
 by a fine cut between two immediately adjacent 
 elements of a nerve. . . 
 
 " Any one, however, cherishing the hope that more 
 minute observation would find some such limited 
 seat of the soul could not but acknowledge that it 
 has been sought for in a wrong waj'. Slend- 
 der as is a single nerve-fibre, a point of common 
 intersection for all could not be an indivisible 
 point, must be a cubic space with a diameter of 
 quite appreciable magnitude. This space must be 
 under the soul's direct control ; within it we would 
 not expect to find isolated nerve-filaments con- 
 tinued ; their isolation could only serve to bring 
 the physical processes taking place in them, with- 
 out any intermingling, into the soul's sphere of 
 action. When they have arrived there, their 
 farther separation is unnecessary ; for in the soul 
 itself there are no partition-walls dividing the dif- 
 ferent impressions, and it must be capable of hold- 
 ing their multitudinous variety, without confusion, 
 
112 THE BKAIN, STRUCTURE, ACTION. 
 
 in the unity of its being. This cubic space, the 
 seat of the soul (by our supposition, seq., the 
 pineal gland), would then have to be conceived 
 either as filled up with a parenchyma without 
 fibres and somehow homogeneous, throughout 
 which nerve-stimulations are propagated in all 
 directions, or as a cavity along whose sides, and 
 within the distance to which the soul's immediate 
 efficiency extends. All the nerve fibres — or a suf- 
 ficient select number of them — ^require to pass 
 though not to terminate. . . It — the soul — is in 
 direct reciprocal action only with the brain ; there 
 accordingly, it has its seat, in the sense which the 
 word ought to have." 
 
 In response to this we give the following expo- 
 sition of the brain which indicates the pineal gland 
 or conai'ium as the seat of the soul and supplies 
 the conditions necessary to its activity. 
 
 The brain fills the whole cavity of the skull. It 
 is divided into four principal parts, the cerebrum, 
 the cerebellum, the pons-varolii and the medullar 
 oblongata. 
 
 The cerebrum, the upper part of the encephalon, 
 occupies the largest part of the cranial cavity ; its 
 two halves are called the cerebral hemispheres, and 
 are connected by the great transverse commissure 
 known as the corpus-callosum. The cerebrum 
 covers the cerebellum and the olfactory lobes. Its 
 exterior surface is deeply convoluted, and is trav- 
 ersed by many deep furrows or fissures. In some 
 
THE BEAIN, STRUCTURE, ACTION. 113 
 
 of these furrows the arteries are securely imbedded. 
 Nature here furnishes us an instructive lesson : she 
 puts her pipes underground. The interior of the 
 brain is also supplied with an elaborate system of 
 connected cavities called ventricles or cceliEe. 
 
 The cerebellum lies below the posterior portion 
 of the cerebrum, by which it is entirely overlapped, 
 and it occupies the lower part of the cranial cavity. 
 By certain peduncles it is intimately connected 
 with the cerebrum. It is globose in form, and its 
 exterior surface, like that of the cerebrum, is con- 
 voluted and furrowed, though less deeply and 
 more systematically. 
 
 The brain is covered by three membranes, the 
 outer — dura, the middle — arachnoid, and the inner 
 — pia. The substance of the brain is of two 
 kinds, gray, gangliose or cellular nerve-tissue, and 
 white, commissural or fibrous nerve-tissue. The 
 gray matter forming the outer layer of the cere- 
 brum and the cerebellum is also called the cortical 
 substance to distinguish it from the white or medul- 
 lary substance that constitutes the deeper portion^. 
 The brain may be designated as a collection of 
 ganglia united by white commissures. Besides 
 the cortex there are several ganglia or collections 
 of gray matter in the interior, as the corpora-striata, 
 the optic thalami, the optic lobes or corpora-quadri- 
 gemina, the corpora-dentata of the cerebellum and 
 the corpora-olivaria of the medulla-oblongata. 
 
 The cortex of the cerebral hemispheres is the 
 
114 THE BRAIN, STRUCTURE, ACTION. 
 
 portion of the brain in which the most complex 
 mental co-ordinations are effected, and which is 
 most directly involved in mental acts. Certain 
 parts of the cortex are called sensoiy or motor 
 centres. But in fact, the cortical or gray sub- 
 stance is the principal and beginning of every 
 motion in both the cerebrum and cerebellum. 
 
 The corpus striatum is shown to be connected 
 with the nervous force passing downward, and the 
 optic thalamus with that passing upward; among 
 the latter that of sight is connected with the pos- 
 terior part of the thalamus. The anterior optic 
 lobes are also involved in the sight function and 
 the posterior in the auditory. 
 
 The cerebellum is connected with the muscular 
 and voluntary actions, while the meduUa-oblongata 
 contains numerous centres whose functions relate 
 to vaso-motor action, cardiac action, respiration, 
 deglutition, etc. 
 
 According to Winslow,* the medulla-oblongata 
 embraces all that part of the brain which occupies 
 the middle portion of the base of the cerebrum 
 from front to rear — anterior and posterior — and 
 also the middle portion of the cerebrum. It forms 
 a medullary base between the cerebrum and the 
 cerebellum, common to both and generated by the 
 reciprocal continuity of these medullary substances 
 and separated from both by the transverse process 
 
 * The Brain, by Swedenborg, quoted by Tafel, p. 302. 
 
THE BRAIN, STEUCTUBE, ACTION. 115 
 
 of the dura-mater. The meduUa-oblongata maj' 
 therefore, he says, be justly considered as the third 
 general part of the whole mass of the brain, or as 
 the common production of the whole medullary 
 substance of the cerebrum and the cerebellum. 
 Heister (p. 304) considered it as giving origin to 
 the* spinal marrow and the nerves of the biain. 
 The pons-varolii occupies a central portion of the 
 base of the brain near the substance of the spinal 
 cord, and connects together the three larger parts 
 of the brain. Says Quain, " It forms a prominence 
 marked by transverse fibres above and in front of 
 the medulla-oblongata and between the lateral 
 hemispheres of the cerebellum." 
 
 In the lower part of the brain, in the sellartur- 
 cica, lies the hypophysis or pituitary body, a small 
 oval, vascular gland having two lobes, its function 
 being connected with the lymphatic system in 
 purifying and regenerating the blood in its change 
 from the veins to the arteries. 
 
 "We have reserved to the last a notice of the 
 pineal gland, the smallest member of the cranial 
 system, but whose importance we believe to be 
 inversely proportional to its size. Its location is 
 given as follows : * " Between the globose bodies 
 of the cerebrum and cerebellum and the medulla- 
 oblongata which extends beneath, there is a kind 
 of a triangular, medullary space thrust in be- 
 
 * The Brain by Swedenborg, ed. by Tafel, p. 16. 
 
116 THE BRAIN, STRUCTUBE, ACTION. 
 
 tween, which embraces the corpora-quadrigemina, 
 the pineal gland, the passages underneath and some 
 striated medulla. This space by the ancients was 
 called " isthmus." It is, in a certain sense, the 
 uniting medium between those three bodies : above 
 it thrones the cerebrum with its two hemispheres, 
 below it rests the cerebellum, and around it, afrthe 
 sides as well as behind, extends the meduUa-ob- 
 longata. 
 
 It will be remembered that these are the three 
 major and most important members of the brain, 
 whence, it will be observed, that the gland occupies 
 the crowning position in the encephalon, the 
 centre of its nervous parts with all which it is 
 intimately connected, especially with that most 
 important pair of masses the optic thalami. And 
 its location in respect of the cerebrum, the royal 
 member of the cranial system, is precisely similar 
 to that of the oculus fundus of the eye, the most 
 sensitive and delicate point in the retina. 
 
 In size, the gland is larger than an average pea, 
 and is slightly conical in form, whence it is some- 
 times called the conarium. It consists of a num- 
 ber of follicles lined by epithelium and connected 
 together by ingrowths of connective tissue. 
 
 Lancisi, quoted by Tafel, says that its least 
 glandular follicles secrete a lymph and a liquid 
 peculiar to the nerves, such that they seem to con- 
 stitute a peculiar cortex of a diminutive brain, and 
 that, for this and other reasons, we may, without 
 
THE BRAIN, SmUCTURlS, ACTION. 117 
 
 any injustice, call the pineal gland the cerebellum 
 of the cerebrum itself. 
 
 While the functions of all other parts of the 
 brain have been satisfactorily determined, such is 
 not the case as to the conarium. In late researches 
 by H. de Graff and Mr. Baldwin Spencer they en- 
 deavor to show that, in certain animals, it repre- 
 sents part of a rudimentary visual apparatus. 
 
 The gland is so diminutive in size, so difficult 
 to reach, so impossible, successfully to vivisect, if 
 we may use the term, that little has been learned 
 of its functional character. The only other method 
 of learning something about it, is by post-mortems. 
 But even this field is wonderfully barren. We 
 have been unable to add to the two cases reported 
 by Tafel. One was that of a man in middle life, 
 a simpleton who stammered. The cerebrum was 
 found to be white and compact like curd, the col- 
 losum a little hard and the gland shrunken to the 
 size of a hemp seed. The other case was that of a 
 virgin twenty years old, who, after six months of 
 great suffering from pains in the head became 
 blind, was gradually deprived of all her senses and 
 died in great agony. The gland had grown to the 
 size of a hen's egg and was petrified. 
 
 Now, from what we know of rudimentary bodies 
 in otlier animals, they possess no such facility of 
 extreme contraction or expansion, nor are they 
 permeated with follicles charged with an abundance 
 of nerve matter and nerves. Nature has already 
 
118 THE BBAIN, STRUCTURE, ACTION. 
 
 reduced rudimentary members to their least dimen- 
 sions and their minimum activity. Their nerves 
 are as rudimentary as their physical substance and 
 cannot be subject to acute pain such as was suf- 
 fered by the young woman whose gland was en- 
 larged and ossified. 
 
 From its peculiar position, its abundant supply 
 of nerve matter and nerves, and its firm attach- 
 ment to the sensory centres of feeling and emo- 
 tion, we may be permitted to conclude that the 
 pineal gland is more effective in developing feel- 
 ing and emotion than any other portion of the 
 brain, that indeed, its special function is to develop 
 and express the sublimest emotion of which the 
 soul is capable, that of adoration, worship. Its 
 intimate attachment to the optic thalami is pecul- 
 iarly indicative of this emotion, the first prompt- 
 ing of it being to raise the eyes heavenward as in 
 the act of devotion. 
 
 " Prayer is the burden of a sigh, 
 The falling of a tear, 
 The upward glancing of an eye 
 When none but God is near." 
 
 This gland may, furnish another illustration of 
 the correctness of Sir Isaac Newton's statement 
 that small magnets are more powerful in propor- 
 tion to their mass than larger ones. The conarium 
 is the smallest of the cranial bodies ; it may be 
 capable of producing the siiblimest emotions. It 
 
THE BRAIN, STRXTCTURE, ACTION. 119 
 
 was a reasonable conjecture of Galen and Descartes 
 that the conarium was the seat of the soul. 
 
 In the domestic animals which have the cona- 
 rium fully developed and are still entire strangers 
 to the feeling of reverence, that feeling may he 
 superseded by a sentiment of terror. When such 
 animals are greatly frightened, prompted by fear, 
 they seek safety in flight, but when they are 
 stricken with terror they are incapable of volun- 
 tary motion and may be easily slaughtered. They 
 are so overcome with a feeling of awe that they 
 are entirely helpless. We have almost daily ex- 
 perience of the difficulty of removing horses or 
 any other domestic animals from burning build- 
 ings. 
 
 In wild animals, beasts of prey which are 
 savage and fearless, the feeling of awe or terror 
 may be superseded by feelings of hatred or vindic- 
 tiveness. Their controlling desire seems to be to 
 attack and destroy every living creature they 
 encounter. In no case do we find reasonable evi- 
 dence that the conarium is a rudimentary organ. 
 
 The chief substance of the brain is the white 
 and gray matter, constituting nerves, nerve-cells, 
 fibres, corpuscles, vesicles, ganglia, etc. The 
 nerve fibres are principallj' of the class termed 
 white or tubular nerve fibres. The number of 
 them forming the white substance of the brain is 
 counted by hundreds of millions. The nerve cells, 
 vesicles or ganglionic corpuscles are little bodies 
 
120 THE BRAIN, STBUCTUBE, ACTION. 
 
 of a variety of forms. The corpuscles occurring 
 in the nervous substance must also, like the nerve 
 fibres, be numbered by the million. The gray 
 matter of which these corpuscles is composed is 
 considered as the seat of nervous energy, which is 
 conveyed to all parts ef the system.* 
 
 All portions of the brain are united by innumer- 
 able nerves, fibres, fascicules, processes and com- 
 missures which anastomose through and inosculate 
 with each other in the most thorough manner. 
 
 " There is," says Ferrier,f " practically no limit 
 to the number of associated combinations of 
 sensory and motor elements. Sensory centres 
 form organic association with other sensory 
 centres ; motor centres with motor centres ; sen- 
 sory centres, simple and in complex association, 
 with simple or complex association of motor 
 centres. In this variety and complexity of perma- 
 nent modification and organic cohesions between 
 the sensory and motor centres of the hemispheres, 
 we have the basis of all intellect and volitional 
 acquisitions. Each motor centre may enter into 
 organic associations with each and every sensory 
 centre, each definite association being the repre- 
 sentation of some consciously determined act." 
 
 The sensori-motor functions of the brain have 
 been quite accurately determined. Those parte 
 upon which the five senses depend, sight, hearing, 
 
 * Bain, Senses and Intellect, pp. 13, 14. 
 t Functions of the Brain, pp. 437, 438. 
 
THE BRAIN, STRUCTURE, ACTION. 121 
 
 taste^ touch and smell, are well known. We have 
 ventured to suggest the distinct and supreme 
 function of the conarium, the latest scientific term 
 for the pineal gland. 
 
 Permeating certain spaces between different 
 constituents of the brain and indispensable to its 
 action is a fluid that Quain calls " a very limpid 
 serous fluid which occupies the subarachnoid 
 space," and Magendie states that this "subarach- 
 noid fluid exists not only in the cerebral canal but 
 also within the cranium, in which it fills up all 
 the space between the brain and the dura-mater.* 
 Furthermore as we learn from Bain,f "both the 
 nerve fibres and the nerve cells are largely sup- 
 plied with blood, without which they would be 
 lifeless and incapable of action. An important 
 function of the corpuscles of the nerve cells is 
 that they form the grand junction or crossings 
 where the fibres communicate with each other and 
 establish a vast system of lateral and forward 
 connection necessary to the co-ordinating and con- 
 centrating movements and sensations in the bodily 
 mechanism associated with mind. J 
 
 " The machine-like nature of much of the struct- 
 ure and movement of the human body," says 
 Ladd, § " does not escape the most ordinary ob- 
 
 * Tafel : The Brain, p. 350. 
 
 f Senses and Intellect, p. 16. 
 
 :|: Brain, Senses and Intellect, p. 17. 
 
 § Elements of Physiological Psychology, pp. 214, 215. 
 
122 THE BRAIN, ETC. 
 
 servation. When this body as a whole or in re- 
 spect of some of its parts, changes its position in 
 space, its variouB masses support and act upon 
 each other in essentially the same manner as the 
 masses which compose the parts of any machine 
 constructed by human skill. Such movement is 
 possible for it because its frame-work of bones has 
 a rigidity sufficient to sustain the less rigid organs ; 
 and because the bones are so divided and yet 
 articulated that they can assume different rela- 
 tions toward one another in accordance with the 
 simplest principles of mechanics. The laws of 
 the lever, of the puUej^ the ball and socket joint, 
 etc., need no modification when applied to this 
 particular machine of the human body. The 
 action of certain other of its parts which do not 
 belong to the bony framework, but which are of 
 muscular or epithelial structure, is also plainly 
 of the same machine-like character. The move- 
 ment of the heart, for example, is in part to be 
 explained as that of a pump with chambers and 
 valves, and the flow of the blood through the 
 arteries is that of a fluid pumped through conduits 
 of unlike and changeable sizes. So, too, the lungs 
 may be, with considerable propriety, compared to 
 bellows which alternately suck in and expel the 
 surrounding atmosphere." The optical and audi- 
 tory nerves are mechanical in their action, and 
 the distribution of fluids through the tissues of 
 the body is also a mechanical process. Another 
 
THE BRAIN, ETC. 123 
 
 mechanical apparatus is exhibited in the system 
 of secretory organs by which the joints and artic- 
 ulations of the bones, tendons and muscles are 
 constantly and effectually lubricated. 
 
 We have thus described in a very general way, 
 the arrangement of nerves, muscles, tendons, fibres, 
 tissues and ganglia, and the frame-work of articu- 
 lated bones which constitute the human body, the 
 human machine. But they would all be ineffect- 
 ive, useless, as before noted, without the presence 
 of the blood. And the most efficient elements of 
 the blood are iron ajid oxygen, the two most mag- 
 netic substances known. Thus the blood may, 
 not inappropriately, be called fluid magnetism. 
 By virtue of that fluidity it permeates and physi- 
 cally vitalizes every part of the human structure. 
 The functional activity of the brain, the nerves, 
 and in fact of every portion of the system is de- 
 pendent upon it. 
 
 What is the psychic force, the motor power 
 that operates this wonderful machine ? By our 
 hypothesis it is the will of God operating through 
 certain agencies in pursuance of certain laws. 
 There is an inherent, inherited divinity, a spiritual 
 force in our nature. It is fundamental, under- 
 lying, comprehensive, stimulating and directly aid- 
 ing the development of the will and all our con- 
 sciousness, all our feelings, emotions and senti- 
 ments. Primarily it is entirely independent of 
 
124 THE BBAIN, ETC. 
 
 experience, but experience is a cardinal factor in 
 its growth and activity. 
 
 We have seen that all parts of the brain are con- 
 nected with each other by innumerable nerves, 
 fibres, fascicles, ganglia and tissues, and that all the 
 members of the body are connected with the brain 
 in a similar manner, and with each other by the ad- 
 dition of muscles, tendons and sinews. The most 
 important of the brain nerves are those connected 
 with the cortical system which are distributed from 
 the brain through the cerebellum and the cerebro- 
 spinal axis to the extremities and all other parts 
 of the body. 
 
 " The structure of the nervous substances, " says 
 Bain, * " and the experiments made upon the nerves 
 and nerve centres, establish beyond doubt certain 
 peculiarities as belonging to the force that is ex- 
 ercised by the brain. This force is of a current 
 nature ; that is to say, a power generated at one 
 part of the structure is conveyed along an in- 
 tervening substance and discharged at some other 
 part. The different forms of electricity and mag- 
 netism have made us familiar with this kind of 
 action. . . . This portable or current character 
 of the nerve force is what enables movements dis- 
 tant from one another in the body to be associated 
 together under a common stimulus." 
 
 The evidence is overwhelming that all the nerves, 
 muscles, tendons, sinews and tissues of the body are 
 * The Senses and the Intellect, p. 48. 
 
THE BRAIN, ETC. 125 
 
 good magnetic conductors. , The currents which 
 traverse them are differently designated as afferent — 
 in-carrying ; efferent — out-carrying ; inhibitory — 
 intermitting or checking; accelerating — constant 
 or increasing. These conductors are excited and 
 stimulated in like manner with any others, and in 
 like manner, and under the same conditions, they 
 respond. Says Perrier,* among the foremost of 
 craniologists, " Galvanic stimulus gives shocks ; 
 the faradic stimulus continuous stimulation. If 
 the chief object be to secure efficient stimulation, 
 to call forth in a decided and distinct manner the 
 functional activity of the part to which the elec- 
 trodes are applied, it would matter little whether 
 we used the galvanic or faradic stimulus, provided 
 they were both equally suitable for the purpose. 
 But this is not the case. Not only a certain in- 
 tensity but a certain direction of the stimulus is 
 necessary to produce the characteristic effect." 
 
 Concerning the summation of stimuli in the 
 nerve tract " the law" says James,f " is this, that 
 a stimulus which would be inadequate by itself to 
 excite a nerve centre to effective discharge may, 
 by acting with one or more other stimuli (equally 
 ineffective by themselves alone) bring the dis- 
 charge about. . . . Single stimuli entirely in- 
 efficacious when alone may become efficacious by 
 sufficiently rapid reiteration." This is precisely 
 
 * Functions of the Brain, p. 235. 
 t Psychology, Vol. I., p. 83. 
 
126 THE BRAIN, ETC. 
 
 what occurs in artificial currents. Single con- 
 ductors placed side by side accumulate strength, 
 and a given current is increased in power by rapid 
 impact. Ferrier also notes the fact that the gray 
 matter of the cortex, like nerve centres in general, 
 is capable of storing up and responding to a suc- 
 cession of stimuli individually insufficient to excite 
 action. 
 
 " With respect to neutral molecular disturb- 
 ances," writes Ladd, "all nerves ai'e excitable, 
 conductors of excitation and exciters of nerve cells 
 and muscle fibres." According to our hypothesis 
 the most potent " exciter " in all cases is the mag- 
 netic force. We have abundant evidence that all 
 nerves, muscles, tendons, sinews, fibres and fluids 
 in all living organisms are amenable to and directly 
 acted upon by this force. 
 
 Instead, then, of attributing the vis-viva of the 
 brain and the body to the influence of " nerve ex- 
 citers," " muscle stimuli," " afferent " or " effer- 
 ent," "inhibitory " or " accelerating " currents, how 
 much more accordant with the facts would it be to 
 recognize by its proper name the force that pro- 
 duces the result, — the magnetic force, and hence 
 magnetic currents. 
 
THE HEART, ITS ACTIOJSI. 127 
 
 XVI. 
 
 The Heart, Its Functions and Action. 
 
 The arrangement of the brain, bones, flesh and 
 blood exhibited in the healthy man present a most 
 perfect and admirable model of a magneto-calorific 
 machine. And it is interesting to trace out its 
 physical modus operandi. 
 
 We begin with the heart as its dynamo. By its 
 protected nerve-wires it is connected with the 
 brain and with every part of the body. The nerves 
 of the cortical system are the largest and longest, ex- 
 tending mainly up and down from the brain through 
 the trunk and to the extremities of the limbs. From 
 their responses to the magnetic force we conclude 
 that they are paramagnetic, and that the innumer- 
 able commissures and fibres that traverse the brain 
 and the ganglia which compose its substance are 
 diamagnetie and diffuse the force in all directions. 
 The heart furnishes the kind and degree of stim- 
 ulus necessary to operate the machine. " But the 
 rate of the heart beats " says Ferrier,* " is subject 
 to variation through certain nerves connecting it 
 
 * Functions of the Brain, p. 98. 
 
128 " TBE HEART, ITS ACTION. 
 
 with the medulla oblongata ; one set of nerves in- 
 hibiting or restraining, the other accelerating or 
 increasing the heart's action." Thus these inhib- 
 itory nerves of the heart which " run in the trunks 
 of the vagi or pneumogastric nerves " serve as a 
 
 rheostat to produce rhythmic, respiration 
 
 " The accelerator nerves reach the heart through 
 the last cervical and first dorsal ganglia of the 
 sympathetic." Both these sets of nerves can be 
 excited by various stimuli. By the joint action of 
 the two sets the heart becomes a veritable rheotem 
 with its systematic and rhythmatic diastole and 
 sistole. 
 
 In artificial conductors we know that the mag- 
 netic force can be intensified so as to produce 
 warmth, heat, flame, fusion and gaseous dissipation, 
 the effect being proportioned to the intensity of 
 the friction. In like manner when the magnetic 
 force is coursing through the various nerves of the 
 system, if it is checked, if a lesion occurs, the 
 troubled nerve at once signifies it to the brain. A 
 slight interruption may produce some uneasiness ; 
 one more decided, more or less depression, mental 
 anxiety ,■ one still still more emphasized, a severe 
 lesion, produces pain ; as this increases it is com- 
 municated to other adjoining nerves until finally 
 great distress and agony are experienced. 
 
 On the other hand, when the whole system is 
 in perfect order, all the members, nerves and 
 muscles working healthfully and harmoniously, 
 
THE MEABT, ITS ACTION. 129 
 
 the blood flowing free and pure, the mind agree- 
 ably and sedulously occupied, then the exaltation 
 of spirit is at its maximum; a genial flow and 
 glow of feeling quickens the pulse, stimulates the 
 senses and gladdens the heart. 
 
 Magnetic action is induced in several ways ; by 
 friction, induction and impact or rapping. Man 
 being a magnetic animal every step he takes, every 
 motion oi his body or limbs, every movement of 
 his joints excites the magnetic stimulus. We 
 have quoted Ferrier's statement that the gray mat- 
 ter and nerve cells are capable of storing up this 
 stimulus. This is done when mind and body are 
 at rest, and especially in sleep. In healthful 
 sleep the mind, body, nerves and muscles are com- 
 paratively at rest ; the circulation of the blood is 
 slower, as are also the pulsations of the heart which 
 become more regular, rhythmic. Every throb acts 
 as an impact or rap that increases the magnetic 
 force and stores it up in the body. When the 
 physical frame is sufficiently rested and fully re- 
 charged with magnetism the subject awakes. 
 Then the first motory prompting is to yawn and 
 stretch his limbs. Thereby the pulsations of the 
 heart and the circulation of the blood are both 
 quickened and he rises refreshed and invigorated 
 in body and mind and with renewed elasticity of 
 spirit. And no person can deprive himself of this 
 needful rest and recuperation of mind and body 
 without consequent suffering and abridgment of 
 9 
 
130 THE HEAET, ITS ACTION. 
 
 the period of life. The heart-dynamo will be stead- 
 fast and faithful in the performance of its duty so 
 long as its powers are not .overtasked. And in 
 this connection it may be interesting to consider 
 the task that the living heart accomplishes in a 
 stated time. 
 
 In mechanics the work done by a machine is 
 usually estimated — by Grove's method — in foot- 
 pounds, that is the number of pounds the machine 
 can raise through one foot, or the number of feet 
 that the machine can raise one pound, i. e., the 
 work equals the weight multiplied by the height. 
 The work accomplished by the heart in twenty-four 
 hours can be estimated approximately in the same 
 way. It amounts to 138 foot-tons, that is, the 
 heart performs in twenty-four hours an amount of 
 mechanical work equivalent to that of a machine 
 that will raise, during the same time, 138 tons 
 through one foot, or one ton through 138 feet.* 
 
 In closing it may be well to correct some erro- 
 neous impressions concerning the function of this 
 cardinal organ. In every civilized language the 
 heart is characterized in many phrases with many 
 adjectives. They are incorporated, embalmed as it 
 were, in the literature of every nation. There are 
 " feeling," " generous," " bold," " brave," " kind," 
 "warm," "cold," "faint," " true," " false," » bleed- 
 ing," " broken," " confiding," " doubting," and 
 " ravished," hearts, besides an innumerable multi- 
 * Chapman. Human Physiology, p. 281. 
 
THE HEART, ITS ACTION. 131 
 
 tude of loved and loving hearts. Indeed love and 
 loving hearts are the invariable constants in the 
 varying phrases and phases ol every tongue. They 
 are all very fine, very expressive, very poetic, very 
 romantic. Romance would perish and love would 
 go into perpetual mourning if they were expurgated 
 from the literature of the world. 
 
 Nevertheless, they are intrinsically only poetic 
 and romantic. The heart is not a seat of conscious- 
 ness. It has no sense, no feeling, except of a 
 neural character. Its sensitiveness is intense by 
 reason of its near and strong connection with the 
 brain. It is easily and strongly affected and 
 agitated. It is literally and emphatically a stout 
 heart, since we learn from Ferrier * that " the 
 heart muscles contract rhythmically on stimula- 
 tion apart from all nerves and ganglia. It will 
 beat rhythmically after complete severance of all 
 its cerebro-spinal connections, or even after being 
 removed from the body." Hence it may happen 
 that the faithful heart may continue to beat after 
 the brain is dead, 
 
 * FunctioiMi of the Brain, p. 98. 
 
132 GASES. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Hitherto in considering the nature and proper- 
 ties of magnetism and electricity, we have confined 
 ourselves mainly to their relation to and their 
 action with liquids and solids. It is now proposed 
 to consider them in their connection with a very 
 different form of matter — the gases. 
 
 As early as 1823, Faraday liquified various 
 gaseous bodies by pressure alone, and later, in 
 1845,* he condensed still others that were more 
 refractory, by cold and pressure. According to 
 Boyle's law, the pressure exercised by a given mass 
 of gas varies inversely as the volume of the space 
 within which it is confined, or, the space occupied 
 by a given quantity of gas varies inverselj' as the 
 pressure. All gases, except one, are unsaturated 
 vapors since they can all be condensed by simultane- 
 ous application of sufficient cold and sufficient press- 
 ure, confirming Faraday's conclusion that " every 
 gas could probably be liquified by the combined 
 influence of cooling and pressure, could we extend 
 
 *Phil. Trans., p. 155. 
 
GASJES. 133 
 
 them sufficiently far." "No man," says Boyle,* 
 " perhaps yet knows how near to an infinite com- 
 pression the air may be capable of if the compress- 
 ing force be competently increased" 
 
 Independent of the sudden changes produced by 
 the action of chemical affinity, gaseous and liquid 
 forms of matter may be transformed into one 
 another by a series of continuous and unbroken 
 changes.! Careful experiments in condensing 
 gases were made by Cailletet and Pict^t in 1878. 
 The latter, after liquifying oxygen at a pressure 
 which became constant at 475 atmospheres, on 
 opening the stop-cock at the end of the tube con- 
 taining it, saw a lustrous jet of liquid oxygen issue 
 with great violence, whilst around it was a haze of 
 particles oi solid oxygen. In a subsequent experi- 
 ment, the presence of solid particles in the jet of 
 liquid oxygen was confirmed by illuminating it 
 with polarized light. After subjecting hydrogen 
 gas to a pressure of 650 atmospheres, on opening 
 the stop-cock a steel-blue colored, opaque jet of 
 liquid hydrogen rushed out with a hissing noise, 
 and at the same time a rattling was heard, as if 
 small shot or hail had fallen on the ground. 
 
 If the gaseous form of a substance be com- 
 pressed or cooled so far that any further condensa- 
 tion or cooling will cause the disposition of some 
 of it in the liquid form, it is said to be a vapor. 
 
 * Tait, Prop, of Matter, p. 163. 
 
 f Andrews's Scientific Papers, p. 317. 
 
134 GASES. 
 
 The tei-m vapor is often applied in a wider sense 
 to the gaseous form of a liquid or solid substance — 
 as, for instance, ether-vapor, chloroform-vapor and 
 others.* 
 
 If hydrogen can be condensed into a liquid or 
 solid it would seem that it can be expanded into 
 ether or some infinitesimal element. 
 
 Bancalari first discovered the fact that, on the 
 interposition of a gas or candle flame between the 
 poles of an electro-magnet, the flame was instantly- 
 repulsed when the electric current was closed, to 
 return to its first position the instant it was broken. 
 The same result would have followed if natural 
 magnets had been substituted in the place of elec- 
 tro-magnets. Zantedeschi, in verifying Bancalari's 
 experiments, found that this repulsion of the flame 
 happened with contacts of both solid and hollow 
 soft iron, and he was convinced that it was an im- 
 mediate action of the magnetism on the flame ; " a 
 fact," declares Faraday, " of the greatest impor- 
 tance to science," as it truly is ; for it proves, in 
 this case, that the action of the natural magnet 
 and of the electro-magnet is precisely the same, 
 and this further proves, if such proof were neces- 
 sary, that they are identical in character.f 
 
 Another most important and abundant of the 
 gases, the lightest of them except hydrogen, is am- 
 monia. Its specific gravity is -76, that of hydrogen 
 
 * Daniel, Principles of Physics, p. 216. 
 tExp. Res., pp. 491, 492. 
 
GASES. 135 
 
 being "TO. It may be extracted in great abundance 
 from gas-liquor, and largely, also, from all urinary 
 and organic secretions and excretions, as well as 
 from decayed animal and vegetable matter. When 
 pure, it will not only not support combustion, but 
 its hydro-carbonate, carbonate and sulphate read- 
 ily yield incombustible gases which possess the 
 positive quality of extinguishing combustion; of 
 course, it is opaque to heat. If inhaled pure, it is 
 fatal to animal life. One volume of water will 
 absorb or dissolve 500 volumes of it. Hence its 
 abundance, under certain conditions, in aqueous 
 vapor. 
 
 Hydrogen also occupies an important place in 
 nearly all organic substances. It constitutes, by 
 volume, two of the three parts of water. Water, 
 as vapor, occupies 1,700 times more space than 
 when in the liquid state at ordinary temperatures. 
 Aqueous vapor is continually ascending into the 
 air, and, by reason of its solvent pi'operties, parti- 
 cles of many other substances are carried into the 
 air and distributed over the earth. The spectro- 
 scope reveals hydrogen largely in the corona and 
 chromosphere of the sun, and Father Secchi holds 
 that it constitutes the principal element of a nu- 
 merous class of stars, and is also found in me- 
 teorites. 
 
 Nitrogen is another important constituent of 
 animal and vegetable life, and it also occurs, though 
 not abundantly, in the mineral kingdom. It pos- 
 
136 GASES. 
 
 sesses no active properties; is, like ammonia, in- 
 combustible, and does not support combustion, and, 
 consequently, will not, when pure, support respira- 
 tion. It does not enter into direct combination 
 with any element except oxygen, and, by the elec- 
 tric spark, with titanium, tungsten, and one or two 
 other substances. It is a remarkable fact that two 
 gases, neither of which will support life contir.- 
 uously, yet, when mechanically mixed in certain 
 proportions, compose the healthful air we breathe, 
 and without which we could not live : and, in a 
 certain other slightly varied proportion, form 
 " laughing-gas," the breathing of which affords the 
 most deliglttful sensations. As to its magnetism, 
 Faraday characterizes it (§ 2860) as being a very 
 indifferent body, neither paramagnetic nor diamag- 
 netic, but zero or neutral. 
 
 Among the important results concerning the 
 diffusion of gases, as reported by Tait,* is the fact 
 that, the higher we ascend from the earth, the 
 more nitrogen and the less oxygen we find. 
 
 Another most essential element both as a gas and 
 in its denser form of charcoal or graphite, is car- 
 bon, which occurs in great abundance and in a 
 great variety of forms and combinations. It is the 
 only element always present in animal and vege- 
 table substances. Cook — Chemical Philosophy — 
 describes it as " one of the most widely diffused and 
 one of the most important elements in the scheme 
 * Recent Advances in Physical Science. 
 
GASES. 137 
 
 of terrestial nature. United to the three aeriform 
 elements, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, it forms 
 the chief solid substance of all oi'ganic structures. 
 Combined with oxygen it forms the carbonic 
 dioxide of the atmosphere which is the food of the 
 whole vegetable world." In the crust of the earth 
 it is found in large measures of coal and petroleum, 
 and is an essential constituent of the limestones 
 and dolomites. The spectroscope also reveals it as 
 one of the most important constituents of comets. 
 It is a good conductor of electricity in all its forms 
 except as crystallized in the diamond, which is a 
 poor conductor. 
 
 But by far the most interesting, most indispen- 
 sable of all gases in its properties and its predomi- 
 nant eiScacy in all the processes of nature is oxygen. 
 " The magnetic constitution of oxygen," says Fara- 
 day (§ 2966) " seems to me wonderful. " It is in 
 the air what iron is in the earth. Its power in 
 specific magnetism is plus 1.181. Hence oxygen 
 in the air exercises a remarkable amount of mag- 
 netic force, especially since its magnetic condition 
 is greatly altered by variations in its density and 
 in its temperature" (§ 2796). 
 
 It is stated by Prof. Dewar * that he placed a 
 quantity of liquid oxygen in the state of rapid 
 ebullition in air (and therefore in a temperature of 
 181° C.) between the poles of the historic Faraday 
 magnet in a cup-shaped pan of rock salt (which is 
 
 *" Notes," Nature, Dec. 17, 1891. 
 
138 GASES. 
 
 not moistened by liquid oxygen and therefore keeps 
 it in a spheroidal state), and to his surprise Prof. 
 Dewar saw the liquid oxygen, as soon as "the 
 magnet was stimulated, suddenly leap up to the 
 poles and remain there permanently attracted until 
 it evaporated." 
 
 Though a gas it is apparently like the solid 
 metals, iron, nickel and cobalt, when they are in the 
 range of temperature which affects their magnetic 
 forces, and it may, like them, perliaps, rise by cool- 
 ing to a very high state. It is a singular fact that 
 iron can only be permanently/ magnetized with the 
 aid or in the presence of oxygen, as in steel. It is 
 a little more than one-tenth heavier than air, and 
 ice-cold water will hold in solution more than four 
 per cent, of its volume while water at 68° F. will 
 only hold less than three per cent., a fact that proves 
 that lowering its temperature increases its density. 
 " It is to an enormous degree the most abundant, 
 as it is in many respects the most important, of the 
 elements of matter upon the earth. The only 
 other element that can compare with it in abun- 
 dance is silicon, the special element of mineral 
 silicates. It constitutes nearly, if not quite half 
 the total weight of known matter, and silicon not 
 far from one-third. Of water, the liquid part of the 
 earth, oxygen forms a still larger proportion or eight- 
 ninths. Of living matter, vegetable and animal, 
 oxygen also forms by far the largest element.* 
 * H. Wortz, Johnson's Cyclopedia, Art. Oxygen. 
 
GASES. 139 
 
 As the question of color may have some interest 
 as connected with the final development of our 
 scheme we may note some of its more important 
 characteristics as revealed in the spectrum of tlie 
 solar rays and also in the spectra of some of the 
 gases. From Mosotti we learn that the greatest il- 
 luminating power is found in the yellow, the cen- 
 tral color of what were formerly called the three 
 primary colors, blue, yellow, and red, and that the 
 intensity declines systematically on either side. 
 Its penetrating power is also greatest making it 
 serviceable for signals. Incandescent metals, and 
 rarefied gases enclosed in glass tubes (Geisler's) 
 when made luminous by the electric spark, re- 
 vealed hydrogen as purple red, chlorine, magnesium 
 and thallium different shades of green, and sodium 
 yellow, and nitrogen blue or purple. Some recent 
 experiments have shown the color of liquid oxygen 
 to be a beautiful blue. The substance that pro- 
 duces a peculiar green line in the aurora, the zodi- 
 acal light and the corona of the sun is, as yet, un- 
 known. It may here be noted that Langley and 
 Very * found the spectrum of the Italian firefly — 
 Pyrophorus Noctilucus — to be of maximum brill- 
 iancy in the green. The luminous power of gases 
 increases in proportion to the pressure to which 
 they are subjected, by which their density is in- 
 creased, f as we have before noted. 
 
 * SiUiman's Journal, Vol. 40, 3d Series, p. 102. 
 t Schellen, Spec. Anal., p. 15. 
 
140 STELLAR SYSTEMS. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Stellar Si/stems and Celestial Geography. 
 
 Having thus studied the forces of nature and 
 ascertained their various forms and properties we 
 have now to consider their application and use in 
 the construction of stellar systems and a celestial 
 geography. 
 
 From the earliest dawn of human intelligence 
 the stars have furnished the most absorbing and 
 fascinating iield of study and speculation. Both 
 in tradition and recorded history their influence 
 has been recognized, and they have been supposed 
 to be potent in their courses in deciding the desti- 
 nies of individuals and nations, whether striving 
 against the enemies of Israel among the hills of 
 Judea or guiding the shepherds to the birthplace 
 of the Saviour. 
 
 Supposed to be infinite in number and unchange- 
 ably fixed in their positions in the celestial vault, 
 it has also been supposed that they were arranged 
 in some orderly system and subjected to some dy- 
 namic laws. Hence many hypotheses concerning 
 
STELLAR SYSTEMS. 141 
 
 the structuie of the universe have been suggested. 
 All hypotheses fill space with some form of matter, 
 of atoms or molecules. These are supposed to 
 be constantly in motion ; some in all directions 
 like snowflakes in a whirlwind, some in fixed direc- 
 tions like drops of rain in a gentle shower; that 
 they possess certain affinities, that they attract or 
 repel each other, and that they are forced into 
 different forms and conditions, gase9us, gelati- 
 nous, aqueous, viscous or solid. 
 
 The stellar system which has been most favor- 
 ably received is that of Laplace, Kant and 
 Herschel, founded on the nebular theory, that all 
 suns and planets are agglomerations of nebulous 
 matter, the nebulse themselves being aggregations 
 of molecules or atoms in the most attenuated 
 possible forms of matter, which are subject to 
 certain attractive and repulsive, cohesive and dis- 
 ruptive forces, which decide their shapes and con- 
 trol their motions. 
 
 Some years after the publication of Kant's sys- 
 tem an original and more elaborate one was set 
 forth by Johannes H. Lambert, a lucid synopsis of 
 which — not being able to find his original work 
 — I copy from Prof. Newcomb's Popular Astron- 
 omy. 
 
 "He supposes the universe to be arranged in 
 systems of different orders. The smallest systems 
 which we know are those made up of a planet with 
 its satellites circulating around it as a centre. 
 
142 STELLAR SYSTEMS. 
 
 The next system in the order of magnitude is a 
 solar system, in which a number of smaller systems 
 are each carried around the sun. Each individual 
 star which we see is a sun, and has its retinue of 
 planets revolving around it, so that there are as 
 many solar systems as stars. These systems are 
 not, however, scattered at random, but are divided 
 up into greater systems which appear in our tele- 
 scopes as clusters of stars. An immense number of 
 these clusters make up our galaxy and form the 
 visible universe as seen in our telescopes. There 
 may be yet greater systems each made up of gal- 
 axies, and so on indefinitely, only their distance is so 
 immense as to elude our observation." " Each of 
 the smaller systems visible to us has its central 
 body, the mass of which is much greater than that 
 of those which revolve round it." This feature 
 Lambert supposed to extend to other systems. 
 " As the planets are larger than their satellites and 
 the sun larger than its planets, so he supposed each 
 stellar cluster to have a great central body around 
 which each solar system revolved. As these cen- 
 tral bodies are invisible to us, he supposed them to 
 be opaque and dark. All the systems from the 
 smallest to the greatest were supposed to be bound 
 together by the one universal law of gravita- 
 tion." 
 
 This system is adversely criticised, quite decid- 
 edly by Prof. Newcomb, and more mildly by 
 Father Secchi, criticisms which we hope to show 
 
8TELLAB SYSTEMS. 143 
 
 are erroneous, and that, on the contrary, the hy- 
 pothesis contains the germ of a far more sublime 
 stellar cosmography. 
 
 As science, in the department of magnetism and 
 electricity, is more indebted to Faraday than to 
 any other physicist, so it is in the department of 
 astronomy more indebted to the investigations and 
 labors of Sir William Herschel than to those of 
 any other astronomer. The Columbus of the 
 skies, with his telescope-ship he traversed with per- 
 sistent zeal and keen intelligence the celestial seas 
 of space, and discovered for mankind its first new 
 world, together with the numerous nebulous island- 
 groups scattered in all directions around it. He 
 taught us how other worlds may be built up, how 
 we may watch their birth and growth and proxi- 
 mately determine their age, from the youthful 
 star that has not yet reached the period of scintil- 
 lation to the adult sun that, with resplendent 
 glory, "sweeps in triumph through the signs of 
 heaven." 
 
 He insisted on the existence of matter diffused 
 through space, out of which the nebulae were prob- 
 ably formed; and he noticed the fact, which all 
 astronomers have done, that the southern hemi- 
 sphere is less richly provided with stars than the 
 northern ; and we are led to the conclusion that not 
 only in appearance but in fact the stars are more 
 dense near the galaxy. Among the multitude of 
 nebulae revealed by his telescope he believed that 
 
144 STELLAR SYSTEMS. 
 
 every stage of the process (of growth) might be 
 considered as displayed to our eyes, and in every 
 modification of form to which the general principle 
 might be conceived to apply. The more or less 
 advanced stage of a nebulae towards its segregation 
 into discrete stars, and these stars themselves 
 towards a dense state of aggregation round a central 
 nucleus, would thus be in some sort an indices 
 tion of age.* 
 
 These changes were especially notable in the 
 Magellanic clouds or nubeculse — note wMbeculse, 
 not webulae — the former being immense fields of 
 Stardust in which the latter appear in a more con- 
 densed form. These remarkable regions of cloud- 
 light lie in the southeastern portion of the firma- 
 ment, and present almost every stage of stellar 
 development from the motes of star-dust floating 
 in space to the largest and most resplendent sun.f 
 
 The spectroscope has very materially enlarged 
 our knowledge of the nebulse by showing that 
 the spectra of some of them have characteristics 
 belonging to the spectra of gases ; others have the 
 equally characteristic spectra peculiar to glowing 
 solids; M'hile in a third class may be placed all 
 those whose spectra combine the characteristics of 
 both the preceding classes, J 
 
 * Sir J. Hersohel, Outliaes of Astronomy, p. 504. 
 t Sir J. Herschel, Outlines of Astronomy. 
 \ H. Abbe, Art. "Nebulse," Johnson's Cyc. 
 
COMETS, DUST OF TIME. lib 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Zodiacal Light. — Comets, Dust of Time. — Spec- 
 trum of Cras Flame. 
 
 "It is generally agreed," says Mr. Alexander 
 Winchell,* " that this phenomenon * arises from a 
 ring of meteoroidal bodies encircling the sun, 
 nearly in the plane of the ecliptic and probably 
 rotating like the rings of Saturn. But considering 
 that the phenomenon has been so frequently 
 witnessed in the east and west at the same time, it 
 is necessary to assume that while most of the mat- 
 ter lies within the earth's orbit, some portion ex- 
 tends beyond that limit. Accordingly the earth 
 moves within this assemblage of particles. Conse- 
 quently, unless they have the same velocity as the 
 earth, they must by their collisions offer a resist- 
 ance to the earth's motion." 
 
 COMETS. 
 
 " Whence comes the ' Dust of Time ' ? There 
 is nothing around which the dust of time does not 
 
 * In his admirable and exhaustive work, "World-Life or 
 Comparative Geology." 
 f The Zodiacal Light. 
 10 
 
146 COMETS, BUST OF TIME. 
 
 gather. It accumulates among the shelters of 
 mountain cliffs. It falls upon ivy-mantled towers 
 and ruined walls, and creates a rooting-place for 
 many a hardy herb and a nidus for countless living 
 germs. It clogs the water-passages from our roofs, 
 and fills our cisterns with soils yielded by the 
 atmosphere. It gathers about deserted structures ; 
 it buries the foundations of columns and temples, 
 and new temples are built upon foundations be- 
 neath them Whence the dust which has 
 
 buried walls and towers and cities ? . . . . Much 
 of the soil which gathers upon roofs and in the 
 crevices of old walls has been lifted by the winds 
 from bare field and dusty street. Even the 
 snowy summits of the Alps become stained by 
 terrestrial particles borne by upward currents into 
 the mountain air. And yet I will venture the 
 opinion that some dust comes to the earth daily 
 which had never belonged to the earth before. Out 
 from the depths of space — beyond the clouds — 
 beyond the atmosphere — from a granary of mate- 
 rial germs which stock the empire of the blue sky, 
 comes a perpetual but invisible rain of material 
 atoms — like the evening dew, emerging from the 
 transparency of space into a state of growing 
 divisibility." .... Among the first to produce 
 evidence in support of the theory of the cosmic 
 origin of certain portions of the atmospheric dust 
 was Baron A. E. . Nordenskjold. He reported 
 large patches of arctic ice covered with a gray 
 
COMETS, LUST OF TIME. 147 
 
 diatomaceous powder mingled with grains of mag- 
 netic iron surrounded by iron-dioxide, and con- 
 taining also probably carbon. Stmilar deposits 
 were reported from snows from the neighborhood 
 of Stockholm, from the interior of Finland and 
 from Spitzbergen. " M. Tissandier," continues 
 Prof. Winchell, "has made quite extensive re- 
 searches on atmospheric dust, and has put beyond 
 question the meteoric origin of certain portions of 
 it. Many grains and minute globules of iron are 
 met with in these dust-falls, which appear to have 
 
 been fused These grains of magnetic 
 
 iron have been collected from a great variety of 
 situations — from the summit of Mont Blanc, from 
 rains recently fallen, from the towers of Notre Dame 
 Cathedral in Paris and many other cathedrals, 
 from the borders of Lake Lehman, from the hos- 
 pice of St. Bernard and from many localities in 
 distant countries." Prof. Winchell gives a num- 
 ber of highly magnified figures of these iron 
 globules and afterward says, " Thus the evidence 
 of the perpetual arrival of foreign matter from 
 the interplanetary spaces seems conclusive." 
 
 Dr. Huggins demonstrated the existence of 
 carbon in the comets of Brorson and Wiimeke in 
 1868. We hope in the sequel to get better ac- 
 quainted with their tails. 
 
 The orbits of most of the comets are elliptic, and 
 when subjected to the sun's attraction they are 
 drawn towards it with a velocity which constantly 
 
148 COMETS, DUST OF TIME. 
 
 increases as the radius-vector diminishes, a velocity 
 at perehelion distance which, for Donati's comet 
 Sir J. HerscMIl estimates at 200,000 miles a 
 minute. 
 
 Notwithstanding this tremendous velocity with 
 which comets are projected towards the sun they 
 are repulsed and turned aside in a different direc- 
 tion. The terrific force which resists these fierce 
 attacks is the magneto-electric force. Says Father 
 Secchi, " It " (gravity) " is not the sole force which 
 rules the universe ; perhaps it is itself only a con- 
 sequence of disturbed equilibrium in the ether. 
 But the comets have given indications of some 
 other force, not yet well defined, operating in 
 space. The rapid development of the tails o^' 
 these bodies is not explained by heat alone, nor by 
 that of gravity. Magnetism, electricity have been 
 evoked, but as yet nothing as to this is certain." 
 
 Langley also suggests that " it is doubtful 
 whether gravity is sufficient to account for the 
 velocity of all comets," and that " it seems certain 
 that it can, in no way, explain some of the phe- 
 nomena of the tails." 
 
 Prof. Lockyer in his recent " History of a Star " 
 says oJ the tails of comets, " It looks as if these 
 tails may consist, to a large extent, of the gases 
 which exist in meteorites, and which can be driven 
 out of them at not very high temperatures. See- 
 ing that these are thrown off with great velocity, 
 and shine through millions of miles in the depths 
 
SPECTRUM OF GAS FLAME. 149 
 
 of space, it is not likely that we are dealing with 
 any such considerable substances as the vapor of 
 iron, magnesium or any other metal. This con- 
 sideration may help us in the chemistry of the re- 
 pelling body " (ether). 
 
 Sir J. Herschel states that " the matter of the 
 secondary tail in Donati's comet was evidently 
 darted off from the nucleus with incomparably 
 greater velocity than that which went to form the 
 primary one." 
 
 Our explanation of this is, that the enormous 
 resistance encountered by the comet as it ap- 
 proached the sun was constantly increasing, and 
 when the material, " consisting," according to 
 Schelling,* " of innumerable solid particles sepa- 
 rated one from another," which composed tlie 
 secondary tail, was, by reason of the intensfe heat, 
 separated from the nucleus or head of the comet, it 
 was projected into space with increased and con- 
 stantly increasing velocity due to its nearer ap- 
 proach to the sun. Hence, when near the perehelion 
 change of direction the tail would seem to be 
 driven back upon the nucleus. 
 
 " Considerable discussion has taken place as to 
 the origin of the spectrum seen at the base of a 
 candle or gas flame. At first, observation seemed 
 to point to the fact that it was due to a hydro- 
 carbon. It has been ascertained, however, that 
 sparks taken in cj'-anogen gas, even when dried 
 * Spectrum Analysis, p. 568. 
 
150 SPECTRUM OF GAS FLAME. 
 
 with all care, show the spectrum, and a flame of 
 cyanogen and oxygen gives the same bands brill- 
 iantly. These facts have convinced the majority 
 of observers that the spectrum is a true carbon 
 spectrum."* 
 
 Prof. Tyndall has made us acquainted, not only 
 with the peculiar properties and the marvellous 
 distribution of aqueous vapor, but also of the most 
 infinitesimal dust-particles that so thoroughly per- 
 meate our atmosphere, and are made manifest when 
 it is agitated or disturbed. These particles are 
 utterly impalpable, and are only made visible in 
 sunbeams. Their existence may be made manifest 
 in an extraordinary manner by means of the blue 
 flame. We have noticed the brilliancy of the field 
 when charged with finely comminuted charcoal, 
 lodestone or iron. 
 
 To vary the experiment we resorted to friction, 
 rubbing briskly the brass tube or wick of a com- 
 mon Bunsen burner with a two-pound lodestone, 
 the ventilator in the bottom of the tube being left 
 entirely open so that only the blue carbon flame 
 escaped from the top. Immediately bright coni- 
 cal streaks appeared in the flame, intermittent and 
 disappearing when the friction ceased. By sub- 
 stituting raps for friction the brilliancy of the 
 whole flame was greatly increased and its volume 
 slightly enlarged. For the moment the result was 
 startling since it seemed to show that magnetism 
 * Art. Spectroscopy, Cyc. Brit., 19th Edition. 
 
SPECTRUM OF GAS FLAME. 151 
 
 was matter that was being consumed by the car- 
 bon flame. But continuing and varying the ex- 
 periment, it was found that rubbing or rapping the 
 tube with any solid substance would produce the 
 same effect, much less forcibly, however, with fric- 
 tion than with rapping. Another singular effect 
 was, that by rapping the rubber tube that conveyed 
 the gas into the Bunsen wick, at a little distance 
 from the base of the burner a similar but less con- 
 tinuous and brilliant effect was manifest. 
 
 Projecting moisture into the flame by the elastic 
 force of a damp tooth-brush rubbed across the 
 fingers also increased the brilliancy of the whole 
 volume of flame. This shows that water, when 
 first projected into a burning building, adds fuel to 
 the flame. When the heat is sufficiently intense 
 to convert the water into steam the flame is extin- 
 guished. 
 
 Every person who has used a clothes or hair 
 brush knows that after use, by rubbing them across 
 the fingers or any other substance, particles of dust 
 and other visible matter are expelled from them. 
 After these particles have ceased to be visible, turn 
 the brushes toward the carbon flame and rub them 
 as before. The brilliancy of the flame is at once 
 increased. Rub one piece of iron quickly across 
 another towards the flame. A most brilliant flame 
 is exhibited. Rub a stiff tooth-brush across the 
 flat surface of a lodestone towards the flame. A 
 still more brilliant flame filled with incandescent 
 
152 SPECTRUM OF GAS FLAME. 
 
 sparks will rush up from the tube. We had made 
 a steel tube or wick to fit an ordinary Bunsen 
 burner and repeated these experiments with it, in 
 some cases with more brilliant effect than with the 
 brass tube. The steel was necessarily magnetized 
 both by friction and rapping during the experi- 
 ments. With both the brass and steel tubes, by 
 scraping off particles of lodestone on the upper 
 edge so that they came in contact with the flame, 
 a yellowish green color appeared at the base of the 
 flame from the brass tube which we attributed to 
 the copper in its composition, but a bright green 
 appeared at the base of the flame from the steel 
 tube, which the spectroscope may show to be the 
 spectrum of the lodestone flame. With a slightly 
 moistened tooth-brush take up some •floured lode- 
 stone that has been sifted through flannel and pro- 
 ject it into the flame. A scintillating blaze of 
 glory will be the result. After handling lode- 
 stones, iron, charcoal and other substances, brush 
 the fingers of the right hand briskly across those 
 of the left and toward the flame ; it will become 
 more brilliant intermittingly, and incandescent 
 sparks will appear. 
 
 As there can be no combustion except through 
 the agency of matter, whence comes the matter 
 that illumines the carbon flame '? We can trace 
 that from the water, the iron, the lodestone, the 
 charcoal, and the particles of dust. But whence 
 comes that from the flesh of the hands ? Since 
 
SPECTBUM OF GAS FLAME. 153 
 
 flame is incontestibly the product of the combus- 
 tion of matter, how infinitely infinitesimal, in this 
 case, must be the particles of that matter ? Is it 
 possible that the ether can be more ethereal than 
 this ? If not, the resistless logic of the question 
 seems to be that ether is matter. Another argu- 
 ment in favor of the same conclusion may be cited. 
 We know that nothing but matter except magnet- 
 ism can resist matter in motion. In a perfect 
 vacuum all substances light or heavy, fall with the 
 same velocity. In the atmosphere they fall with 
 unequal velocities, the feather less rapidly than 
 the leaden bullet. Now it is held that the ether 
 resists the motion of the planets in their orbits and 
 at the same time helps to support them as they 
 revolve on their axes. If this argument is sound 
 it is a further indication that ether is matter. 
 
 A very good illustration of the above conditions 
 is furnished by the flame of a Bunsen gas-burner 
 when the ventilator at the bottom of the tube is 
 left entirely open so that the air may be admitted 
 to the lower part of the flame. The faint fringe 
 of light that borders the outer and upper edge of 
 the flame produced by the combustion of the oxy- 
 gen from the air with a slight portion of hydrogen, 
 represents the coma; the denser yellow flame 
 produced by the combustion of the " solid bodies," 
 both of the gas and such as may escape from the 
 inner surface of the tube, represents the nucleus, 
 and the beautifully transparent slightly blue flame 
 
154 SPECTRUM OF GAS FLAME. 
 
 that immediately follows is tlie carbon flame that 
 forms the tails of comets. 
 
 To illustrate this more effectually we prepared 
 a single tube or metallic wick to receive the gas 
 from two Bunsen burners. The orifice for the 
 escape of the concentrated flame of both burners 
 was three inches wide. When the gas was turned 
 on full head with the ventilators entirely open we 
 had a splendid jet of flame three inches wide and 
 about eight inches high at the centre of the flame 
 arch. We thus had a curtain of light-blue trans- 
 parent flame equal to a parallelogram about three 
 inches wide and four inches high. 
 
 With a glass blow-pipe we sent a current of air 
 through the curtain. The heat was carried be- 
 yond arm's length. With a small nozzle attached to 
 the rubber tube of an air-pump, and turning on a 
 strong current of air a conical volume of heat was 
 developed, the heat being quite strong at its apex 
 near the blue curtain, and detected by the hand 
 some twelve to fifteen feet distant. Counter-cur- 
 rents from any source should be excluded. 
 
 When the Bunsen flame was ascending undis- 
 turbed, a fine effect was produced by sprinkling or 
 ejecting into it finely comminuted particles of any 
 metal or mineral. Particles of carbon gave a 
 profusion of brilliant sparks. Thoroughly pulver- 
 ized lodestone and iron yielded copious volumes 
 of bright flame. If this be a true synthesis of 
 comet's tails, then every lighted candle and gas- 
 
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 155 
 
 flame has been manufacturing them for centuries 
 past. 
 
 Says Sir John Herschel, " The constitution of 
 the nubeculse — the Magellanic clouds — especially 
 that of nubecula major, is found to be of astonish- 
 ing complexity. The general ground of both con- 
 sists of large tracts and patches of nebulosity in 
 every stage of resolution, . . . nebulae in abun- 
 dance both regular and irregular ; globular clusters 
 in every state of condensation ; and objects of a 
 nebulous character quite peculiar, and which have 
 no analogue in any other region of the heavens." 
 These objects of a nebulous character may possibly 
 be masses of glowing gas similar to those discovered 
 by Huggins in the nebula of Draco. Whatever 
 may be their constitution they appear to be per- 
 manently fixed in the far south-eastern portion of 
 the heavens. 
 
 Remembering that by our hypothesis there are 
 several stellar systems in each of the hyperboloids, 
 we may assume that two of these systems are 
 adjacent to each other in two adjoining hyperbo- 
 loids, but not in the same latitude, so to speak, in 
 space, and that they are also within telescopic 
 reach of each other. Let us further assume that 
 the system to which our earth belongs is within 
 telescopic reach of the system that lies next east 
 of it. We know that our telescopes reveal to us 
 many celestial bodies lying far beyond the planets 
 connected with our system, that many of these 
 
166 MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 
 
 bodies are suns, and that each sun is supposed to 
 be the centre of another system. All these bodies 
 revolve in the same general direction. Hence it 
 may happen that, from our earth, moving along 
 the eastern side of our system, we may, with the 
 aid of the telescope, observe the celestial bodies 
 moving — or rather existing, for they can hardly 
 be said to move — in the western side of the neigh- 
 ' boring system. The Magellanic clouds may belong 
 to this neighboring system and be at an immense 
 distance from their primary in the direction of our 
 primary, and so within reach of our telescopes. 
 This seems to be a satisfactory explanation of their 
 position. 
 
 The eccentric motions of the stars in the celes- 
 tial vault may also be satisfactorily explained by 
 our hypothesis. While the stars are all moving in 
 one general direction some of them appear to be 
 moving in opposite directions. This may be shown 
 by the two supposed neighboring systems. Place 
 two celestial globes of equal size side by side with 
 their axes horizontal, parallel and standing north 
 and south. Note a star on the meridian of one of 
 the globes and another star on the opposite side of 
 the meridian of the other globe. 
 
 Now, rotate both globes from west to east. While 
 the first star sinks to its horizon the other star will 
 rise to its horizon, and then as they continue to 
 revolve they will appear to be moving in opposite 
 directions. By destroying the parallelism of their 
 
ECCENTRIC STAB MOTIONS. 157 
 
 axes an obliquity of rotation will be apparent. In 
 like manner we may suppose the telescope will 
 reveal to our view other stars of different magni- 
 tudes belonging to other neighboring systems. 
 The inclination of their axes of rotation may 
 greatly vary and every kind of motion be ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 We may here notice a peculiar optical illusion 
 connected with the motion of double stars. Im- 
 agine two stars of any magnitude made easily vis- 
 ible by our telescopes, to be so situated in space as 
 to be nearly in range with each other, and suppose 
 their rotary motion to be in the same direction, 
 but with different velocities. Under these condi- 
 tions the two stars will appear to be moving in 
 opposite directions, the star that moves slowest 
 appearing to move in a direction contrary to that 
 of the other. If the spectator could have a lateral 
 view of the pair, he would recognize the immense 
 distance between them. 
 
158 AGE OF THE EABTH. 
 
 XX. 
 
 The Age of the Earth. 
 
 We are less interested in what may be the age 
 of the earth at the present time, than we are in 
 what may be its future term of existence. Some 
 authorities suppose it to have existed about ten 
 millions of years and that it may possibly continue 
 to exist for about eighteen millions more. Its 
 future life depends, primarily, on the heat derived 
 from the sun and secondarily on what Helmholtz 
 calls certain " physico-mechanical laws." 
 ■ Every decrease in the temperature of the sun is 
 followed, ultimately, by a decrease in the tempera- 
 ture of the interior of the earth. When this tem- 
 perature reaches a point so low that the earth's 
 surface will not support vegetable life then all 
 life, both vegetable and animal, will cease to exist. 
 The operation of the tides and winds, the resist- 
 ance resulting from the inequalities in the depth 
 of the oceans and seas and the elevation of mount- 
 ains are mechanical forces which, it is claimed, 
 will slowly but surely retard the rotary motion of 
 
AGE OF THE EABTH. 159 
 
 the planet, and finally reduce it to a condition of 
 utter barrenness and desolation. Laplace, how- 
 evei', says : * " Tlie currents of the sea, the rivers, 
 earthquakes and winds do not alter the rotation of 
 the earth," and also that " For the last 2000 years 
 the sun's mass has not varied the two millionth 
 part." t 
 
 Under our hypothesis a very different result 
 may be anticipated. That hypothesis provides an 
 abundant and constant supply of fuel for all suns 
 in the future. We know that our sun is rated as 
 a star of about the 4th magnitude. There are a 
 great number of stars in the firmament of vastly 
 greater size and intenser brightness. We have 
 before referred to Alpha Centauri, Sirius and Ca- 
 pella. Our sun would cast a shadow on either of 
 them if placed between the two with Sirius serv- 
 ing as a screen. We also know that the stars vary 
 in intrinsic brightness as well as in size. 
 
 Now, in view of the infinite supply of fuel 
 poured into the stellar systems from outer space 
 we may legitimately assume that all suns may in- 
 crease in size and also in intrinsic brightness and 
 calorific force. Hence it may follow that no planet 
 will ever perish from diminution of the heat-sup- 
 ply, but, on the contrary, may melt with fervent 
 lieat or be destroyed by the operation of " physico- 
 mechanical laws." Indeed we may with reason- 
 
 * Mec. Cel. Vol. II., Book V., Bowditch's Translation, 
 tld. Vol. IV., p. 622. 
 
160 -^GE OF THE EABTH. 
 
 able confidence believe that, from this cause, all 
 planets will ultimately cease to exist as planets 
 and that their elements may be transformed into 
 other ponderables and imponderables that may 
 furnish fuel for distant suns or supply material for 
 new planets to revolve in other spheres. 
 
 Suns also, may wax and wane and perish and be 
 resurgent in other suns. But there is no neces- 
 sity that they should do so, since there is never a 
 lack of fuel for their flame. There may be varia- 
 tion in the intensity of their radiance and calores- 
 cence as the proportions of hydrogen, oxygen and 
 carbon or nitrogen and ammonia may vary in the 
 fuel supplied. 
 
SUN AND AUMOMA. 161 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The Sun and the Aurora. 
 
 That we may better understand the character of 
 the fixed stars, all of which are supposed to be 
 suns, we may briefly study that of our own. The 
 generally accepted theory of its constitution is 
 that its centre is composed of partially if not wholly 
 liquified solids, of which the spectroscope has re- 
 vealed the following: iron, nickel, copper, zinc, 
 sulphur, and indeed, most of the substances of 
 which the crust of our earth is composed ; that 
 these are surrounded by the photosphere or visible 
 surface of the sun, a kind of dense atmosphere 
 composed of clouds formed by the combination and 
 condensation of such of the solar gases as are suffi- 
 ciently cooled off by their radiation into space. 
 Outside of the photosphere, is the chromosphere, a 
 layer of uncondensed gas which overlies it. The 
 lower portion of the chromosphere is rich in all 
 the vapors and gases which enter into the sun's 
 composition. 
 
 At a comparatively small elevation the heavier 
 11 
 
162 SUN AND AUBOBA. 
 
 gases disappear, giving place to the lighter gases, 
 especially to hydrogen which extends beyond the 
 surface of the sun to immense distances in every 
 direction. Certain highly-colored prominences 
 originating, apparently, in the chromosphere are 
 considered by Young to be extensions of it pro- 
 jected upward to great altitudes and forming enor- 
 mous clouds as beautiful, variable and changeable 
 as those which we see in our terrestrial sky. 
 
 Proctor, discussing the corona and the observed 
 association between these colored prominences and 
 the inner and brighter parts of the corona says : 
 " That in some way or otlier electricity is at work 
 in the production of the coronal light, may well be 
 believed ; and further, that electrical action is at 
 work in some special manner above the prominence 
 regions is far from impossible." * 
 
 There is a difference of opinion as to the origin 
 of the spots on the sun. We do not discuss this 
 question since, for our purposes, we are only inter- 
 ested in knowing that a close correlation has been 
 proved to exist between them and the earth's mag- 
 netism. The magnetic needle responds to their 
 influence as readily and distinctly as it does to that 
 of the aurora. The observations of Angstrom and 
 Eespighi showed that the aurora and the zodiacal 
 light are identical. The more rapid the motion 
 of the rays or streamers of the aurora the greater 
 is the excitement of the magnetic needle. 
 * Orbs Around TJs, pp. 276-2'78. 
 
SUN AND AUBOBA. 163 
 
 In his monograph on the Aurorse Mr. J. Rand 
 Capron mentions one observed in 1877 by Mr. Carl 
 Bork, a Norwegian naturalist, and painted by him 
 from nature, in oil colors. The painting is remark- 
 able for the distinct but tender green of some of 
 the streamers. 
 
 It is claimed that the spectroscopic observations 
 of the zodiacal light made by Angstrom from which 
 he concluded that it developed the same green line 
 that is exhibited in the aurora, are not verified by 
 later observations. But if the zodiacal light and 
 tlie aurora are identical as claimed by him and 
 Respighi, then there is conclusive reason to believe 
 that their spectra are identical. And the proba- 
 bility is that if the vibrations or undulations of the 
 zodiacal light were as rapid as those of the aurora, 
 the green line would be distinctly developed in it. 
 
1(54 AGE OF BTAES. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 The Age of the Stars. 
 
 It will be remembered that Sir William Her- 
 schel was the first to suggest that the nebulae may 
 furnish us an indication of the age of the stars. 
 This idea is repeated and more or less elaborated 
 by Father Secchi, Prof. Tait and Piof. Langley ; 
 by the first very slightly, by the two latter more 
 fully. Says Father Secchi, " It is not very long 
 since it was believed that the stellar spaces were 
 peopled only by well-defined and compact bodies ; 
 now there have been discovered those enormous 
 masses of gas which are, perhaps, destined to con- 
 stitute other solid bodies, if even already there are 
 not some of them solidified, of which light has not 
 yet brought us the announcement." 
 
 Prof. Tait,* commenting on Fourier's great 
 work on " Heat Conduction " says : " In astronomy 
 it leads us to the grand question of the age, or 
 perhaps more correctly of the phase of life of a star 
 or a nebulse ; shows us the material of potential 
 
 * Eecent Advances in Physical Science, p. 22. 
 
AGE OF STABS. 165 
 
 suns, other suns in the process of formation, in 
 vigorous youth and in every stage of protracted 
 decay. It leads us to look on each planet and 
 satellite as having been at one time a tiny sun, a 
 member of some binary or multiple group, and 
 even now presenting an endless variety of subjects 
 for the application of its methods. It leads us 
 forward in thought, to the far distant time when 
 the materials of the present stellar systems shall 
 have lost all but their mutual potential energy, 
 but shall in virtue of it form the materials of fur- 
 ther larger suns with their attendant planets." 
 
 Prof. Langley,* concerning the developments of 
 the spectroscope says : " Again, in showing us the 
 composition of the stars it has also shown us more, 
 for it has enabled us to form a conjecture as to the 
 relative ages of the stars and suns," and of the 
 different features and characteristics of the stars, 
 " that a succession in age is not improbably pointed 
 at in these types. Yet if we admit this tempera- 
 ture classification of the stars, we are not far from 
 admitting that the spectroscope is now pointing 
 out the stages in the life of suns themselves ; suns 
 just beginning their life of almost infinite years ; 
 suns in the middle of their course ; suns which are 
 growing old and casting feebler beams." 
 
 * New Astronomy, p. 238, 
 
166 SOUTHERN HEMISPHEBE. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 The Southern Hemisphere and the Magellanic 
 Clouds. 
 
 Wb have stated (^supra) that Sir William Her- 
 schel was the first to emphasize the fact that the 
 southern hemisphere is much less rich in the num- 
 ber and magnitude of its stars than the northern. 
 But it is richest in nubeoulae and nebulae. To 
 Sir William and Sir John Herschel we are mostly 
 indebted for our knowledge of the marvellous 
 beauty and wonderful character of the nubeculse, 
 the Magellanic clouds. 
 
 " The constitution," says Sir John, " of the nu- 
 becula,and especially of the nubecula major, is found 
 to be of astonishing complexity. The general 
 ground of both consists of large tracts and patches 
 of nebulosity in every stage of resolution, from 
 light irresolvable with eighteen inches of reflecting 
 aperture, up to perfectly separated stars like the 
 milky way, and clustering groups sufficiently insu- 
 lated and condensed to come under the designation 
 of irregular, and in some cases, pretty rich clusters. 
 But besides those there are also nebulse in abun- 
 
SOUTHERN EEMISPHERE. 1G7 
 
 dance both regular and irregular ; globular clusters 
 in every state of condensation ; and objects of a 
 nebulous character quite peculiar, and which have 
 no analogue in any other region of the heavens." 
 
 Speaking of the glory of portions of the southern 
 sky, Dr. A. B. Gould* says, that "in the region 
 of the southern cross is indescribable. Theie 
 where the milky way is crossed by the thick stream 
 of bright stars which skirts the rim of light, its 
 brilliancy is wonderfully increased, and it exhibits 
 a magnificence unequalled in any other portion of 
 the heavens." 
 
 Humboldt writes that the lesser of the Magel- 
 lanic clouds " is surrounded with a kind of desert, 
 a desert of intensest darkness." We shall notice 
 in the sequel the significance of the position and 
 composition of these clouds. 
 
 Swedenborg was first to note, in 1734, the varia- 
 tion of the magnetic force from the equator to the 
 poles, a fact afterward noted by La Perouse, in 
 1787, and still later by Humboldt, in 1798. " The 
 intensity of this force," says Humboldt, " is least 
 at the equator and greatest at the poles." 
 
 Swedenborg also noted the fact that the southern 
 magnetic axis is longer than the northern, a fact 
 also noted by Prof. Hansteen, in 1819, and con- 
 firmed by Sir James Ross during the cruise of the 
 Erebus and Terror, in 1839-1843. It is one of the 
 most interesting phenomena connected with the 
 * Account of the Cordoba Observatory. 
 
168 SOUTHERN HEMISPHEBE. 
 
 motion of our globe. The position of the two 
 poles is given as follows : 
 
 South magnetic pole 75° 5' South Lat. 
 North magnetic pole 75° 0' North Lat. 
 
 Prof. Hansteen gives the following : Period of 
 revolution of North Mag. pole, 1890 years, mean 
 annual motion 11'425. Period of revolution of 
 South Mag. pole, 4605 years, mean annual motion 
 4'69. 
 
 Discussing the investigations of Sabine, Ross and 
 Gauss, Humboldt writes,* " if the intensity near 
 the south magnetic pole be expressed by 2.052, 
 Sabine found it was only 1.624 at the North Mag. 
 pole." Sir Isaac Newton proved that the preces- 
 sion of the equinoxes was due to the preponder- 
 ance of matter about the earth's equator as com- 
 pared with its poles, whereby the former was more 
 strongly attracted than the latter, thus producing 
 a gyratory or wabbling motion of the poles of the 
 earth around those of the ecliptic. 
 
 If the fact that the southern magnetic axis is 
 longer than the northern shows that the centre of 
 gravity in the earth is not the centre of figure, this 
 latter lying nearest to the north pole, then this 
 fact would materially influence the precession of 
 the equinox. 
 
 *Kosmos, Vol. I. p. 197. 
 
NEW COSMOGRAPHY. 169 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 A New Cosmography and Celestial G-eography. 
 
 It remains for us to apply the facts and forces 
 we have been considering to the Geography of the 
 Heavens, the distribution and motions of the stars, 
 the system or systems under which they are ar- 
 ranged and the laws which govern their move- 
 ments and influence their duration. Following 
 Bacon and Kant who, as before noted, designated 
 Time and Space as " Forms," Ave have assigned 
 certain Forms to space in developing the new cos- 
 mography and the new celestial geography. 
 
 There are two ideas, or rather beliefs, that are 
 strongly intrenched in the popular mind. One is 
 that the stars are infinite in number and another 
 is that they are infinite in duration, that they will 
 never die. We sliall learn that they are not infinite 
 in number and that all the planetary stars may 
 cease to exist. 
 
 There are certain curves and surfaces that we 
 shall need to utilize and refer to so frequently that 
 it will be well to understand their origin, forms 
 and functions. All these curves, and none others, 
 can be cut from a single right-angled cone. If 
 we pass a plane through this cone perpendicular to 
 
170 NEW COSMOGRAPBT. 
 
 its axis it will cut out a circle ; if we pass it at 
 any angle with the axis greater than 45° it will 
 cut out an ellipse ; if parallel to the axis at any dis- 
 tance below the apex, an hyperbola ; if parallel to 
 the side, a parabola. 
 
 If the plane be passed from the apex to the base 
 along the axis, it will cut out an isosceles triangle. 
 If we revolve a circle upon either of its diameters 
 it will generate a sphere ; if we revolve an ellipse 
 on either of its axes it will generate an ellipsoid ; 
 if we revolve a parabola upon its major axis it will 
 generate a paraboloid and if we revolve an hyper- 
 bola upon its major axis it will generate an hyper- 
 boloid. 
 
 These curves have certain characteristics. A 
 circular space or area is the largest that can be en- 
 closed by any given line. The planets rotate on 
 their axes in circles, they revolve in their orbits in 
 ellipses. Periodical comets revolve round the sun 
 in ellipses; unreturning comets in parabolic or 
 hyperbolic curves. The trajectories of shooting 
 stars are parabolic. 
 
 In a solid cube of wood we can cut out or ex- 
 cavate an hyperboloid from each of its sides. The 
 straight lines joining the centres of each pair of 
 opposite sides will pass through the centre of the 
 cube itself and will form the major axes of the 
 hyperboloids. 
 
 The two hyperboloids opposite each other and 
 having a common axis are technically called nappes. 
 
NEW COSMOGRAPHY. 171 
 
 As there are six hyperboloids there will be three 
 pair of nappes. The straight lines passing at right 
 angles to each other, through the point of inter- 
 section of the two major axes of the nappes and 
 tangent to the curve or surface at an infinite 
 distance, are called asymptotes. The hyperbolic 
 curve and the right line called the asymptote or 
 tangent, bear a peculiar relation to each other for, 
 although the latter is called tangent to the former, 
 yet, practically, they never coincide, as is mathe- 
 matically demonstrated.* The spaces, cut out of 
 our cube, which form the hyperboloids are hyper- 
 boloidal spaces. The space between the hyper- 
 boloids but exterior to them is an asymptotic space. 
 For convenience we may call it an asymptoid. 
 
 Now, concerning all these lines and spaces we 
 notice one transcendent truth, that, as here combined, 
 they all have their origin in one common centre and 
 they are all injinite in extent. 
 
 If a sun possessing infinite photometric power ivere 
 placed at that centre its rays, if they met with no 
 obstruction, would illuminate all space. 
 
 If infinite space were illuminated by a vast number 
 
 * Upon this fact is founded Addison's famous comparison 
 of the spirit of man with the Divine spirit. {Spectator No. 
 III.) " The soul," he says, " considered with its Creator, is 
 like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer 
 to another for all eternity without a possibility of touching 
 it." 
 
172 NEW COSMOGRAPHY. 
 
 of suns attended hy their secondary orbs, an all- 
 seeing eye, placed at that centre could survey and 
 scan them all. 
 
 If an omnipotent, inherent, self-acting force were 
 placed at that centre it could sway, move, govern 
 them all. 
 
THE NEW SYSTEM. 173 
 
 XXV. 
 
 77ie New Si/stem. — 2%e Asymptoid and the Hyper- 
 boloids. — The Matter and Motion Within Them. 
 
 All philosophers and astronomers have supposed 
 space to be filled with matter which is, in part, 
 systematically arranged, is subjected to certain 
 forces and governed by certain laws, but no 
 specific, original form iii which it exists and 
 is conserved until needed for use in organic 
 work has been proposed. As we have already 
 stated, the stellar system that meets with most 
 favor and is generally accepted as true, is that 
 which is based upon the nebular hypothesis. 
 The culmination of this system is the Milky Way 
 accompanied by star clusters, young stars, nubec- 
 ulse, nebulae and star-dust. 
 
 Its most sublime and striking features have been 
 described and mapped by the Herschels and by 
 Father Secchi. A small section of it in which our 
 sun is supposed to be located has been especially 
 delineated. This system is very grand and im- 
 pressive, but how small a portion, comparatively, 
 of infinite space does it utilize, does it occupy ? 
 
174 THE NEW SYSTEM. 
 
 The only system which transcends this, which 
 sweeps into wider areas and recognizes other Milky 
 Ways with all their grand accompaniments is that 
 of Lambert, which has been already noticed. 
 
 The new system it is proposed to develop begins 
 with the hypothesis that all space, by the action 
 of certain laws, is divided into different forms or 
 compartments in the manner we have already in- 
 dicated ; that the chief central form to which all 
 the others adjoin is the asymptotic which we call 
 the asymptoid ; that this spreads out infinitely and 
 embraces, but does not surround, the six hyper- 
 boloidal forms or spaces which we designate as 
 hyperboloids. These six forms, as before noted 
 constitute three pairs of nappes. All the nappes ex- 
 tend outward infinitely from the lines in which 
 they adjoin the as3'^mptoid. The axes of these 
 nappes intersect each other at right angles and are 
 infinite in length. This point of intersection is 
 the apex of the cone from which the hyperboloids 
 were cut. These hyperboloids are all exactly 
 equal to each other and, mathematically, their 
 equations are identical. 
 
 The points at which the axes of the nappes in- 
 tersect the hyperboloids are in the centre of the 
 hyperboloids themselves, and the positive poles of 
 all the suns in all the hyperboloids also point to 
 wards this centre, as the positive poles in all the 
 planets point towards their suns. All the planets 
 connected with all tlie suns in all the hyperboloids 
 
W0&:^3m*^:i^^if-.!:?f'i^:\ 
 
 South. 
 The X-shaped space represents the Asymptoid with Spheres. 
 Hyperboloids with Planets, etc. 
 E. The Earth. 
 M. The Magellanic Clouds. 
 AA. Asynnptotes. 
 
 The other spaces are parts of 
 
TBE NEW SYSTEM. 175 
 
 revolye from west to east or from left to right, 
 and possibly the whole omniverse may revolve in 
 the same direction. 
 
 We speak of " fixed stars." They are so approxi- 
 mately in size and in intrinsic brightness and in re- 
 lation to each other. But since the planets have 
 a circular rotation on their axes and revolve in 
 ellipses around their primaries, in both cases with 
 vastly different velocities and in vastly different 
 times, it is evident that not one of them occupies 
 the same position in space during any two consecu- 
 tive periods of time nor will any of them hereafter 
 occupy any position that they have occupied here- 
 tofore. Motion is the life of stars, stagnation their 
 death. We must emphasize the cardinal fact that 
 the arms, so to designate them, of the asymptoid 
 grow constantly narrower as they recede from the 
 vertex of the curve or form. 
 
 The hyperboloids are six domes. The areas of 
 these domes are constantly enlarged as their axes 
 are more and more elongated. Considering them 
 as spaces occupied by celestial bodies it seems clear 
 that light must diminish as it recedes from their 
 centres until it is lost in the utter darkness that 
 envelops them all. 
 
 Some of the gases after their formation under 
 fixed laws as before noted which have strong affin- 
 ities for each other may be combined in their 
 partially condensed condition. Other and innu- 
 merable combinations, adhesions and mechanical 
 
176 THE NEW SYSTEM. 
 
 associations may occur between them in all stages 
 between the extreme poles. And by these varied and 
 numberless combinations every possible form and 
 kind of matter is produced. Hence we have stellar 
 and planetary systems with all their accompani- 
 ments and belongings ; suns of every size and kind 
 and color ; planets, large and small, with or with 
 out a single or several satellites ; asteroids, meteo- 
 rites, star clusters, nebulae, nubeculse and star-dust. 
 To the omnipresence of magnetism we must add 
 its omnipotence, in the sense of its infinite and 
 constant action, its persistent, pervasive vis-viva. 
 It is always alive. There are various and simple 
 ways of showing this. The simplest is the single 
 thermo-electric pair formed by uniting bars of 
 antimony and bismuth at one end and connecting 
 the opposite, open ends, with a wire. By heating 
 the united ends a direct current will be generated ; 
 by cooling them the current will be reversed. 
 
 Another simple method of exhibiting the magnetic 
 force is the following. Place a magnetic needle 
 in its normal condition when at rest standing north 
 and south. From a distance outside, at right 
 angles to tlie needle, present to it the poles of a 
 magnet. As like poles repel and unlike poles at- 
 tract, let us use the north pole of the needle and 
 of the magnet. As we approach the magnet to 
 the needle from the east the latter is deflected to 
 the west. It is pushed out of its normal direction 
 more and more the nearer the magnet approaches 
 
THE NEW SYSTEM. 177 
 
 it. This pushing is persistent so long as the rela- 
 tive positions of the magnet and the needle are 
 maintained. From month to month, year to year, 
 these opposite forces will continue to act. With 
 the least variation in the intensity of the magnetism 
 either in the atmosphere or the magnet, motion is 
 instantly manifested. 
 
 It is not simply inertia, it is in fact a perpetual 
 force and also practically, perpetual motion, for the 
 invisible vibrations of force are constantly passing 
 between the magnet and the needle, manifest mo- 
 tion resulting, as we have stated, the moment 
 there is any variation in the magnetic tension. 
 
 " In the incandescent points which produce the 
 electric light, when the current is turned off dark- 
 ness ensues, but they do not cease to radiate. 
 There is still a copious emission from the points." * 
 
 It has been shown by Matteucci that, in living 
 animals an electric current is perpetually circulat- 
 ing between the external and internal portions of 
 the muscles. If the physical elements of the body 
 were imperishable and unchangeable, this motion 
 would be perpetual. 
 
 Any number of needles may be placed in the 
 line of magnetic action and all of them will be 
 more or less deflected according to their distance 
 from the magnet. We placed four needles in this 
 line, the first needle one inch, the second two, the 
 third three and the fourth six inches long, which 
 
 * TyndaU : Heat as Motion, § 306. 
 12 
 
178 THE NEW SYSTEM. 
 
 we designated in the same order as Mercury, 
 Venus, the Earth and Mars. They were placed at 
 distances from the magnet varying from 12 to 60 
 inches, the longest needle at the greatest distance. 
 
 The removal of the three interior needles from 
 the line of force did not cause the slightest varia- 
 tion in the deflection of the outer one. As many 
 needles, of any length, as the space would hold, 
 could be placed in the line of magnetic force, and 
 each would at once be deflected to the same extent 
 that it would when it stood alone in the line, each 
 needle contributing its own latent magnetism to 
 the main line of force. It is this magnetic force, 
 as we have indicated, that determines the condi- 
 tions and motions of the matter in the hyperboloids. 
 The next question is one of intense interest, name- 
 ly : what are the contents of the asymptoid and to 
 what conditions and motions are they subjected? 
 Difficult as the question is we do not despair of its 
 partial elucidation. 
 
 Let us again note' more particularly the form 
 and position of this space in reference to all space. 
 We have already described its geometrical origin 
 and figure, showing that it holds within its em- 
 bracing but not surrounding curve as before stated, 
 six exactly equal and homogeneous hyperboloids. 
 Hence its centre may, for our purpose, be con- 
 sidered as the centre of all space, since every ra- 
 dius extending outward from that centre will be 
 infinite. We have also pointed out the wonderful 
 
TEE NSW SYSTEM. 179 
 
 characteristics of this centre, the perfect equilib- 
 rium of all space and matter around it and that 
 from it, every adequate influence, energy or force 
 could be easily, equably and systematically distrib- 
 uted and extended in all possible directions. We 
 have also noted the origin — Deity — of all power, 
 energy and force. We may then consider this 
 asymptotic space, from its peculiar and absolutely 
 central position and its marvellous adaptability for 
 the propagation of infinite action, to be the seat of 
 infinite power or, as we may reverently suggest, 
 the dwelling-place of God. 
 
180 2--£f^ ASYMPTOin. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 The Asymptoid. — Transcendental Matter. — Light 
 without Heat. — Peculiar Function of Nitrogen. — 
 Nitrogen Zones. — Exhilarating Atmosphere. — Ror 
 diant Matter. 
 
 What are the contents of this space ? We may 
 reach some conclusions concerning them by an- 
 alogy, by inference from what we know of those 
 appertaining to the hyperboidal spaces. We have 
 studied the character and properties of the various 
 forms of matter which they contain, of the ponder- 
 ables and imponderables, and of the various forces 
 to which they are subjected. All this matter and 
 all these forces are very substantial, very real and 
 easily and effectively made manifest to our senses. 
 It appears reasonable to infer that they must be 
 analogous to those found in the asymptoid. 
 
 But we may readily believe that the latter are 
 of a more transcendental character. We know 
 that matter exists here in an almost infinite variety 
 of forms, and that some kinds of matter are allo- 
 tropic, that they are capable of existing in two or 
 more conditions which are distinct in their physi- 
 
THE ASTMPTOID. 181 
 
 cal or chemical relations. The most familiar and 
 conspicuous of these is carbon, which occurs crys- 
 tallized in octahedrons and other related forms, in 
 a state of extreme hardness in the diamond ; it also 
 occurs in hexagonal forms of little hardness, as 
 black le'ad, and again in a third form of entire sofi> 
 ness as lampblack and charcoal. In some cases 
 one of the allotropics is peculiarly an active state 
 and the other a passive one. Thus, among gases, 
 ozone is an active state of oxygen and is distinct 
 from ordinary oxygen which is the element in its 
 passive state. 
 
 There are several other substances that exist 
 under conditions that are, chemically, quite distinct 
 though not exactly allotropic. We also know 
 that the spectroscope reveals to us in all the 
 celestial bodies numerous forms of matter that are 
 identical with those that we find in our own solar 
 system. We may, therefore, legitimately conclude 
 that entirely similar forms of matter exist within 
 the asymptoid, and that they may be more eclectic, 
 more transcendental in their properties and 
 characteristics, that they may be less dense, more 
 refined, more delicate in their structure. And the 
 illuminating and calorific conditions of the asymp- 
 toid may be as transcendental as its matter. 
 
 " The sole difference," says Tyndall, " between 
 light and radiant heat is one of period. The waves 
 of the one are short and of rapid occurrence, while 
 the waves of the other are long and of slow occur- 
 
182 THE ASTMPTOID. 
 
 rence." From the refinement and exaltation of 
 everything pertaining to the asymptoid we may 
 infer that the light and heat developed within it 
 must be of the same character. That light will be, 
 not sparkling, intermittent, dazzling, but the calm, 
 steady, transcendent, eternal glow of the Light 
 Ineffable ; the heat, not intense, scorching, oppress- 
 ive, but gentle, radiant, glowing, illustrating, in 
 its supremest state, that peculiar condition of light 
 without heat of which nature furnishes us minia- 
 ture examples in the firefly — Lamphyridge — and 
 the glowworm — Elateridee. 
 
 These two lights are a most interesting study. 
 They are, considering the size of the living, fleshly 
 forms in which they are developed, as brilliant as 
 that of suns. When caught and held in the hand 
 no sensation of heat is felt, whereas if a person 
 held in the same way two bits of charcoal of the 
 same size heated to redness, the burn would be 
 most painful. 
 
 The experiments of Mr. N. Tesla as reported in 
 a lecture before the Electrical Engineers in London, 
 show decided progress in the development of this 
 kind of light. We may also mention his very 
 sanguine expectation, twice expressed, that under 
 certain conditions " telephoning could be rendered 
 practicable across the Atlantic " and also that 
 " ere many generations pass our machinery will 
 be a power obtainable at any point intlie universe. 
 .... Throughout all space there is energy. Is 
 
THE A 8 TMP TOID. 183 
 
 this energy static or kinetic ? If static, our hopes 
 are in vain ; if kinetic, and this we know it is for 
 certain, then it is a mere question of time when 
 men will succeed in attaching their machinery to 
 the very wheelwork of nature." 
 
 The advice of the late Mr. R. Waldo Emerson 
 was " hitch your wagon to ,7 star." Mr. Tesla 
 apparently expects to accomplish this end by the 
 aid of electric traces. However, it has been 
 abundantly demonstrated by modern hypnotists 
 that Telepathy — thought transference, thought ex- 
 change — is practicable through thousands of miles 
 and there is no reason to doubt that it may be 
 achieved through much greater distances. An- 
 swered silent prayer is successful Telepathy, 
 whatever the distance necessary to secure that 
 success may be. 
 
 The gases, refined and purified, must be found 
 in the asymptoid. The four most important of 
 these are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbonic 
 acid. The three first are electric conductors, the 
 more dense the more effective. Carbon, as we 
 have seen, is a good conductor in all its forms 
 except the diamond. 
 
 Nitrogen is devoid of color, taste or smell, is 
 mechanically mixed with oxygen in our atmos- 
 phere and combined with it in nitrous oxide. 
 Whereas oxygen is the most magnetic of all the 
 gases, nitrogen is not at all so, it is entirely neu- 
 tral or zero. 
 
184 THE ASTMPTOID. 
 
 Another remarkable property is its power to 
 sustain life, which indeed cannot be continuously 
 sustained- without it. It not merely helps to sus- 
 tain life but under certain conditions, as we have 
 before noted, produces its highest exaltation. 
 Strangely antagonistic to this is its destructive, 
 explosive power. It is an indispensable ingredient 
 in the different forms of gunpowder and dynamite, 
 is supposed to be, and undoubtedly is effective in 
 the explosion of thunderbolts. 
 
 Another of its marked peculiarities is its partial 
 opacity to heat and transparency to light. While 
 it permits the transmission of the radiant light of 
 the asymptoid into the hyperboloids it partially 
 absorbs the oppressive heat of the latter and pre- 
 vents its passage into the former. 
 
 Ammonia is composed of one part of nitrogen 
 and two of hydrogen. Now hydrochlorate, car- 
 bonate and sulphate of ammonia absorb heat and 
 extinguish combustion according to their density. 
 Leslie proved that heated bodies cool more rapidly 
 in hydrogen gas than in our atmosphere, and 
 Tyndall showed that a continuous spectrum of 
 nitrous acid gas thrown on a screen developed, 
 under certain conditions, numerous dark bands, 
 the rays of which are intercepted by the gas while 
 the intervening bands of light were allowed to pass. 
 
 At this point we call especial attention to a 
 peculiar function of nitrogen as connected, by our 
 hypothesis, with the forms and divisions of the 
 
THE A8YMPT0ID. 185 
 
 new system, We know that of the three so called 
 permaent gases, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen, 
 the specific gravity of the first is greatest, of 
 nitrogen next, while hydrogen is lightest. As we 
 ascend from planets into space these gases occur 
 in the same order, the heaviest gas, under normal 
 conditions, being always lowest. 
 
 We have supposed that all the forms of matter 
 and force, all things within the asymptoid are 
 more eclectic, more transcendental than the forms 
 of matter and force and all things in the hyperbo- 
 loids. Hence there needs be something to indicate 
 the space which separates them, that lies between 
 them. Now nitrogen, magnetically, is zero, 
 neutral, neither attractive nor repulsive, while at 
 the same time it may be thoroughly and easily 
 permeated by the magnetic force. It also, as we 
 have noted, transmits light and absorbs heat. 
 
 With these peculiar and remarkable properties 
 it is admirably fitted for a dividing curtain between 
 the asymptoid and the hyperboloids. And that is 
 the function we may suppose the nitrogen to ex- 
 hibit, and, therefore, that a zone of gases of which 
 nitrogen is the chief constituent, ammonia being 
 another, fringes each of the hyperboloids. 
 
 As oxygen is the most abundant and indispen- 
 sable of the gases in the hyperboloids so in its eclec- 
 tic state it must be most effective and pervasive 
 in the asymptoid, and the oxygen and nitrogen 
 which here form exhilarating gas may there be so 
 
186 THE ASTMPTOID. 
 
 refined, so transformed, and so exquisitely com- 
 bined as to form an atmosphere, the mere respira- 
 tion of which will be a perpetual delight. 
 
 As indicating the extent rather than the charac- 
 ter of the difference between the forms of matter 
 in the asymptoid and the hyperboloids it may be 
 suggested that the granite of that space may be 
 diambnd ; and the gems may all be transfigured ; 
 the flowers may be the shadowy embodiment of a 
 perfume; the water, flowing volumes of radiant 
 mist, and its bow of promise a transfigured iris. 
 All good and beautiful things we know here may 
 be transfigured and glorified there. 
 
 And we may the more reasonably anticipate re- 
 sults similar to these when we study the beautiful 
 experiments of Crooke with "radiant matter" 
 operating in vacuum tubes or bulbs of glass, par- 
 ticularly 'the delicate shadow of the cross, the 
 fanciful glass railway and the fairy-like wind-mill 
 of the radiometer, heretofore noticed. It will be 
 borne in mind that these tubes do not furnish a 
 perfect vacuum. 
 
SPIRITISM, NE W MA TTEB. 187 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Spirits. — Spiritism. — Magnetism in the Inner and 
 Outer-stellar Space. — The Ether, What is it ? 
 — New Matter. — Creation and Evolution. 
 
 Defining Spirit as the highest order of wisdom, 
 of consciousness, we may define spiritism as the 
 action of spirit on matter in a manner analogous 
 to the action of thought on the brain or of the will 
 on the muscles. 
 
 In certain cases, " when we come to electricity," 
 says Dr. Lodge,* " we find that some kind of mat- 
 ter has more electricity associated with it than 
 others, so that for a given electromotive force we 
 get a greater electric displacement ; that the elec- 
 tricity is, as it were, denser in some kinds of mat- 
 ter than in others." We have shown (on p. 18) 
 that magnetism can be condensed, compressed, and 
 that, under certain conditions, what Faraday calls 
 " physical lines of magnetic force," must be con- 
 sidered as extending to an infinite distance. We 
 know that magnetism can also be expanded. 
 
 * Modern Views of Electricity, p. 349. 
 
188 SPIRITISM, NEW MATTEB. 
 
 Hence the magnetism of the asymptoid may be less 
 condensed than that in the hyperboloids, to which, 
 however, it must respond. 
 
 We must further note that there are at the 
 present time a certain limited number of solar 
 systems containing a limited number of celestial 
 bodies. Were there ever a greater number of these 
 systems and bodies? Whatever may have been 
 true in the past we know that, by the law of the 
 conservation of forces and the indestructibility of 
 matter, whatever changes there may have been in 
 the number and condition of these systems and 
 bodies there can never be any less or greater 
 amount of force, nor any less or greater quantity 
 of matter in them than now. These forces and 
 this quantity of matter may be sufficient to sustain 
 the present systems indefinitely in their numerous 
 and varied changes. 
 
 But it is impossible that they should furnish 
 matter for any new systems. It is equally impos- 
 sible to believe that the work of creation or evolu- 
 tion is ended ; that no more radiant suns are to 
 illumine the outer darkness ; that no other planets 
 are to respond to their genial influence ; that the 
 boundless realms of outer-space are to be shrouded 
 in the blackness of darkness forever ; that the 
 work of Deity is finished, and that God is hence- 
 forth to rest content in the contemplation of a 
 completed task, or rather in the suspension of the 
 exercise of His omnipotent will. 
 
SPIBITISJU, NEW MA TTER. 1 89 
 
 Whence, then, is to be drawn the new matter for 
 new worlds ? From the outer-stellar space. This 
 infinite outer-stellar space is a reservoir containing 
 an infinite supply of matter for an infinite number 
 of solar systems. Since all matter is amenable to 
 the magnetic force the latter becomes a carrier for 
 the former, endless quantities of which it transports 
 into the hyperboloids where it is transformed into 
 all varieties of celestial bodies. The first form of 
 transformation is " star-dust " or "world-stuff." As 
 the magnetic force increases in strength the suc- 
 ceeding forms are the nubeculae, nebulae, meteor- 
 ites, comets, asteroids, planets and suns. These 
 are constantly forming, growing, grouping accord- 
 ing to the laws by which tliey are governed. 
 While these laws are certain and persistent they 
 are at the same time elastic, flexible, accommodat- 
 ing in their action. No forces nor forms of mat- 
 ter in any one hyperboloid can interfere vi^ith or 
 derange the forces or forms of matter in any other 
 hyperboloid. Every celestial body must revolve 
 or move within the limits of the space in which it 
 originated. 
 
 Hence, by our hypothesis the illimitable stores of 
 the outer-stellar space are constantly poured into 
 the limited zones of the hyperboloids. Hence 
 again, we have inexhaustible fuel for perpetual 
 consumption, and hence also, we have in all the 
 stellar and planetary systems the most perfect, the 
 most sublime exhibition of perpetual motion. The 
 
190 SPIRITISM, NEW MATTES. 
 
 system is complete. All its forms are homogene- 
 ous, harmonious. Its equilibrium is absolutely 
 perfect. Its mechanism it seems impossible to 
 improve. Its action is smooth, direct, orderly and 
 systematic. Under it the grand processes of 
 nature are carried forward and developed without 
 haste and without hesitation, but with unerring 
 purpose and absolute certainty. And it is auto- 
 matic, self-supporting, self-sustaining. Neither its 
 matter, its motion, or its force, or energy can be 
 annihilated. And yet this grand system, admit- 
 ting its actual existence, is as absolutely a creation 
 as would be that of a single planet or a single 
 organism. It is quite immaterial whether the 
 ultimate end of that creation be consummated in 
 six days or six millions of years. It is the result 
 of a law established by an Infinite Power, an In- 
 finite Will, and to such a Will, such a Power, 
 instantaneous production is as easy as the most 
 protracted period of evolution. 
 
 We may here repeat our hypothesis concerning 
 the origin, genesis and operation of all possible 
 forms of energy. While it is no part of our 
 design to discuss theological or teleological ques- 
 tions, it seems necessary here to consider one point 
 relating to Deity. The popular idea of God is 
 that his chief attributes are omniscience, omnipo- 
 tence and omnipresence. As to the latter, the 
 Rev. Theodore Parker's characterization of it may 
 be considered a fair expression of the popular no- 
 
SPIRITISM, NEW MATTER. 191 
 
 tion. In one of his " Ten Sermons of Religion," 
 he says : " God must be omnipresent in space. 
 There can be no mote that peojjles the sunbeams, 
 no spot on an insect's wing, no little cell of life 
 which the microscope discovers in the seed-sproule 
 of a moss and brings to light, but God is there, in 
 that mote, in that spot, in that cell." 
 
 If God is in all these forms of things He 
 must also be in the forms of all other things, 
 all things good and beautiful, and all things vile 
 and repulsive, all things lovely and clean, all 
 things filthy and foul. What a very repulsive 
 idea of God is this : a vague vastness, an incom- 
 prehensible indefiniteness, filled with an agglomera- 
 tion of all forms of matter, sheol included. 
 
 God must have a personality, an individu- 
 ality. It is impossible to love, worship, honor 
 and obey a mystic immensity with everything in 
 it. God is omnipresent by virtue of His omnis- 
 cience. He comprehends, is conscious of every- 
 thing that transpires anywhere and everywhere 
 through the operation of His own laws and by the 
 exercise of His own will. A being omniscient and 
 omnipotent, infinite in wisdom and in power, is 
 perfectly competent to fix the conditions of his 
 own existence as well as the form of his own per- 
 sonality. The Saviour informs us that God is a 
 spirit.* Whatever His form may be, wherever it 
 
 * St. John iv. 34. 
 
192 SPIRITISM, NEW MATTER. 
 
 is, whatever portion of space it occupies, that is 
 the centre of all space, and from thence emanate 
 all possible degrees and forms of energy. 
 
 " XI. In the nature of the finite mind, as such, is 
 to be found the reason why the development of its 
 personal consciousness can take place only through 
 the influences of that cosmic whole which the 
 finite being itself is not, that is, through the stimu- 
 lation coming from the Non-Ego, not because it 
 needs the contrast with something alien in order 
 to have self-existence, but, because, in this respect, 
 as in every other, it does not contain in itself the 
 conditions of its existence. We do not find this 
 limitation in the being of the Infinite ; hence, for 
 it alone is there possible a self-existence, which 
 needs neither to be initiated, nor to be continu- 
 ously developed by something not itself, but which 
 maintains itsplf within itself with spontaneous 
 action that is eternal and had no beginning. 
 
 XII. Perfect .personality is in God only ; to all 
 finite minds there is allotted but a pale copy there- 
 of. The finiteness of the finite is not a producing 
 condition of this Personality, but a limit and a 
 hindrance of its development." 
 
 Such is Lotze's exposition of God's Personality.* 
 
 * Miorocosmvis, vol. II. pp. 687, 688. 
 
UNIVEBSES. OMNIVEBSE. 193 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Universes.- — Omniverse. — Stellar Systems. — Spheres 
 and Planets. — • Life in Them. — Degrees of 
 Light. 
 
 Otje new system is composed of seven forms of 
 space, one, the asymptoid, holding in its bowl, as 
 before noted, the six hyperboloids. Each of these 
 latter presents all the features, forces, motions and 
 actions of a universe. Hence we have six uni- 
 verses. As indissolubly united each with all, we 
 may call the grand aggregate system the Omni- 
 verse, and this omniverse is enveloped by and per- 
 meated with the infinite magnesphere, whose cur- 
 rents of life and force, infinite in number, are for- 
 ever coursing towards its vital centre. As each 
 hyperboloid may contain a number of stellar sys- 
 tems, so the asymptoid may contain several celestial 
 systems and spheres that may be transcendental or 
 transfigured forms of the stellar systems within 
 the hyperboloids. By our hypothesis there is but 
 one stellar system in the Asymptoid. In the 
 hyperboloids there may be an indefinite number. 
 The habitable orbs in the former we designate as 
 13 
 
194 UNIVERSES, OMNIVEBSE. 
 
 Spheres, those in the latter as Planets, and the 
 sentient life existing within these supernal spheres 
 may be more exalted, more spiritual, may approach 
 nearer to the divine, eternal life and spirit. The 
 vital, spiritual succession may be systematic, ex- 
 tending from the centre outward through the 
 asymptoidal and all the hyperboloidal spheres. 
 The life-changes, ascending from the hyp.erboloidal 
 spheres through those in the asymptoid to the 
 supreme, vital centre, may be similar to the change 
 that the mortal spirit experiences when it passes 
 from earth to paradise. Thus there may be an 
 endless succession of spiritual transformations, 
 each change being from a lower to a loftier and 
 nobler sphere of spiritual life, the constant en- 
 largement of the hyperboloids and the asymptoid 
 providing ample room for every new sphere with 
 the ever-effluent Divinity permeating them all. 
 These spheres may vary in dimensions and in- 
 crease in number constantly as the asymptoid in- 
 creases also in its dimensions. We may suppose 
 that a vast number of the planets in the stellar 
 systems are the homes of sentient beings and 
 that all the spheres in the asymptoid are likewise 
 so. It is utterly incredible that all these stupend- 
 ous systems should have been created and set in 
 naotion merely to exhibit the power or to gratify a 
 passing fancy of their Creator. 
 
 " Life," says Father Secchi, " fills the universe, 
 and with life is associated intelligence; and as 
 
UNIVEBSE8, OMNIVERSE. 195 
 
 beings inferior to ourselves abound, so may there 
 in different conditions exist others of capacity in- 
 finitely greater than our own. Between the feeble 
 light of that divine ray which glows in our frail 
 structures, by the help of which also it is permitted 
 us to comprehend so many wonders, and the lofty 
 wisdom of the great Author of all things, there 
 may possibly be interpolated grades of created 
 beings infinite in number, for some of whom 
 theorems which are to us the fruit of arduous 
 studies may be simple intuitions." * 
 
 We have remarked the differentiation of the 
 contents of the asymptoid from those of the hyper- 
 boloids. We can better appreciate this difference 
 by considering the feebleness of the light of our 
 sun when compared with that of stars of greater 
 magnitude. Sir John Herschel informs us that 
 the intrinsic light of Alpha Centauri, one of the 
 stars nearest to us, is more than twice that of our 
 sun. But the light of Sirius, a star of the first 
 magnitude, is more than four times that of Alpha 
 Centauri ; indicating that its intrinsic splendor is 
 sixty-three times that of the sun. As the intrinsic 
 brightness is supposed to afford some indication of 
 their magnitude it follows that Sirius must be im- 
 mensely larger than our sun. Its light is 26 years 
 
 * Johnson's Cyo. , Art. The Universe, translated from the 
 Italian by the late Pres. Barnard of Columbia College, one 
 of the best polyglot scholars of our time, both in literature 
 and science. 
 
196 UNIVERSES, OMNIVERSE. 
 
 ill reaching us. But the light of Capella requires 
 72 years, about three times as long, and its in- 
 trinsic splendor is greater than that of Sirius. 
 Its proportions are bewildering and if our sun 
 were placed between it and Sirius and within 
 photometric range of both, it would cast a shadow 
 upon Sirius, acting as a screen for the light of 
 Capella. 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 197 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Animal Magnetism ; Psychical and Physical Force / 
 Spiritualism, ; Magnetic Men and Women / 
 Subtle and Extraordinary Magnetic Energy ; 
 Delirium, Tremens ; Love ; Devotion ; Saints ; 
 Martyrs ; Procreation of Physical Life ; Hered- 
 ity ; Pre-natal Impressions ; Seeds and Plants; 
 Pre-experience ; Reminiscence ; Presentiment ; 
 Dreams. 
 
 We have indicated {supra) the relation between 
 Spirit and Spiritism. We conceive that the 
 magnetism of the hyperboloids becomes spiritism * 
 in the asymptoid. With the aid of these two 
 forces — spiritism and magnetism — using the former 
 in its diviner sense, we may solve the problem of 
 all life. 
 
 The numerous proofs of the existence of animal 
 magnetism presented by Matteucci, Du Bois-Ray- 
 
 * It is unfortunate that the use of this term by charlatans 
 and impostors should have made it offensive ; but we ought 
 not to let the abuse of a good thing impair our faith in its 
 value. 
 
198 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 
 
 moud and others are well known and indisputable. 
 Magnetic fish and birds are equally well known. 
 Tlie correlation between spiritual or psychical, 
 and physical force has been abundantly demon- 
 strated by Charcot, Bernheim, Ribot and other 
 hypnotists and psychologists. The remarkable 
 and undeniable effects produced by so-called 
 spiritualists are due to the same cause. 
 
 If we may suppose that magnetism is — next to om- 
 nipotence — the fundamental force, the living force, 
 the force that furnishes the vis-vitoe of all the natural 
 forces, we may, in the sequel, use this term instead 
 of electricity in the further exposition of our theme. 
 
 Dr. Hake sets forth * that " the chemical changes 
 as they occur in the -blood system and (are) com- 
 prised in the act of oxidation do not result in the 
 evolution of heat hut force which becomes magnetic 
 by the agency of the blood corpuscles ; and this is 
 certainly consistent with what we know of cell 
 life. On this hypothesis, the blood cells form 
 chains and conductors for the magnetic current thus 
 generated, and this is subsequently metamorphosed 
 into heat at every point of the system. On 
 , reaching the cerebro-vital centres it becomes vital 
 force '' — another name for magnetic force — " and 
 this becomes eventually heat, namely : when it 
 is transmitted to enable the consummation of a vital 
 act, such as sensation, muscular motion or secre- 
 tion 
 
 * Kingsett's Animal Cliemistry, pp. 180-181. 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 199 
 
 " The experiments of Du Bois-Raymond in par- 
 ticulai- go to prove that nerve force is only mani- 
 fested through media that are not yet met with 
 out of living bodies. On Hake's hypothesis nerve 
 force is derived from the common centre — the 
 brain — where it is stored in the gray matter of 
 which brain matter is partly composed and from 
 which the nerve tubes spread everywhere." He 
 further reasons that " when the cei-ebro-vital force 
 is united in action within, in the same organic 
 medium with other forces influencing us from 
 without, viz. : light, sound, heat, etc., new results 
 are attained aud phenomena of sense and intelli- 
 gence are observed." 
 
 "Electricity is produced," saj's E. I. Houston,* 
 " during the growth of both animals and plants." 
 During active growth plants form an appreciable 
 source of electricity. Buff has shown that the 
 roots and interior portions of plants are always 
 negatively charged, while the flowers, fruits and 
 green twigs are positively charged. 
 
 " Electricity is produced in the bodies of all 
 animals during life. Some animals in addition to 
 this electricity, which is essential to their life, 
 possess the ability to produce sufficiently powerful 
 discharges to serve as a protection against their 
 enemies. This is the case both with the electric 
 eel and the electric ray." 
 
 * Electricity and Magnetism, p. 67. 
 
200 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSTCUIC FORCE. 
 
 All animal tissues, molecules, cells, fibres, nerves, 
 muscles and sinews are good or partial magnetic 
 conductors. Their potential is proportional to the 
 service they are required to perform in order to 
 preserve the normal condition of the organism. 
 When the organism falls into an abnormal condi- 
 tion the change is due to or is follovi^ed by a dis- 
 turbance of the magnetic equilibrium. 
 
 We often hear of very magnetic men and women. 
 It is not a mere unmeaning phrase. Very many 
 have met such and acknowledged, without being 
 able to explain, their influence. It is by one form 
 of this force — magnetic — that the orator, the poet, 
 the story-teller, hold and charm their audiences. It 
 is this force that produces panics in excited crowds. 
 It is by this force that the body, when the brain 
 is in an abnormal condition, through delirium tre- 
 mens or an epileptic fit, is charged with five-fold 
 its normal strength, so that five men can hardly 
 restrain one man. And yet, thei'e is no change in 
 the mechanism. It is the stimulus that is applied 
 to the brain that produces this vast "increase of 
 power. This is also especially notable in men who 
 are enraged or crazed. They perform wonderful 
 feats t)f strength when excited of which they are 
 utterly incapable in their sober moments. 
 
 The extraordinary deeds of valor recorded as 
 having been performed by the leaders and knights 
 of the crusades and by heroes and their followers 
 in every earnestly-contested defensive or aggre- 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 201 
 
 sive war are not exaggerated. They are only re- 
 ports of simple facts. It is this force that enables 
 men to endure the severest hardships and trials, to 
 defy, if not to conquer, fate. 
 
 It is this force that awakens love at first sight. 
 It is the vibration of this force through the eyes 
 that thrills the hearts of the lover and the loved. 
 It is this force that inspires the soldier's courage, 
 the mother's love, the saint's devotion, the martyr's 
 constancy and the bigot's zeal. By this force 
 prayer is borne heavenward. It swells the anthem 
 of praise, the song of joy, the shout of gladness, the 
 carol of birds, and develops the weird notes of 
 the singing flame. 
 
 But the intensest manifestation of this force is 
 the procreation of physical life. It is only neces- 
 sary to suggest the immense intensity of the sexual 
 passion, the delirium of love. Remove, eliminate 
 entirely that sentiment and its concomitants, that 
 irresistible magnetic attraction, from the physical 
 constitution, and all animal life would soon cease 
 from the earth. 
 
 Mark the horse as portrayed by Job : " The 
 glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the 
 valley, and rejoiceth in his strength. He mocketh 
 at fear, and is not affrighted ; he swalloweth the 
 ground with fierceness and rage, and he smelleth the 
 battle afar off." Observe the stallion when, in 
 the season, he is led forth for exercise. Mark his 
 expanded nostrils, his flashing eyes, his mobile 
 
202 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 
 
 ears, his magnificent crest, his silken, shining 
 coat, his distended veins and muscles, his lofty, 
 elastic tread which seems scarcely to touch the 
 earth, and his vigorous and graceful motions. 
 What an emhodiment of passion and of power, and 
 what a magnificent magneto-calorific machine ! 
 
 The perpetuation of the human race involves 
 the awful responsibilities of heredity. We know 
 the inexorable fidelity with which parental traits, 
 both physical and mental, are transmitted to the 
 offspring. It is one of the most remarkable in- 
 stances of the persistence of force. And one of 
 the most extraordinary phenomena of hei'edity is 
 the one by which any particular trait may be em- 
 phasized by a pre-natal impression or influence, 
 commonly known as the " birth-mark." 
 
 In these cases a sudden and strong excitement 
 of the brain and nerve-power of the mother causes 
 great surprise or fear, such as seeing some very 
 repulsive object or some scene in which certain 
 objects, attractive or repulsive, are specially notice- 
 able. The result is that an indelible mark or 
 image is fixed upon the body of the unborn infant. 
 This is an instance in which the psychical and 
 physical forces act at once and together in perfect 
 accord. 
 
 "Sensations and ideas," says Lewes, "spring up 
 in the mind as flowers spring up in the field. 
 .... Science is prompted to seek out the con- 
 ditions of their appearance, their changes and their 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 203 
 
 disappearance We know that a seed placed 
 
 in suitable soil will throw out root and stem. We 
 can trace its development as it draws certain materi- 
 als from the soil and the atmosphere. But we know 
 (also) that the seed itself is a product, and has 
 its own special determinism. The forms which the 
 seed assumes are partly peculiar to it and partly- 
 common to myriads of others, nay, some of its forms 
 are common to all plants whatever." 
 
 Concerning the electricity of plants, the follow- 
 ing conclusions were arrived at by Wartman (Bib- 
 liothdque Universelle de Gendve, Dec, 1860), 
 after an investigation continued for two years : — 
 
 " 1. Electric currents are to be detected in all 
 parts of vegetables but those furnished with insu- 
 lating substances, old bark, etc., etc. 
 
 "2. These currents occur at all times and 
 seasons, and even when the portion examined is 
 separated from the body of the plant, as long as it 
 continues moist. 
 
 " 3. In the roots, stems, branches, petioles, and 
 peduncles, there exists a central descending and a 
 peripherical ascending current; Wartman calls 
 them axial currents. 
 
 " 4. Lateral currents may be detected passing 
 from the layers of the stem where the liber and 
 alburnum touch, to the surrounding parts. 
 
 "5. In the leaf the current passes from the 
 lamina to the nerves as well as to the central parts 
 of the petiole and stalk. 
 
204 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 
 
 " 6. In the flowers the currents are feeble. They 
 are very marked in the succulent fruits, and in 
 some kinds of grain ; the cun-ents from fruits pro- 
 ceeding in most cases from the superficial parts to 
 the adjacent organs. The strength of the currents 
 depends on the season, they are greatest in the 
 spring when the plant is bathed in sap. 
 
 " 7. Currents can also be detected proceeding 
 from the plant to the soil, which is thus positive 
 with relation to it, and currents are also manifested 
 when two distinct plants are placed in the circuit 
 of the rheometer." 
 
 These results were confirmed by Becquerel 
 (Comptes-Rendus, Nov. 4, 1850). He ascertained 
 particularly the determination of electrical currents 
 from the pith of the wood to the bark, which shows 
 that the earth in the act of vegetation continually 
 acquires an excess of positive electricity ; and the 
 parenchyma of the bark and a part of the wood 
 an excess of negative electricity, which is trans- 
 mitted to the air by means of the vapor of exhaled 
 water ; and the opposite electrical states of vege- 
 tables and the earth give reason to think that, from 
 the enormous vegetation in some parts of the globe, 
 they must exert some influence on the electric 
 phenomena of the atmosphere. 
 
 Flashes of light have been seen to be emitted 
 from many flowers, principally orange-colored 
 flowers, soon after sunset on sultry days; this 
 phenomenon was diligently studied by Zawadskl ; 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 205 
 
 he noticed that it occurred most frequently in the 
 months of July and August, and he observed that 
 the same flower discharged a number of flashes in 
 succession.* 
 
 From the bosom of the earth have been gathered, 
 since the first appearance of man upon it, all the 
 grains and other forms of vegetable nourishment 
 that help to sustain his body and promote its phys- 
 ical growth. The germs of the last year's growth 
 of these numerous and varied forms of life were 
 contained in the seeds of their generators of the 
 preceding year, and thus it hath been, and thus 
 it will continue to be in all the coming years. 
 Whence cometh this vitality? And how is the 
 peculiar and individual form of vitality secured to 
 each of the myriad germs ? What was the origin 
 of what has been happily designated as the " deter- 
 minism " of these germs, the function which gave 
 them their peculiar character ? That determinism 
 is as much a creation of, or derivation from, the 
 Omnipotent Power as is the soul or spiritual faculty 
 of man. Is it the will of the plant ? Why should 
 the infinitesimal germ perpetuate one form of life 
 more than another, and this invariably, and with 
 unfailing certainty through all ages ? Simply be- 
 cause that determinism is a manifestation of the 
 Will of God through fixed laws. 
 
 Says St. Paul,f "And that which thou sowest, 
 
 * Noad Text Book of Electricity, p. 13, 14, 15. 
 t I. Corinthians, xv. 37, 38. 
 
206 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 
 
 tliou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare 
 grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other 
 grain : But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased 
 Him, and to every seed its own body." 
 
 " There are," says Lewes, " conditions and pre- 
 conditions of experience as there are conditions 
 and pre-conditions of plant life." Many persons 
 who have experienced bodily suffering from wounds 
 or from the loss of limbs have described, and in- 
 sisted that they feel a return, a distinct reminder 
 of their suffering on each anniversary of its occur- 
 rence. An African traveller (Dr. Livingstone ?), 
 was wounded by a lion in the interior of Africa. 
 Annually on the return of the day on which he 
 was wounded the pain of the wound was renewed. 
 
 Many soldiers who have lost limbs in battle have 
 insisted that on the return of the day when they 
 were amputated they felt their presence with little 
 or no suffering. Has the old Pythagorean doctrine 
 of pre-existence a realistic foundation ? 
 
 Are we subject to some persistent, subtle force 
 that has a wave-length of twelve months' duration ? 
 Are these indications or suggestions of those twi- 
 light reminiscences of events and scenes of the long- 
 ago and far-away that come back to us with a force 
 and vividness that almost compel us to believe that 
 they are the return, the resurrection of long-for- 
 gotten realities, while at the same time we are cer- 
 tain that they have never formed any part of our 
 mortal experience? Are they Avave-motions of a 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 207 
 
 past existence which are to roll on through the 
 endless hereafter? Are they connecting links 
 between the mortal and immortal spirit, the sen- 
 tiency that has lived through all the past and will 
 live on through all the future ? 
 
 These re-cognitions are beyond the reach of ex- 
 periment, but there are few thoughtful persons with 
 whom they have not been incidents of experience. 
 The faculties of reminiscence and presentiment are 
 among the most subtle and interesting phenomena 
 of psychology. We can cultivate and strengthen 
 the memory, and thereby increase our store of 
 knowledge ; but no possible training can enable us 
 to recall the vast number of scenes and events 
 which have constituted the whole experience of 
 our past lives. Yet the enduring and ever-sentient 
 mental palimpsest may restore them to our cog- 
 nizance when it is liberated from the fleshly taber- 
 nacle. 
 
 " Inasmuch as the idea of a movement is only an 
 idea of a sensory impression," says Ferrier (Func- 
 tions of the Brain, p. 389), " visual, tactile and 
 others, which coincide with the particular move- 
 ment, it seems quite possible that persons who 
 have had a limb amputated may be able to picture 
 a movement of the limb, just as a blind man may 
 recall a scene when he can no longer see," then he 
 quotes cases mentioned by Weir-Mitchell, of per- 
 sons who have had an arm amputated and are able 
 to write and apparently execute a movement of the 
 
208 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 
 
 hand, and also to feel the pain of the amputation, 
 the stronger the will the stronger the pain. Bvit 
 these are yery different from the cases above re- 
 ferred to. These last are wholly involuntary sen- 
 sations impressed upon the mind or recalled to the 
 memory entirely independent of the will, and ac-^ 
 companied by a sense of pain that the will cannot 
 inflict. We have a more or less acute sense of pain 
 in our dreams, and so have the victims of catalepsy 
 or delirium tremens ; but it is wholly involuntary. 
 
 We know the marvellous activity, at times, of 
 the brain when the body is asleep. We dream of 
 exercising the five senses, of doing everything we 
 are capable of doing when awake. And we dream 
 of doing work in a few moments, of finishing tasks, 
 of performing feats, mental and phj'sical, that 
 would require days to accomplish during our 
 waking hours. 
 
 If the spirit is so wonderfully active when con- 
 nected with the body, how intense must be that ac- 
 tivity when it is disembodied, when it has shuffled 
 off this mortal coil. Its intensified consciousness 
 and power of perception must enable it to compre- 
 hend, as it were, instantaneously a succession of 
 acts and events which could only be the result of a 
 comparatively long mortal experience occupying 
 a considerable lapse of time. And this power of 
 comprehension, this quickness of perception are to 
 continue forever, constantly acquiring knowledge, 
 constantly accumulating wisdom, constantly ap- 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 209 
 
 proaching DeitJ^ And this must be the supreme 
 bliss of immortality, the perpetual inspiration of 
 the " everlasting song." 
 
 If the comprehension of the mortal spirit can be 
 so intensely active, how intense, instantaneous, im- 
 minent and effective must be the comprehension, 
 the ever-consciousness, of God ! 
 
 Dreams differ from presentiments in that they 
 may present to the mind images and incidents both 
 of the past and the future. In both dreams and 
 presentiments the images, scenes and incideiits 
 presented to the mind may be agreeable, joyous, 
 delightful, or disagreeable, painful, torturing. In 
 some cases the suffering is intense. It is doubtful 
 whether the martyr at the stake suffers more agony 
 bodily than does the victim of delirium tremens 
 mentally. 
 
 But far more subtle and occult is the faculty, if 
 such it may be called, of presentiment. It is en- 
 tirely beyond the possibility of ^re-experience. It 
 is a presentment of something that lies in the 
 future and is to be presented, made known to us. 
 It is the psychologic analogue of inspiration, 
 prophecy. 
 
 Some years ago a writer in the Atlantic Monthly 
 Magazine expressed himself as " curious to know 
 whether the recurrence of the same dream or the 
 same class of dreams for long periods is a common 
 experience." I doubt not that it is a somewhat 
 frequent, if not common, experience, and at that 
 14 
 
210 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FOBCE. 
 
 time I recorded, but did not publish, the following 
 experience of my own : 
 
 For nearly half a century, at intervals varying 
 from six to twenty-four months and growing a 
 little longer with the lapse of years, one remark- 
 able dream has been impressed upon my mind with 
 unusual force and distinctness. It is this : that I 
 was endowed with an inherent force that enabled 
 me to overcome the action of gravity and move 
 through space in any direction but always in curves 
 with a wave-like motion and with different veloci- 
 ties. There was a constant, conscious and vigor- 
 ous exercise of the will in controlling and direct- 
 ing the motor-power, which seemed to have its 
 origin in the brain and chest, and was as distinctly 
 felt as what is called a thrill, differing from this 
 only that it was continuous. The bodily investi- 
 ture was a flowing robe of ample dimensions and 
 graceful form. The arms were generally folded 
 on the breast but the right arm sometimes waved in 
 gestures to friends beneath. No particular use 
 was made of the nether limbs except to pose them 
 gracefully as the variation of the movements might 
 require. During a number of the earliest of these 
 visitations the predominant feeling was one of 
 wonder and surprise that the subject of them had 
 acquired such a novel and mysterious means of 
 locomotion and with much pleasurable excitement 
 he called attention to it. There seemed to be no 
 particular end in view, no special purpose to be 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 211 
 
 accomplished. It was a condition of active, care- 
 free enjoyment. It was not like flying, for the 
 mechanism of wings was entirely wanting. The 
 motion was produced and governed by an inherent 
 energy, a latent, odyllic force that was perfectly 
 controlled by the will. The sensation excited was 
 like that which we may suppose is experienced 
 by soaring birds as they traverse the air. 
 
 For some years these visitations occurred within 
 the walls of a room and in the presence of friends, 
 the former growing larger in size and the latter 
 increasing in number. But after a time there 
 were changes. The first was this : The dreamer 
 was with a large party of friends who had gone 
 out in a beautiful June day to absorb the electric 
 sunlight, to breathe the bracing ozonic air and to 
 recreate with the birds, the flowers and the trees. 
 The strange power became operative. The 
 dreamer rose in the air and circled round in wide 
 and wider curves — calm, serene, buoyant and 
 happy in the exercise of this strange power ; regard- 
 ing his friends who were looking up to him from 
 below, with infinite interest and wishing that they 
 might be similarly endowed and join him in his 
 aerial flights. High and higher he soared, and 
 fast and faster he swept around the widening hori- 
 zons, returning again and again to his friends with 
 increasing satisfaction and regard. The serene and 
 pleasurable emotions with which he began his 
 flights were soon changed to exuberant gladness, 
 
212 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 
 
 exultant joy and profound gratitude for this mar- 
 vellous gift. As is often the case in dreams, the 
 matter was logically discussed with friends and it 
 was settled that this was not a mere dream but a 
 marvellous reality by which a mortal had been mi- 
 raculously endowed. The vision at each return 
 may have occupied ten minutes' time, but the 
 dreamer seemed to have enjoyed some hours of 
 great happiness. 
 
 After having these remarkable visions at vari- 
 ous intervals for more than forty years, the in- 
 tervals growing longer with increasing age, an- 
 other change occurred, the mode of motion changed. 
 Instead of soaring upward the dreamer sat on a 
 handsome hand-sled such as he used in his boy- 
 hood. Seated on this with his feet on the front 
 bar he seemed to be endowed with the same mar- 
 vellous power with which he rose into the air and 
 by the aid of which he propelled the sled with 
 great velocity across ice or well-beaten snow-paths. 
 There were no friends or spectators to witness 
 these rides, and a singular circumstance was they 
 did not terminate at any particular place, but both 
 the dreamer and the sled seemed to vanish in the air. 
 
 Now a word as to the origin of these visions. 
 When a boy of twelve years, more than threescore 
 and ten years ago, I went " to meeting " as all 
 New England people did in those days, in the old- 
 fashioned " meeting-house " with its two galleries 
 with a high, arched ceiling between them and a 
 
ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FOECE. 213 
 
 row of windows opening into each. On <i beauti- 
 ful June Sunday, the windows being open, two 
 swallows flew into one of them. Rising into the 
 arch overhead they circled around chirruping and 
 coqueting with each other in the most charming 
 manner and attracting the attention of the whole 
 congregation. As I watched them from the " boys' 
 seat " in the " men's gallery " I became more in- 
 terested in them than in the sermon and, boy-like, 
 my imagination took flight with the swallows. I 
 thought what a charming way it was to move 
 about ; what delightful sensations they must ex- 
 perience as they swept around in their wave-like 
 undulations with no ruts or stones or other 
 obstacles to impede their exhilarating flight which 
 they could arrest and renew at will. 
 
 Then I thought of our Sunday-school teachings 
 concerning the angels who, bearing messages of 
 love or performing deeds of mercy, swept on ex- 
 ulting wings through boundless space, companions 
 of, stars and travellers of the Milky Way. This 
 was the root-conception of the soaring dream. 
 That of the terrestrial gliding had a different origin. 
 In those days there were no fancy sleds for sale 
 and the boys were dependent on home-production. 
 My brother and myself had a famous one, a regular 
 frame sled made by a wagonmaker and shod with 
 thin strap-iron runners ground smooth. The velo- 
 city with which it rushed down the steep New 
 England hills literally took our breath away so that 
 
214 ANIMAL MAGNETISM, PSYCHIC FORCE. 
 
 we were obliged to turn our heads sidewise in 
 order to breathe. The speed acquired was such 
 as to take us a comparatively long way across the 
 levels at the foot of the hills. We had no success- 
 ful rivals and the exercise was most exhilarating. 
 The mental impression was carried into future 
 years and developed in our dream. The first of 
 the dreams did not transpire until more than a score 
 of years after the events described. 
 
FSYCHIC EXPMBIENCMS. 215 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Thought-transference ; MindMeading; Spiritualism; 
 Personal E.cperience ; Systematic Investigation; 
 Amazing Developments; Aerial Music; Music 
 from Piano Keys, with Harp Accompaniment on 
 the Strings; Piano beating tiine to its own tune ; 
 Trance Speaking and Writing; Planchette ; 
 Mental Conversation. 
 
 Among " influences " to be investigated Bacon * 
 mentions " the sympathy of distant objects, the 
 transmission of impressions from spirit to spirit no 
 less than from body to body." The psychologic 
 phenomena of mind-reading and thought-transfer- 
 ence, and also the remarkable exhibitions of the 
 spiritualists, are so well known that it is not nec- 
 essary to quote the evidence of Owen, Charcot, 
 Ribot, Bernheim, Bjonstrom and other writers to 
 confirm them. 
 
 As something original in this direction we shall 
 relate some within our own experience, and, in so 
 doing, speak in the first person singular in the 
 closing sentences. 
 
 * Nov. Org., Aph. 31. 
 
216 PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 
 
 Judge S., a distinguished jurist, Mr. P., a dis- 
 tinguished graduate of Cambridge, who finished 
 his classical education at Heidelburg and Breslau, 
 with myself and nine others, undertook, in a quiet 
 way, and purely in the interest of science, to in- 
 vestigate the phenomena of spiritualism. Of this 
 circle of twelve, six were ladies and six gentle- 
 men, all educated Christian people who met fort- 
 nightly in their own homes. There were two 
 impressionists who possessed spiritual gifts, one 
 a young woman, twenty-seven years of age, of 
 respectable Methodist parentage, with limited 
 education, modest in demeanor and in delicate 
 health. The other was a respectable and success- 
 ful country merchant in the prime of life and in 
 perfect health. 
 
 Neither ever exhibited in public or for gain. 
 The young woman developed into a writing me- 
 dium, with the additional power imparted by a 
 certain prescience of the mysterious force that 
 enabled her to interpret it verbally without going 
 into the trance state. 
 
 Tlie gentleman was a subjective medium, that 
 is, the force took possession of him and governed 
 his actions. Most of the phenomena were exhib- 
 ited in half-lights, but occasionally in daylight. 
 We could always see the action of the mediums. 
 When we met, the ladies and gentlemen, by direc- 
 tions received through Miss B., sat alternately in 
 a circle. Half of them were members of church 
 
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 2.17 
 
 choirs, with fair musical accomplishments. The 
 first spiritual requirement was the singing of a 
 certain metrical version of the Lord's Prayer, which 
 was duly rendered by the singers, and in the last 
 line there was generally a sweet, plaintive accom- 
 paniment from a voice in the air. 
 
 Then followed the phenomenal performances. 
 A heavy square-box piano was placed in one cor- 
 ner of the room with the key-board close to the 
 wall and the top raised full height. At the free 
 corner of the piano sat Miss B., with her right 
 hand on it. Various musical numbers were per- 
 formed by the keys alone. The most remarkable 
 one was called " The Wreck," which set forth 
 musically the wreck of a ship in a terrible gale. 
 The performance was amazing in its grandeur and 
 sublimity. Commencing with a cheerful, moder- 
 ately animated strain, like a ship leaving harbor 
 before a pleasant breeze, mth the water gently 
 plashing its prow, it gradually became stronger 
 and louder until the wind grew to a gale and the 
 gale to a hurricane. The roaring of the wind'^the 
 whistling noise among the shrouds, the tearing 
 and flapping of the sails, the hissing of the waves, 
 the great breaking swash of the water over the 
 decks, the creaking of the timbers, the groaning 
 and breaking of the masts, and the snapping of 
 the cordage as they went by the board, and finally 
 the muffled, gurgling sound with which she went 
 down, was given with a fearful vividness and 
 
218 PSYCHIC EXPEBIENCES. 
 
 power that literally made our hair stand on end. 
 We could feel the strong undulations of the 
 mighty force of sound as it vibrated along the 
 floor and trembled in our chairs. At times it 
 seemed as though every string in the instrument 
 must be broken and its frame burst asunder. 
 
 At other times we were favored with exquisite 
 renderings of familiar airs. Occasionally with 
 these there was exhibited this remarkable phenom- 
 enon : while the keys were giving the air, a delight- 
 ful harp-accompaniment was performed on the 
 strings of the instrument in a note above or below 
 the air itself. The effect was weird and delightful 
 in the extreme. 
 
 Sometimes a waltz would be followed by a rat- 
 tling fugue in which all the strings seemed to be 
 taxed beyond their utmost strength, as though all 
 the bolts of Jove were thundering through them. 
 During all this time the medium was sitting with 
 one hand on the corner of the piano, but not near 
 enough to the keys to reach them even if she had 
 desired to do so. 
 
 The furniture and other articles were set in 
 motion, until the room was alive with their antics. 
 Sofa-cushions, chairs, books and papers waltzed 
 and galloped with each other in the most ludicrous 
 manner. A flute lying on a table was taken apart 
 and its joints sent to take part in this devil's dance. 
 A bell on the mantle was lifted and jingled vigor- 
 ously. 
 
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 219 
 
 But the most amazing exhibition of force was 
 presented by the heavy piano while a lively tune 
 was played by the keys. It was lifted bodily from 
 the floor, and then the time of the air was gently 
 beaten on the floor by one of the legs, all the rest 
 of the instrument being in the air. Let it be 
 borne in mind that there was sufficient light in 
 the room to permit us to see all these actions. 
 
 On another occasion the performances were sud- 
 denly checked and the hostess of that evening — 
 Mrs. Dr. S. — was directed to send away " those 
 persons that were listening in the adjoining room " 
 — the front parlor. Entering it with a light the 
 two servant girls were found without their shoes, 
 listening at the partition wall. Of course we 
 knew nothing of their presence. 
 
 With the male medium we had the following 
 experiences : He was directed, through Miss B., 
 to stand in the centre of the room, and two ladies 
 and two gentlemen were directed to inclose him 
 within their joined hands. He then was thrown 
 into a trance. His right hand was raised straight 
 above his head. He asked that a lead-pencil 
 should be put in it, which was done. Then his 
 hand began to move as if in the act of writing. 
 When its motion ceased it fell by his side and we 
 were directed, through Miss B., to search the 
 walls. The ceiling of the room was high and 
 arched. The ground color of the paper covering 
 
220 PSYCHIC EXPEHIENCES. 
 
 the side walls was a pale lemon, the figures being 
 vines and leaves in neutral tints. 
 
 On one corner of the white ceiling, just above 
 the cornice, we found written in excellent chiro- 
 graphy — the text-letters being more than half an 
 inch long and the capitals in proportion — these 
 words, " God is Love." In the other corner of the 
 same side was written in the same style, " God is 
 Light." On one of the end walls was the single 
 word " Harmony," written diagonally upward on 
 the ground color of the paper. The medium 
 stated that he felt the tremor or vibration im- 
 parted to his fingers through the pencil as in the 
 act of writing but had no idea what he wrote. 
 
 He was then directed to take his stand in front 
 of the mantelpiece and, passing into a trance, he 
 began the delivery of a most animating harangue 
 in a pleasant, liquid Indian dialect, conspicuous 
 for the absence of labials and the accentuation of 
 all the vowels. We were within four miles of the 
 Tuscarora Reservation in Niagara County. He 
 was frequently interrupted by the most hearty ap- 
 plause, given apparently, by a band of Indians 
 gathered near him on his right front. This ap- 
 plause was given viva-voce in Indian dialect and 
 by clapping hands. Judging from its vigor and 
 the number of voices, it seemed that there must 
 have been a hundred or more in the audience. 
 
 The medium, retaining his position and trance 
 condition, followed this performance with a most 
 
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 221 
 
 eloquent speech in Hungarian, the spell of Kos- 
 suth's eloquence still lingering in the country after 
 his then recent departure. It was received with 
 grave and earnest applause by a gathering of invi- 
 sible Magyars who seemed to be as numerous as 
 the Indians. When the medium came out of his 
 trance he nearly lost his balance, and was assisted 
 by one of the gentlemen present. 
 
 Prof. Crooke in the article on Spiritualism 
 published many years since in the " British Quar- 
 terly Review," which created such a sensation at 
 the time, mentions the case of a medium who ex- 
 perienced, although in perfect health, a remark- 
 able change in weight. A curious effect of this 
 force on our male medium was that in two years 
 his head was enlarged so that he was obliged to 
 wear a hat a size larger than he had been accus- 
 tomed to wear. This was a growth similar to 
 some magnetic growths, so to call them, described 
 in the sequel. 
 
 Another experience, of which I will write in 
 the first person singular, was the following : Being 
 in the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., I made a morning 
 call on a young married lady, a relative, an educated, 
 accomplished woman, a fine musician, of genial 
 and magnetic temperament. The evening before at 
 a social gathering, she had been much interested in 
 the performance of a Planchette there exhibited 
 when that mysterious piece of mechanism was first 
 introduced in this country. 
 
222 PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 
 
 As I had not seen one, she borrowed of her 
 friend the one they had used. It responded to her 
 touch but not to mine. She had been a church 
 member for a number of years, and would have 
 been shocked at the slightest suggestion of any 
 contact with spiritualism. But my previous ex- 
 perience enabled me to divine at once the character 
 of the developments. She asked several questions, 
 to which correct answers, as she stated, were 
 written on the blank paper on which it stood. She 
 then asked, " who is this gentleman with me ? " 
 My name was correctly written in reply. Then I 
 asked, " is any one present willing to communicate 
 with me." " Yes," was the written answer. 
 " Who is it ? " After a pause the reply was 
 " Edith," the name of a beautiful and precocious 
 child of twelve summers who had died eight years 
 before of a disease, the precise character of which 
 the doctors could not determine. 
 
 After several other questions, to which accurate 
 answers were given, I asked, " Edith, can you 
 answer mental questions ? " The written reply was, 
 " Yes." I then asked her mentally many questions 
 about persons whom she had known, about scenes 
 with which she had been familiar, about different 
 events and changes that had occurred since her 
 death. In reply to the question as to what caused 
 her death, the answer was "peritonitis," a word 
 she never could have heard during her life and the 
 import of which she did not know. The prompt- 
 
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 223 
 
 ness and correctness of her answers concerning 
 various events and changes, births, deaths, mar- 
 riages, social and neighborhood incidents, were 
 startling. After many tests of this character I 
 asked mentally, " Edith, does my mind react 
 upon itself through the agency of this instrument, 
 or does your mind respond to mine ! " The an- 
 swer was : " My mind responds directly to yours 
 through it." Finally, my parting thought was 
 this : " Well, dear Edith, I expect to leave for 
 home to-morrow ; have you any message for mother 
 or sister L. ?" Reply, "Only dear love and tell 
 them to be prepared to meet me here." 
 
 It will be noted that these questions were all 
 mentally suggested without the utterance of a 
 sound, and that my lady friend had only two 
 fingers of one hand on the instrument, and all 
 the answers were written promptly, connectedly 
 and distinctly. At no time while the interview 
 was progressing did I touch the instrument. 
 
 After these experiences it is impossible for me to 
 doubt that, under favorable conditions, there may 
 be communion between the spirits of those who are 
 mortal and of those who have put on immor- 
 tality. 
 
 The persistence of natural forces and the inde- 
 structibility of matter are demonstrated, undoubted 
 truths. It is entirely unphilosophical, unreasonr 
 able and illogical to suppose that spirit which 
 dominates matter, makes it subservient to its con- 
 
224 PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 
 
 venience, its use and its pleasure, is not more em- 
 phatically absolute, persistent and indestructible. 
 Since the experiences here recorded I have never 
 found it convenient or practicable to pursue the 
 subject further. 
 
 We cannot resist the temptation to record here 
 anotlier remarkable instance of spiritual influence 
 upon the mind furnished by Miss Elizabeth Doten 
 at the close of a lecture delivered in Boston some 
 years ago. Miss Doten was, at that time, a young 
 woman of respectable parentage, irreproachable 
 character and uneducated. She was entirely in- 
 competent to originate or parody any respectable 
 poetical composition in her normal state. She 
 could, no more than many others, give any satis- 
 factory explanation of her peculiar gift. The 
 piece is a remarkable parody of Poe's most remark- 
 able poem, The Raven. 
 
 I. 
 
 From the throne of life eternal, 
 
 From the home of love supernal 
 Where the angel feet make music over all the slsj^y floor — 
 
 Mortals, I have come to meet you, 
 
 Come with words of peace to greet you 
 And to teU you of the glory that is mine f orevermore. 
 
 n. 
 
 Once before I found a mortal 
 
 Waiting at the heavenly portal — 
 Waiting but to catch some echo from that ever-opening door : 
 
 Then I seized his quickened being, 
 
 And, through all his inward seeing, 
 Ciused my burning inspiration in a fiery flood to pour I 
 
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 225 
 
 m. 
 
 Now I come more meekly human, ' 
 
 And the poor weak lips of woman 
 Touch with fire from off the altar, not with burnings as of 
 yore, 
 But in holy love descending, 
 With her chastened being blending, 
 I would fill your souls with music from the bright celestial 
 shore. 
 
 IV. 
 
 As one heart yearns for another. 
 As a child turns to his mother. 
 Prom the golden gates of glory turn I to the earth once more. 
 Where I drained the cup of sadness, 
 Where my soul was stung to madness, 
 And life's bitter, burning billows, swept my burdened being 
 o'er. 
 
 T. 
 
 Here the harpies and the ravens, 
 Human vampyres — sordid cravens — 
 Preyed upon my soul and substance tiU I writhed in anguish 
 sore; 
 Life and I seemed mismated. 
 For I felt accursed and fated. 
 Like a restless, wrathful spirit, wandering on the Stygian 
 shore. 
 
 Tl. 
 
 Tortured by a nameless yearning. 
 Like a frost-fire, freezing, burning. 
 Did the purple pulsing life-tide through its fevered channels 
 pour, 
 'TUl the golden bowl — ^life's token — 
 Into shining shards was broken. 
 And my chained and chafing spirit leapt from out its prison 
 door, 
 15 
 
226 PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 
 
 But while living, striving, dying, 
 
 Never did my soul cease crying : 
 "Ye who guide the fates and furies, give, oh 1 give me, I 
 implore, 
 
 From the myriad hosts of nations, 
 
 From the countless constellations. 
 One pure spirit that can love me — one that I, too, can adore ! " 
 
 Through this fervent aspiration 
 Foiuid my fainting soul salvation. 
 For from out its blackened fire-crypts did my quickened 
 spirit soar ; 
 And my beautiful ideal — 
 Not too saintly to be real — 
 Burst more brightly on my vision than the fancy-formed 
 Lenore. 
 
 IX. 
 
 'Mid the surging seas she found me. 
 With the billows breaking round me, 
 
 And my saddened, sinking spirit, in her arms of love implore; 
 Like a lone one, weak and weary. 
 Wandering in the midnight dreary, 
 
 On her sinless, saintly bosom, brought me to the heavenly 
 shore. 
 
 Like the breath of blossoms blending. 
 
 Like the prayers of saints ascending. 
 Like the rainbow's seven-hued glory, blend our souls for- 
 evermore. 
 
 Earthly love and lust enslaved me. 
 
 But divinest love hath saved me, 
 And I know now, first and only, how to love and to adore. 
 
PSYCHIC EXPEBIENCES. 227 
 
 XI. 
 
 Oh, my mortal friends and brothers, 
 
 We are each and all»another's, 
 And the soul that gives most freely from its treasure hath 
 the more. 
 
 Would you lose your life, you find it ; 
 
 And in giving love you bind it. 
 Like an amulet of safety, to your heart forevermore 1 
 
 The rhythm and alliteration are as marvellous 
 as in the original. No genius could have written 
 this and then allowed Miss Doten to commit it to 
 memory and claim it as an inspiration of her own, 
 spiritual or otherwise. 
 
 There are no facts or truths connected with 
 human history that are more thoroughly authen- 
 ticated and established than those regarding the 
 intimate connection and communion of the Infinite 
 and the finite mind. The Old and New Testaments 
 contain abundant records of their inter-communions. 
 The Prophets and Apostles were its most illustri- 
 ous mediums, the Saviour being the immediate 
 and absolute representative of Deity. It is not 
 creditable to the status of occidental Psychology 
 and Biology that it declines or neglects to system- 
 atically and thoroughly investigate the spiritual 
 and the cognate forces. This investigation in all 
 its branches cannot well be pursued by single in- 
 dividuals. We know that there are certain mag- 
 netic currents that increase their potency when 
 they work together side by side. So with spiritual 
 
228 PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. 
 
 and occult forces. They are most potent when a 
 number of them are united in action. But it is 
 the spirit that actuates the investigators, the motive 
 that prompts their labor that is of most vital conse- 
 quence. When a chemist resolves to study some 
 new substance Said to possess valuable properties 
 that may be useful, sanitarily or otherwise, he does 
 not begin in a doubting skeptical temper, pre- 
 judging it perhaps as a bit of quackery that he will 
 expose ; on the contrary, he makes due preparation 
 and determines to study the case in a kindly, 
 earnest, receptive spirit, and it is only in this spirit 
 that such subjects can be successfully investiga- 
 ted. 
 
A SUBTLE FORGE. 229 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 SemarJcable Action of a Subtle Force, Reappearance 
 of Lost Articles. 
 
 I MAY here record a few instances of the remark - 
 able action of a subtle force, that, if not magnet- 
 ism, must have been spiritual. The first notice of 
 the action of a similar force is recorded in the last 
 verses of the eighth chapter of Acts, when Philip 
 after baptizing the Ethiopian was " caught away " 
 and " was found at Azotus." It is necessary to 
 give some particulars in order that the phenomena 
 may be understood. 
 
 In 1877 my residence was, as it had been nearly 
 forty years, at Niagara Falls, N. Y. My house 
 and grounds, garden included, were on the shore 
 of the great river just above the American rapids. 
 The outlook from my bedroom was eastward 
 across the garden and up the river. Next the 
 window, north, stood a bureau, then a closet, with 
 washstand in opposite corner. A chair, always 
 used in disrobing and dressing, stood in front of the 
 bureau. On retiring one night in the latter part 
 
230 A SUBTLE FORCE. 
 
 of June, 1877, I missed my gold eyeglasses. The 
 next morning I found them in a favorite straw- 
 berry bed over whicb I had been working the pre- 
 vious afternoon. Two weeks later I missed them 
 again and not finding them I bought a new pair 
 in a cellulose frame. In the morning when dress- 
 ing I always sat in the chair in front of the bureau 
 near the bed. 
 
 Six months after losing the glasses, one morning, 
 on rising, I occupied the chair as usual, and after 
 getting on my nether garments and performing the 
 usual ablution at the washstand, I returned to the 
 bureau, and using the mirror standing on it put 
 on my neck-tie. On turning to get my vest which, 
 with the coat, hung on the chair-back, I saw the 
 gold glasses lying on the bottom of the chair which 
 I had occupied but a few minutes before. It was 
 a surprise, for it was winter, and the coat and vest 
 were not the same I had worn when the glasses 
 were lost. I could not solve the mystery, and 
 the circumstance passed out of my mind. About 
 a year afterward I lost the gold glasses again 
 and resumed the use of the cellulose pair which I 
 had laid aside after finding the gold ones which 
 I never saw again. Within two months I lost the 
 cellulose glasses, and then had double half-lenses 
 for reading and far-seeing put in my gold spec- 
 tacles. 
 
 In 1881, after a sore domestic bereavement left 
 me alone in my house, I removed to Ithaca to make 
 
A SUBTLE FORCE. 231 
 
 my home with the last survivor of my children, 
 the wife of Prof. I. P. Church. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 1882, I went to 
 Niagara on business, and took a chamber in my 
 house then occupied by a tenant. My baggage 
 consisted of a double valise of moderate size with a 
 swinging partition between the two compartments. 
 Its interior was lined with cloth, without folds or 
 creases. Its contents were a dress-suit, shirts, 
 collars, cuffs, handkerchiefs, socks, and other small 
 articles. On taking possession of my room I put 
 the dress-suit, coat, vest and pantaloons and the 
 shirts in the drawers of a bureau standing in a cor- 
 ner opposite the bed, and on the top of the bureau 
 I put some toilet articles, leaving nothing in the 
 valise but some handkerchiefs and socks. The 
 dress-suit I had worn repeatedly, always emptying 
 the pockets after use. 
 
 When ready to pack my valise to return to 
 Ithaca, I took it up, opened it, turned it bottom up, 
 emptying the few contents on the bed, and then 
 placed it, right side up, in a chair at the foot of 
 the bed. I then went to the bureau, took from the 
 drawer the dress-suit — which I had had no occa- 
 sion to wear — and on returning to the valise to 
 put it in I saw lying in the middle of one of the 
 compartments the lost eyeglasses which I had not 
 seen for nearly a year. By what mysterious agency 
 they came out of the unknown and into the valise 
 I cannot divine. 
 
232 A SUBTLE FORCE. 
 
 These two instances of the exhibition of this 
 peculiar force were surprising, but the next one I 
 have to relate was bewildering. Like the others 
 it needs a word of preface. I carried when travel- 
 ing, a small tortoise-shell comb in a morocco case. 
 The comb was of pecuhar shape the back being 
 straight, the teeth at one end about five-eighths of 
 an inch long, and at the other end a little shorter. 
 On one occasion while using it to comb out a wire- 
 tooth hair-brush, one of the teeth near the broad 
 end was broken out. I carried it in a vest-pocket 
 and only when traveling. In May, 1893, expect- 
 ing to spend some weeks at the World's Fair, I 
 had made by a city tailor a suit, coat, vest, and 
 pantaloons for the summer's wear. When they 
 were sent home I put them on and found that 
 the pantaloons needed some alteration. This was 
 made by the tailor and they were returned. On 
 taking them to my room, opening the package and 
 shaking out the garment that comb without the ease 
 dropped on the carpet. I was indeed astonished, 
 for I had not seen it for ten years, and then it was in 
 the case and in a bureau drawer. That it was the 
 same comb was demonstrated by its peculiar shape 
 and the lost tooth. At the tailor's where the gar- 
 ment was made nothing of the kind had been seen. 
 Such are the simple facts in these three cases of 
 the re-appearance of lost articles. 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 233 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 Personal Experience in Animal Magnetism; Re- 
 sults; Physical and Mental. 
 
 As connected with the subject of personal ani- 
 mal magnetism, I may be pardoned for saying, 
 that in my younger days and during the prime of 
 life, I had the power to exhibit that force in cer- 
 tain directions in a remarkable manner, both vol- 
 untarily and involuntarily. Involuntarily, while 
 reading sublime or unusually impressive passages 
 from Isaiah, Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe or other 
 authors of similar intellectual power. At such 
 times I felt a thrill commencing at the brain and 
 coursing through the nervous system precisely 
 similar to the excitement produced by holding in 
 the hands, or applying to any part of the body, 
 the electrodes of an electric machine. The only 
 difference was that ihe vibrations through the 
 nerves were more rapid than those through the 
 conductors, so that the sensation was like the 
 steady flow of a uniform current. At the same 
 time I could feel the effect in the roots of the hair 
 
234 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 on my head, though the force was not sufficient 
 to raise it on end. 
 
 It was sufficient, however, to elevate the short, 
 fine hirsute filaments growing more sparsely on 
 other parts of the body. This was especially true 
 of those growing on the lower limbs, particularly 
 on the front side from the knee upward, and I 
 cultivated this faculty to such an extent that by 
 putting the foot of the bare leg on a chair I could 
 repeat striking passages from any favorite author 
 and see and feel the filaments as they rose and fell 
 with the varying sensations. 
 
 This is simply the function exercised by the dog 
 and the cat, especially when excited, and it is con- 
 clusive proof that hair is a good magnetic con- 
 ductor. The experiment of Laer noted on page 
 44 is confirmatory of the same fact. On page 31 
 we have shown that pointed magnets are more 
 effective than spheres, cylinders or any solid with 
 blunt ends, and that the greatest magnetic power 
 is developed at the points. This is as true of hair 
 as of any other conductor. 
 
 Note. — ^It may serve a practical purpose to note here that 
 the quality, the fineness and beauty of human hair are in- 
 jured by cutting. When examined under the microscope 
 human hair, as well as all other .in its natural condition, is 
 found to be pointed at the end. After it is cut, at whatever 
 age, the end presents a flat surface. Thenceforward its ten- 
 dency is to grow more rapidly and coarser and it never again 
 becomes sharp pointed. To secure the maximum fineness, 
 beauty and gloss, the hair shouM never be cut. If allowed to 
 
PERSONAL EXPEUIENGES. • 235 
 
 grow uncut it will attain and never exceed a certain length 
 and will be as fine and glossy as it possibly can be. A 
 young kinsman whose mother secured him immunity from 
 shears was saved thereby much time, temper, trouble and 
 expense during his life. The hirsute appendages of his 
 head and face were flue, soft and shining and never exceeded 
 a certain length. These facts suggest that the hair of females 
 never should be cut except for sanitary reasons. 
 
 Neither should men be shaven and shorn, except for the 
 same reasons or as a matter of convenience. Both women 
 and men might be excused from coveting the lustre of the 
 Indian's sable locks. Individuals whose hair when shortened 
 exhibits the " cow-lick " so-called, may avoid it by permitting 
 the hair to grow to a reasonable length. It would seem 
 that the ludicrousness of its appearance, especially on adults, 
 would prompt its prevention by any reasonable means. 
 
 I could also, when startled by an unusual sound, 
 feel a motion in the left ear. This sensitiveness I 
 likewise cultivated, and could, at any time, by the 
 exercise of the will, so move the ear as to make its 
 motion visible to others. This I could not do with 
 the right-side ear. 
 
 The sense of vision was also unusually strong. 
 I could recognize objects at a greater distance than 
 could other persons of equal health and strength. 
 To this strong visual power was due the fact that 
 I could retain, for an unusual period — three 
 to five minutes — the ocular spectrum left in the 
 eyes when they are closed, after looking steadily 
 for a moment at a distinctly colored object. This 
 spectrum is, at first view, invariably of the same 
 color as the object seen, but gradually assumes its 
 complementary color. This spectral image is 
 
236 • PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 always erect and much larger than any image re- 
 vealed by the opthalmoscope. 
 
 The thrills noted above were often experienced, 
 and generally with marked, sometimes with intense, 
 effect. The grand view from a mountain top ; the 
 purple tops of the mountains themselves as seen 
 against the azure sky ; the ocean, tempest-tossed, 
 and its mighty waves breaking upon the cliffs and 
 hissing around the huge boulders of a rock-bound 
 shore ; an angry storm with the roaring wind sway- 
 ing, breaking and uprooting the forest trees ; or a 
 heavy thunder-storm with the lightning's sharp 
 flash and crash and the rolling thunder's huge 
 waves of sound dying away in the distance ; the 
 first view of peerless Niagara on a peerless autumn 
 day, with its iris-bar'd arms lifted heavenward and 
 bathed in sunshine, while its solemn monotone 
 sounded a perpetual anthem to its Creator's praise ; 
 scenes like these excited the utmost tension of the 
 nerves and every hirsute filament stood erect like 
 a tiny wire, which it was painful forcibly to 
 repress. 
 
 In contrast with these, the contemplation of the 
 stars which seem both to send to the spirit messages 
 of love and to beckon it upward, especially the 
 study of that star-paved galaxy that spans the 
 sunless dome ; the calm and gently pulsing ocean 
 laving and dallying with the silver sand upon its 
 sunny beach and tossing back to the sun his 
 brilliant rays ; a gorgeous sunset ; the fully arched 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 237 
 
 covenant bow ; the peaceful valley with its wind- 
 ing stream bordered with wild flowers, vocal with 
 the hum of bees, and smiling in the light and 
 warmth of a June-lit day ; the blossom and the 
 breath of flowers ; the song of birds ; a beautiful 
 painting or any surpassingly beautiful work of art ; 
 the autumn woods transfigured and glorified with 
 color ; an exquisite bit of sculptured marble that 
 almost speaks and breathes ; and more especially the 
 perfect face and form of a beautiful woman beauti- 
 fully adorned ; all these thrilled the heart with 
 gladness and filled the eyes with tears. However 
 weak or otherwise it may be, I have to confess 
 that every " thing of beauty," the expression of 
 every inspiring thought, every sublime aspiration, 
 every noble sentiment commands the homage, the 
 sacrifice of tears. 
 
 Thunder-storms possessed a peculiar fascination 
 for me in my boyhood. It was a pervasive sat- 
 isfaction and pleasure after the first heavy rain- 
 fall was over, particularly in the evening, to go 
 out and climb a tree or the highest fence to 
 watch the electric explosions and listen to the 
 reverberating thunder. There was a leap of 
 ecstasy at each discharge and in watching the 
 electric ribbon that marked its eccentric course 
 from the zenith to the horizon. 
 
 Another evening fascination was to lie on a 
 flat rock near a huge oak tree, on the hillside 
 shore of a beautiful lake, and gaze up at the stars. 
 
238 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 " A boy's will is the wind's will, and a boy's 
 thoughts are long, long thoughts." It was an un- 
 wearying delight to look up at the calm, patient, 
 persistent, inscrutable stars, to dream dreams con- 
 cerning them, and to wonder what they were and 
 what was the lesson the}' could teach. 
 
 A notable phenomenon that attended the copious 
 thunder-showers of the spring and early summer 
 was the invigorating effect of breathing the purified 
 air after they were over, air that was laden with 
 ozone and charged with sulphur. The odor of the 
 latter was very decided, and frequently its presence 
 was manifested by the appearance of a pale yellow 
 film on the surface of the rain-water gathered in 
 the depressions by the road-sides and in the fields. 
 This film was so tangible tliat we could, with a 
 pointed stick for a pencil, scratch our names in it, 
 names literally " writ in water." The sulphur may 
 have been supplied in part from a number of blast 
 furnaces which were almost constantly in oper- 
 ation in the iron region where these observations 
 were made. I trust the reader's indulgence will 
 be extended to this egotistic episode which is de- 
 signed to elucidate, in part, the psychic portion of 
 our subject. 
 
HYPNOTISM, PLACE-SENSE. 239 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Hypnotism ; Place-Sense of Animals ; Birds and 
 Insects ; Homing Pigeons ; Bees ; Aphides ; 
 Ants ; Keenness of Vision ; Eagle ; Hawk. 
 
 It is demonstrated that all the senses are inten- 
 sified by hypnotism. In those who are subjected 
 to it, the understanding is strengthened, the 'power 
 of comprehension is enlarged, and that of concep- 
 tion is more acute. Tliey seem to acquire a spir- 
 itual prescience that at once reveals to them new 
 objects of cognizance and a wider field of knowl- 
 edge. Meanwhile, the power of the will over the 
 muscles of the body is suspended as in trances, 
 dreams and visions. But trances, dreams and vis- 
 ions seem to be only varieties or modifications of 
 hypnotism. It must be borne in mind, that hyp- 
 notism is the effect induced by natural magnetism 
 in the mind, muscles and nerves of sentient beings. 
 In its eclectic, transcendental character it is, as we 
 have before noted, spiritual, and may be spiritually 
 induced. The action of what is called animal 
 magnetism is manifested in all animal life and, in 
 
240 HYPNOTISM, PLACE-SENSE. 
 
 a little different manner, in all other forms of 
 life. 
 
 We have heretofore pointed out the acuteness 
 of vision and of the sense of smell in birds and 
 dogs. But there is another sense or instinct that 
 is more remarkable than either of these. It is the 
 faculty which enables animals, birds and insects to 
 move from place to place in the most direct route 
 that will enable them to reach the object they 
 seek. The males and females of different species 
 of animals living many miles apart, find each other 
 at will, however many angles and turns there may 
 be in the road they may be obliged to follow. If 
 the female desires to see a male, and there are sev- 
 eral males living in the neighborhood, but so far 
 apart that she cannot hear the call of either, she 
 will always seek and find the nearest one. 
 
 An intelligent shepherd dog, a companion of 
 our youth, liked much in our drives to follow the 
 horses. His master drove one of them to a city 
 thirt3'-two miles distant. Before starting in the 
 morning, the dog was confined in the coach-house, 
 to remain there until afternoon. He was released 
 about two o'clock, at once took the horse's track, 
 and at six o'clock was with him in the city stable. 
 Two-thirds of the distance he traveled was over a 
 much-used turnpike with many other roads cross- 
 ing it, and there must have been many equine 
 tracks from which he was to choose. 
 
 There is a well-authenticated account of a dog 
 
HYPNOTISM, PLACE-SENSE. 241 
 
 whose master lived on the Ohio River near Mari- 
 etta, and during the season boated coal to New 
 Orleans. On one trip he took with him a common 
 shepherd dog, intending to dispose of him. Hav- 
 ing sold his boat and cargo, he returned home by 
 steamer, leaving the dog in New Orleans. Some 
 four weeks after, the dog appeared at his master's 
 house, foot-sore, lean, mud-stained and almost 
 famished, after a journey of over 800 miles. Hav- 
 ing no track to follow, instinct was his only guide. 
 The homing flight of pigeons and messenger 
 doves, the migratory habits of birds, and the long 
 distances from their nests at which they seek their 
 food, are well known. 
 
 But this faculty is still more remarkably exhib- 
 ited by insects, and most remarkably by the honey- 
 bee. Of all communities of organic life the bees 
 are the most wonderful, interesting and edifying 
 to contemplate. Their origin, life, habits, govern- 
 ment, sense and sensibility and their acute and 
 accurate selective faculty are a marvellous study. 
 The community is composed of three different 
 classes, distinctly differentiated from each other 
 in size, physical structure and functions. There 
 are the drones (males), the largest and least active 
 in motion ; then the workers, supposed to be un- 
 developed females, the smallest in size but the 
 most numerous, most active and efficient, and last 
 the queen, longer in body tlian the others, more 
 graceful and dignified in her movements, but suffi- 
 16 
 
242 HYPNOTISM, PLAGE-SENSE. 
 
 ciently active to lead ^he others when occasion 
 requires. 
 
 In each community or swarm there are from 
 twelve to fifteen thousand workers besides the 
 drones and the queens, and the marvel is that a sin- 
 gle queen is the mother of them all. She is also 
 their absolute, infallible ruler, and all her subjects 
 vie with each other in upholding her authority. 
 There are no strikes. The drones are disposed of 
 as soon as the social arrangements for the year are 
 settled, and any objector or obstructor is despatched 
 or exiled without ceremony. Each worker carries 
 in a sheath handy for use his sting, his weapon of 
 defence of himself and of the colony. The queen 
 has the same weapon, but uses it only in self- 
 defence. 
 
 At the proper season she deposits from one to 
 two thousand eggs a day. And then is manifested 
 the marvellous selective faculty, the subtle, infalli- 
 ble animal magnetism that enables her to give a 
 specific character to three different classes of eggs. 
 The first and most numerous is the workers, the 
 next the drones, and last the queens. To develop 
 the drones from the egg twenty-five days are neces- 
 sary, twenty-two for the workers, and sixteen for 
 the queens, and there is no apparent difference be- 
 tween the eggs that produce the three classes. The 
 wonderful vis-vitce of magnetism can alone impart 
 this amazing faculty of selection. 
 
 But this faculty is still more surprisingly mani- 
 
HYPNOTISM. PLACE-SENSE. 243 
 
 fested by the workers. The vision of the bee, 
 so far as we can learn, is quite limited ; yet 
 they leave the hive and fly away many miles in 
 all directions in pursuit of flowers, to gather 
 material with which to construct their cells and 
 store them with food. These wonderful cells 
 are correctly constructed on mathematical princi- 
 ples. They are hexagonal in shape, which 
 secures the largest amount of storage room with 
 the least length of side, and no vacant space be- 
 tween. It is also the strongest and safest form 
 of cell since all its sides adjoin and support each 
 other. 
 
 We know the uniform color of the honey-comb 
 in each hive and of the honey with which it is 
 filled. But there is a difference in the color of 
 the honey gathered from different flowers. There- 
 fore each bee, through his faculty of selection, 
 works in flowers that yield honey of the same color, 
 and after they return to the hive they show their 
 artistic faculty by blending the different colored 
 honey into one uniform color. They are correct 
 paint mixers, for parti-colored cells are never 
 found in a hive. 
 
 Each worker has a little sack for holding honey 
 and a little basket for pollen and bee-glue. When 
 both are filled they rise into the air, and their 
 flight to the hive, however distant it may be, is so 
 direct that the best definition of a straight line is 
 to call it a bee-line. Arriving home the glue and 
 
244 HYPNOTISM, PLACE-SENSE. 
 
 pollen are delivered to the architects for the build- 
 ing of new cells, while the honey is properly pre- 
 pared and placed in cells already provided. 
 
 Now the sovereign ruler of this winged com- 
 munity establishes three of them each year, and 
 does this from three to five years in succession, 
 when old age terminates her career and she is 
 gathered to her mothers. She is not merely the 
 sovereign of these sixty to seventy-five thousand 
 workers with the drones and queens in addition, 
 but she is the mother of every one of 
 them. Consider the intense vitality, the amaz- 
 ing vis-vitce possessed by and stored up in this 
 small insect. Can any lapse of time, any change 
 of conditions evolute her out of her traits, func- 
 tions and characteristics? 
 
 Another remarkable manifestation of the per- 
 sistence of this same force, this same animal mag- 
 netism, is found in the Aphides, the insect that 
 furnishes honey-dew, the favorite food of a cer- 
 tain species of ants. They are especially remark- 
 able for a peculiarity of their generative economy 
 which consists in fii'st fecundation of the female, 
 influencing not only the ova developed immedi- 
 ately afterwards, but those of the females resulting 
 from that development, even to the tenth gener- 
 ation, each of which is successively impregnated 
 and continues to produce without intercourse with 
 the male. 
 
 The ants, with whom Sir John Lubbock has so 
 
HYPNOTISM, PLACE-SENSE. 245 
 
 pleasantly made us familiar, are another remark- 
 able family of insects. Like the bees thej'' live in 
 colonies of thousands in number. Like the bees too, 
 they are divided into three distinct classes, males, 
 females, and neuters, the last being the workers. 
 Some of them also serve as soldiers, carpenters, 
 masons and architects, who plan and build their 
 homes. These are the familiar ant-hills with their 
 numerous galleries, stairways and chambers built on 
 the surface of the ground. Or they may be cavities 
 scooped out under large stones or planks or in de- 
 cayed, fallen tree trunks. They are phenomen- 
 ally strong, courageous, industrious and perse- 
 vering, boldly attacking insects and animals 
 (mice) much larger than themselves. If one of 
 them captures a bug or worm so much larger 
 than himself that he can only move it on a 
 pavement or other similar clear surface, but not 
 through the short grass beside them, he leaves it, 
 goes for help, returns with one or more assist- 
 ants and the prey is taken home. 
 
 We have seen a little brown ant like those 
 so common on side-walks, attack and kill a 
 common caterpillar. The ant climbed on to the 
 neck of the worm, pushed its mandibles through 
 the hair and inserted them in the flesh. The 
 worm was at once alarmed and made desperate 
 efforts to free himself from his enemy by rolling 
 over, curling himself up, and then suddenly 
 snapping himself out, by which means he threw 
 
246 HYPNOTISM, PLACE-SENSE. 
 
 the ant off and then quickened his movements to 
 escape. But the plucky little assailant returned 
 again and again to the attack, always seeking the 
 same spot on the top of the worm's neck. Final- 
 ly the cuticle was perforated, dark, viscous mat- 
 ter began to ooze out, and death soon followed. 
 
 The ants are not only carpenters and masons 
 but they are likewise dairymen and slave-dealers. 
 They have desperate battles, generally lasting two 
 days, in which many on both sides are slain. 
 The victor enslaves his victims and becomes a 
 heartless cannibal. He places his slaves in rows 
 like animals in subterranean stables, where they 
 are fed with the honey-dew which their captors 
 milk and steal from the aphides, above noticed. 
 The poor victims, deluded by the sweet flavor of 
 this food, acquire an inebriate passion for it and 
 gorge themselves until they become puffed up 
 into helpless globular masses, when they are 
 ruthlessly devoured by their cruel conquerors. 
 
 The ants communicate with each other through 
 their antennae as we have witnessed. Passing 
 on the plank sidewalk of a quiet street we no- 
 ticed a procession of the little brown ants cross- 
 ing it diagonally, and stopped to watch their 
 movement. Their home had been, apparently, 
 under the same walk, nearly a block further on. 
 As it had been disturbed by repairs or some 
 other cause, they concluded to seek a new home. 
 It was this migrating procession that we met. 
 
HYPNOTISM, PLACE-SHNSE. 247 
 
 It was about ten rods long, three inches wide, and 
 there must have been thousands of ants in it, 
 marching on in a regular, steady common-time 
 movement. 
 
 A number of them had their small white pupa in 
 their mouths. With a little sliver of wood we 
 captured one of these pupa, upsetting the ant to do 
 so. On recovering herself she at once began a search 
 for the pupa. After running anxiously about for 
 some time and not finding it, she stopped several 
 members of the procession who carried no pupa, 
 touched their antennse with her own and seemed 
 thus to have informed them of her trouble, for they 
 directly joined her in a vigorous search for the lost 
 treasure. Continuing the search until, satisfied 
 that it was fruitless, they reluctantly fell again in- 
 to the procession. We followed it along by the side 
 of the walk until it reached a point about twelve 
 inches from an oak post of good size that was de- 
 cayed- and hollowed out at the centre. This, it 
 seemed, was to serve for their winter quarters. 
 
 Before leaving the birds we wish especially to 
 note the power of vision possessed by the eagle and 
 the hawk. The former after reaching his point 
 look-out descries the small prey he is seeking whef\ 
 several miles distant from it. The hawk from his 
 lofty elevation of two or three thousand feet, 
 sees below the surface of the running water the 
 small fish he wishes to capture. If a black spot 
 the size of this fish were painted on a white 
 
248 HYPNOTISM, PLACE-SENSE. 
 
 board and placed at the same distance from a per- 
 son with the strongest eyes and most perfect vision 
 he could not see it at all. If we had a refract- 
 ing telescope whose powers were equal to those of 
 the eagle's eyes, we might be able to distinguish the 
 ships sailing on the seas of Mars if there are any. 
 Perhaps Sir David Brewster's suggestion, that 
 before the end of the century the world will 
 possess a reflecting telescope with a lens twenty 
 feet in diameter, may be realized. If a number of 
 eagle's and hawk's eyes could be obtained and 
 subjected to the most thorough examination that 
 can be made with the improved instruments of 
 the present day, the attainment of this end 
 might be sooner realized. 
 
SPIDERS. 249 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Spiders ; Their Webs ; Ballooning ; Securing Prey ; 
 Humble-bee and Spider in Death-struggle. 
 
 The spider is not a very attractive or desir- 
 able companion and neighbor ; on the contrary, 
 lie seems nearly as repulsive as the viper 
 • tribe, and every man's, and especially every 
 woman's, hand — and broom — are against him. Still, 
 as a form of organic life, he is a very interesting 
 study. Like the ant, he is intelligent, ingenious, 
 courageous and persevering. As spinners and 
 weavers, their work defies competition. The 
 beauty, fineness, evenness and smoothness of their 
 threads are admirable, and the delicacy, thinness, 
 and strength of their silken fabrics are wondei-ful. 
 They are also architects and artists, and some of 
 them are skilful geometricians, as is shown by 
 their fanciful webs. 
 
 The class Tegenaria, who make their parlors near 
 the earth's surface in piles of stone or wood, spread 
 around the parlor door a beautiful and attractive 
 silken carpet which heedless callers find to be most 
 delusively and fatally adhesive. Those callers who 
 
250 SPIDEBS. 
 
 enter these parlors must leave hope behind. But 
 the many and sharp-eyed host has sometimes a 
 caller that he fails to secure. 
 
 Having, when a boy, been stung by humble-bees 
 and bitten by a spider we were, very naturally, 
 disposed to improve every opportunity to promote 
 the infelicity of both. Fate or chance once gave 
 us an opportunity to bring the two into deadly 
 conflict. Near a famous well from which we often 
 sought a cooling drink was a small pile of cobble- 
 stones. A large, fierce black spider made his 
 spacious parlor and spread the fatal carpet in front 
 near the lower edge of the pile. Near it was a 
 stalk of catnip in blossom. Going to the well for 
 a drink we saw a lusty humble-bee working on the 
 blossoms. With the crown of our straw-hat we 
 gave him a blow that sent him directly on to the 
 silken carpet. He landed on his back with his 
 head towards the parlor door. Instantly the spider 
 darted out and with lightning speed circled round 
 the bee a dozen times or more to bind him fast with 
 his web. When he thought he had the struggling 
 bee sufficiently bound he sprang upon him and 
 seized him by the throat. As they were of the 
 same length the bee curved up his " business end " 
 and thrust his sting into the spider's other end. 
 The latter, with greater speed than he had darted 
 out of his parlor, darted back again. So strong- 
 were the cords and so skilfully wound that it took 
 the vigorous bee some minutes to disentangle him- 
 
SPIDERS. 251 
 
 self and free his wings so that he could use them. 
 He was evidently quite demoralized, for his flight, 
 when he departed, was not normally vigorous. If 
 the spider had seized him in such a way as to have 
 prevented the bee from stinging him he would 
 have been the victor. 
 
 We made repeated attempts afterwards, by 
 throwing insects on to the carpet and into the 
 parlor door to induce the occupant to come out. 
 But he never responded. The winds and stoi'ms 
 broke the outside fastenings of the carpet, and the 
 establishment fell into decay. 
 
 It is well known that some spiders go balloon- 
 ing and kiting, spinning, for that purpose, a dome- 
 like web and a platform web which may serve as a 
 raft or a sail, with which they make excursions in 
 the air, aided by the wind, and many floating fila- 
 ments of their silken web. 
 
 In his charming work on " American Spiders " 
 Vol. II., Rev. Mr. McCook has fully elucidated the 
 subject of spider ballooning, and described the 
 different methods by which it is accomplished. 
 Not the least interesting portion of his narrative is 
 the description of the manner in which the young 
 spiders in their gossamer ships are distributed in 
 immense numbers over the continents and princi- 
 pal islands of the earth by the trade-winds. Those 
 that are content with less ambitious flights throw 
 out their silver filaments in number and length 
 sufficient to overcome their gravity and sail away 
 
252 SPIDEBS. 
 
 in search of a new home. When they wish to 
 alight they have no valves to open, but simply and 
 literally take in their silken sails and quietly settle 
 to the earth. 
 
 We were once fortunate enough to witness one 
 of these Sittings of a single spider. While trout- 
 fishing down a mountain stream through the 
 woods, we found as we came out into the open that 
 the sun was too pervasive and therefore left the 
 brook where a wood road crossed it and continued 
 on, gradually rising, between a belt of tall trees 
 and an open pasture. While walking next to the 
 pasture fence, and looking to the right we saw, 
 against the bright sunlight, a large black wood- 
 spider floating in the air at an elevation of about 
 twenty-five feet, with a thread of her web trailing 
 behind like the tail of a kite and glistening in the 
 sun. 
 
 There was a continuous, gentle breeze which did 
 not seem to be sufficiently strong to overcome her 
 gravity. Those who are familiar with New Eng- 
 land woods will remember this species of spider : 
 jet black, keen eyes, fierce, repulsive looking and 
 very active in her motions. Her body is covered 
 with long coarse hair and her legs with still 
 coarser, short hair standing nearly at right angles 
 with their length, and presenting a flat appearance 
 like feathers. Possibly the spider had ascended a 
 tall tree standing in the edge of the wood, gone to 
 the outer edge of one of the upper limbs, attached 
 
SPIDERS. 253 
 
 her web to the extreme point, and then swung her- 
 self off for a voyage. If her legs were extended 
 side by side and the short, flat-looking hairs inter- 
 laced in such a way as to act like feathers and 
 form an aerial raft she would have had sufficient 
 floating capacity. She floated out of sight with- 
 out any apparent descent in her course. 
 
254 VARIOUS FORMS OF LIFE. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Lepidoptera ; Ova; Larvoe; Cocoon; Ohrysalid; 
 Imago; Butterfly; The Cicada; Shell-Life. 
 
 Another remarkable example of the persistence 
 of magnetic vis-vitce, most interesting in form, con- 
 dition and effect, is presented by the Lepidoptera. 
 The two extremes of this form of life are most 
 marvellous and most intensely interesting, not only 
 in themselves as to what they are, but also as to 
 what they may teach. Let us briefly trace the 
 history of a butterfly. 
 
 In the temperate zones from April to November, 
 the eggs are attached to the under-side of the leaves 
 of trees, or other forms of vegetable life, to which 
 they are made fast by a glutinous film that pre- 
 vents their removal by wind or rain. In the genial 
 warmth of the season development begins at once. 
 With voracious appetites the young grubs devour 
 the tender vegetable fibre, and grow so rapidly that 
 in from five to twenty days the larva attains its 
 full size. These larvae, caterpillars, of different 
 sizes and colors, as we see them crawling upon the 
 ground or on branches of trees and bushes, are 
 
VABIOUS FORMS OF LIFE. 255 
 
 among the lowest and most repulsive creatures 
 that live, and with all persons, except natui'alists, 
 they are nearly as unpopular as the viper class. 
 To casual observers their sense and sensibility seem 
 to be exceedingly limited, and they have not a 
 single attractive characteristic. At the proper 
 time the larva seeks, instinctively, a place where 
 it may secrete itself for its grand transformation. 
 And now it begins to manifest its good sense, its 
 reasoning capacity. It desires to protect itself 
 against discovery and attack from its natural ene- 
 mies and also from the alternations of the weather. 
 Having selected the spot for its temporary burial, 
 its hibernation, it proceeds to construct its own sar- 
 cophagus. In doing this it performs the work of 
 an architect and decorator. 
 
 The first thing to be done is to build the cocoon, 
 the outer covering of its hibernating domicile. 
 This is cylindrical in form and closed at each end. 
 Its substance is similar to that of a bladder, strong 
 and impervious to air and moisture, and that hard- 
 ens as it dries. The only tools used by the larva 
 are its legs, spinning apparatus and a supply of raw 
 silk. Having finished the cocoon it next constructs 
 its chrysalid, its coffin. This is a more elaborate 
 piece of work, ovately cylindrical in shape, but 
 largest at the head-end, smooth and polished on its 
 exterior surface, which is punctured by orifices 
 corresponding to its spiracles. The interior is 
 finished off with exquisitely soft and delicate vel- 
 
256 VARIOUS FORMS OF LIFE. 
 
 vet. A more delightful hibernating parlor could 
 not be conceived. The cocoon is also lined with 
 silk velvet, and in due time, when the insect has 
 reached its birth-stage, both are broken open and it 
 escapes. 
 
 The period of hibernation varies from six to ten 
 months, but there are some species in which it lasts 
 for two years. This is a most remarkable manifest- 
 ation of the persistence of animal life, animal 
 magnetism. At the end of the hibernating period 
 the imago appears. Wonderful and beautiful is 
 the Psj'^che, the winged soul, that comes forth from 
 its sarcophagus, spreads its wings and seeks the 
 skies. In all the range of animal life there is 
 nothing so amazing as the transfiguration and 
 resurrection of the butterfly. Emanating from a 
 minute egg, growing into a repulsive worm with 
 senses and sensibilities of the most limited charac- 
 ter, not even having lungs, but breathing through 
 spiracles in its body, possessing no power of rapid 
 motion as it crawls upon the earth, being altogether 
 of the earth, earthy. In this condition, with the 
 aid of a marvellous instinct, it constructs its won- 
 derful tomb, shuts itself up in impenetrable dark- 
 ness and lies dormant in the hades of departed 
 butterflies from ten to twenty-four months; and 
 then opens the door of its living tomb, emerges into 
 the light of day, expands its beautiful wings, wings 
 which angels might envy if they needed them, wings 
 resplendent in most exquisite colors that might have 
 
VARIOl/S FOBMS OF LIFE. 257 
 
 been born of the sunshine of Paradise; it waves 
 these and flies away over the earth, drawing new 
 life from its atmosphere and nursing on the dewy 
 nectar of its flowers, a flying orchid, living on dew 
 and air. 
 
 Note — In the museum of Cornell University there is a large 
 and fine collection of butterflies. Many of them are exceed- 
 ingly beautiful. 
 
 And what is the lesson to be learned from this 
 wondrous life? First, it is an irrefragable proof 
 of the resurrection of a body, not indeed from death, 
 but from a comatose state near akin to it, the same 
 but different, identical but transfigured. Every 
 particle of matter that entered into the chrysalid 
 came out of it. Every particle that went into it 
 was a living particle ; every particle that came out 
 of it was also a living particle. There was no stain 
 nor lifeless particle left within the velvet chamber. 
 Second, it is an equally irrefragable proof of the 
 persistence, the constant pervasive energy, the 
 vis-viva of the magnetic force in animal life and 
 in varying phases of it. It begins with the egg, 
 it continues in the larva, it survives the long night 
 of years in the chrysalid, and develops into per- 
 fect life in the beautiful imago, the perfect but- 
 terfly. 
 
 There is no friction, no impact, no induction, no 
 possible method of developing electric action in 
 this system. It is animal magnetism pure and 
 
 simple. 
 17 
 
258 VARIOUS FORMS OF LIFE. 
 
 But the most persistent living' force and the 
 most protracted period of hibernation are exhibited 
 by the cicada-septemdecim. He buries himself at 
 an unknown depth in the ground and only appears 
 again on its surface after a lapse of seventeen years. 
 
 Another most interesting form of life is shell 
 life, ranging in age and size from the gigantic 
 conch down to the families of the infinitesimal 
 Limaconidse, Tripteridse, Truncatellas, and Lon- 
 ites. As a general rule their cradles are their 
 graves, their homes are their tombs. These are 
 constructed of pearl, marble, and limestone. The 
 architecture of many of them in structure, form, 
 color and ornamentation is exquisitely beautiful, 
 and admirably adapted to the comfort and safety 
 of their occupants. They abound,, live and thrive 
 on the land and in both salt and fresh water. The 
 iridescent decoration of the parlor of the pearl 
 is indescribably beautiful, while the exterior orna- 
 mentation of many of them is hardly less attractive. 
 On the other hand, the houses of the oyster are 
 very rough and uninviting. They are the log 
 cabins of concological architecture. The taste of 
 the occupants however, is unimpeachable. 
 
INSTINCT; SELECTIVE FACULTY. 259 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 Animal Instincts ; Selective Faculty. 
 
 There is another remarkable faculty or instinct 
 exhibited by some animals scarcely noticed hither- 
 to. It is the selective faculty that prompts them 
 to refrain from eating poisonous, or, for them, un- 
 healthy food, and to do certain things necessary 
 for the safety and comfort of their offspring. 
 
 Kine avoid all poisonous plants if they stand iso- 
 lated in the field, but they sometimes unconscious- 
 ly eat cow-bane — cicuta — which may be concealed 
 in a cluster of other nutritious and innocuous < 
 plants. Cattle ranging in pastures, however hun- 
 gry, will not touch the foliage of spotted alder, poi- 
 son sumach, poison ivy, nor any other poisonous 
 shrubs. Cows in wild pastures with their new- 
 born calves when they wish to range for their food 
 seek a secluded shade where they compel the calf 
 to lie down and make it understand that it must 
 not move until the cow return. While feeding 
 she keeps vigilant watch in the direction of its 
 hiding place to see that it is not disturbed. We 
 knew a fine cow that dropped her calf in such a 
 
260 INSTINCT; SELECTIVE FACULTY. 
 
 pasture, hid it, ranged off to feed, was taken ill 
 and died. Some days after the calf was found half 
 starved, where she had concealed it, and taken 
 home. 
 
 The traveller on the western prairies fifty years 
 ago would occasionally notice, as we have done, cer- 
 tain circular and semicircular paths about ten feet in 
 diameter. They were made by mother buffaloes 
 caught out on the prairie in bleak, cold wind and 
 rainstorms. If the wind was strong and fixed in one 
 direction, the mother made the calf lie down on the 
 lee side of such slight elevation as she could find. 
 Then she walked back and forth in a semicircle 
 between the calf and the wind for the double pur- 
 pose of breaking the force of the wind and permit- 
 ting the warmth from her body to be wafted over 
 the calf. Occasionally she laid down with her 
 back to the wind and adjusted her body and legs 
 in a way to inclose the calf. She kept this position 
 until she became chilly, getting rest in the mean- 
 time. If the wind was of the character of a whirl- 
 wind coming from different quarters, she walked 
 in a circle around the calf, alternating as before 
 with the lying down. 
 
 It^is a difficult thing for the most expert natu- 
 ralist to catch a fly in his hand. We have seen a 
 garden toad leap sixteen or eighteen inches and 
 catch one from a board fence. But we have not 
 succeeded, after repeated trials, in inducing a toad 
 to devour a potato beetle or a squash bug. 
 
INSTINCT; SELECTIVE FACULTY. 261 
 
 People can learn much out-of-doors if they only 
 see what they look at and endeavor to understand 
 its signiiicance, its function. During a three weeks 
 stay at the Chicago Fair, according to our observa- 
 tion, not one person in 10,000 saw the beautiful 
 decorations in the domes of the entrances to all 
 except the matchless recessed arch of the Trans- 
 portation Building. In the daily throngs entering 
 we did not see a single person looking up at them 
 except the few who stopped to see what we were 
 gazing at. 
 
262 VABIOUS FOBCJES. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Spiritual Force. Mental Force. Magnetic Power 
 Greater in Small than in Large Magnets. 
 
 Thebe is another remarkable and subtle force 
 to which we have slightly alluded in treating of 
 persons designated as magnetic, which varies ma- 
 terially from the descriptive detail of the action of 
 that force. It is a spiritual, mental force. This 
 different manifestation of force is best summarized 
 by St. Paul : " Now there are diversities of gifts 
 but the same spirit.* * * For to one is given by 
 the spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the 
 word of knowledge by the same spirit ; to another 
 faith by the same spirit; to another the gift of 
 healing by the same spirit ; to another the working 
 of miracles ; to another prophecy ; to another dis- 
 covering of spirits; to another divers kinds of 
 tongues ; to another the interpretation of tongues : 
 But all these worketh that one and the self-same 
 spirit, dividing to every man as he will."* 
 
 All experience confirms this diversity of gifts 
 and demonstrates that no one individual possesses 
 
 I. Corinthians, ciiap. 13, v. 4 et acq. 
 
VARIOUS FORCES. 263 
 
 them all, though some may possess more than 
 others. All persons are differentiated from each 
 other by difference of gifts. There are, so to speak, 
 many similars, no identicals. Some are mathema- 
 ticians, some philosophers, some poets, some musi- 
 cians, some painters, some sculptors, some archi- 
 tects, some inventors, and some with no power of 
 mental concentration in any direction. 
 
 These differences are shown in divers ways in 
 the ordinary affairs of life. Some men are genial, 
 generous, active, willing to live and let live. They 
 seem to be favorites of fortune, and everything they 
 touch turns to gold. Others, with the same equip- 
 ment as to age, strength, ability and willingness to 
 work, may yet delve a lifetime and barely live. 
 Some have great executive ability who, with few ad- 
 ventitious aids, but with indomitable courage and 
 resolution successfully accomplish a vast amount of 
 work, both mental and physical. Others with equal 
 mental capacity have no executive ability, are in- 
 firm of purpose, sporadic, miscellaneous, and, al- 
 though fairly industrious, accomplish but little. 
 
 Notice half-a-dozen well-grown boys sitting side 
 by side and fishing from the flume in a dam or 
 from the bank of a stream. One or two are more 
 or less successful, at short intervals catching a fish. 
 The others do not succeed. They drop their lines 
 as near as possible to those of the fortunates ; they 
 exchange tackle with them. All in vain, they 
 catch no fish. These unfortunates, when they " go 
 
264 VARIOUS FORCES. 
 
 a-fishing " do so with the hope that they may suc- 
 ceed ; rather doubtful, but they will try. 
 
 The fortunates go, not only with the hope, but 
 with the determination, to catch fish. They are 
 in earnest. They add to their hope faith, and so 
 an effluence of trust and confidence pervades their 
 work : and their faith and hope are justified by their 
 work, the fish are caught. We often hear it re- 
 marked that people fail in this or that undertaking 
 because they are only " half-hearted " in their work, 
 they put no energy, resolution into it. This is true, 
 and it is only another way of saying that they are 
 weak in magnetic power, which is will-power. 
 
 In all forms of life the life-force, the animal mag- 
 netism, is a dyad and life is perpetuated by a force 
 that has two poles. In dioecious forms procrea- 
 tion is effected by copulation of the sexes ; in 
 monoecious forms the two poles are adjacent as in 
 the minute, almost infinitesimal atoms of the 
 lodestone. 
 
 Reproduction commences in the acephala — oys- 
 ters — long before full growth is obtained. The cyc- 
 las — sphserium — reproduces when so immature as to 
 possess hardly any of the external characters of the 
 species ; and oysters, although they do not attain 
 full growth under three or four years, yet spawn 
 when they are four months old. So prolific are 
 they that the ova of a single oyster have been esti- 
 mated as high as ten millions in number. 
 
 The almost infinite variety in the forms of life 
 
VARIOUS FOBCES. 265 
 
 is as astonishing as its womderful persistence, and 
 the infinite divisibility of matter is paralleled by 
 the infinite divisibility of the vis-vitm. Consider- 
 ing the exhibition of magnetic power in all forms 
 of animal life, it is interesting to note the fact that 
 small magnets are much stronger in proportion to 
 their size than larger ones, and that the pressure is 
 greater on the surface of small planets than on 
 those of greater ones in proportion to their mass.* 
 If the magnetic power of the whale were propor- 
 tionally larger than that of the honey-bee he might 
 carry ships on his back, and if the magnetic power 
 of the elephant were proportionally greater than 
 that of the little brown ant, he might pull up trees 
 to get his lunch instead of breaking off their 
 branches. 
 
 * Sir Isaac Newton's 18th Query. 
 
266 FORCE AND MATTER. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 Force and Matter. — Some Suggestions Concerning 
 their Indestructibility, and Variety of Forms. 
 
 We have already referred to the extraordinary 
 power exhibited in the physical mechanism of man 
 and other animals when under cataleptic, hypnotic 
 and other abnormal influences and especially noted 
 the fact that the power, the force thus developed 
 is hrain power, or force, will force. " An arm, the 
 muscles of which are lamed, is incapable of doing 
 any work ; the moving force of the muscles must 
 be at work in it and these must obey the nerves 
 which bring to them orders from the hrain. That 
 member is then capable of the greatest variety of 
 motions; it can compel the most varied instru- 
 ments to execute the most diverse tasks." * The 
 fact, the existence, the necessity of Force is a 
 grand, fundamental truth underlying all the phe- 
 nomena of life and nature. We can make no 
 progress in any department of natural science 
 without the aid of some kind of force. 
 
 " Force and matter," says Mayer, " are indestruc- 
 * Helmholtz, Pop. Sci. Lect., p. 321. 
 
FORCE AND MATTER. 267 
 
 tible objects. Force is something which is ex- 
 pended in producing motion. Two classes of causes 
 occur in nature, which so far as experience goes, 
 never pass one into another. The first class con- 
 sists of such causes as possess the properties of 
 weight and impenetrability : the other class is 
 made up of causes which are wanting in the prop- 
 erties just mentioned " which are called also im- 
 ponderables." 
 
 "Nature," says Helmholtz, "as a whole pos- 
 sesses a store of force which cannot in any way be 
 increased or diminished. * * * Therefore the 
 quantity of force in nature is just as eternal and 
 unalterable as the quantity of matter. According 
 to this we can divide the total force-store of the 
 universe into two parts, one of which is heat and 
 must continue as such ; the other to which a por- 
 tion of the heat of the warmer bodies and the total 
 supply of chemical, electrical and magnetical forces 
 belong, is capable of the most varied changes of 
 form and constitutes the whole wealth of change 
 which takes place in nature." * 
 
 " No force," says Grove, f " can be, strictly 
 speaking, initial, as there must be some anterior 
 force which produced it. We cannot create force 
 or motion any more than we can create matter. 
 Can we, indeed, suggest a proposition definitely 
 conceivable by the mind, of force without ante- 
 
 * Helmholtz, Pop. Soi. Lee, pp. 171-3. 
 t Correlation of Phys. Forces, pp. 195-6. 
 
268 FORCE AND MATTER. 
 
 cedent force ? "I cannot without calling for the 
 interposition of created power. * * * The impos- 
 sibility, humanly speaking, of creating or annihi- 
 lating matter has long been admitted. The reasons 
 for the admission of a similar doctrine as to force 
 appear to be equally strong." 
 
 " With regard to matter there are many causes 
 in which we never (can) practically prove the 
 cessation of its existence, yet we do not the less 
 believe in it ; who, for instance, can trace so as to 
 reweigh the particles of iron worn off from a car- 
 riage wheel ? or re-combine the particles of wax 
 dissipated and chemically changed in the burning 
 of a candle ? " 
 
 " Considering the continued activity of the sun 
 through countless centuries we may assume, with 
 mathematical certainty, the existence of some com- 
 pensating influence to make good its enormous 
 loss. By a law which is universally true, waste 
 and want go hand in hand. Laplace demonstrated 
 that the length of the day remained constant for 
 2,500 years." * 
 
 From Geology we learn that the temperature of 
 the earth has remained practically the same for 
 hundreds of thousands of years, and hence it 
 follows that the same is true of the temperature of 
 the sun. Hence again it follows that some cause 
 of the constant supply of the sun's heat other than 
 that of the contraction of its mass must be sought, 
 * Mayer, Cel. Dyn., pp. 365, 336. 
 
FORCE AND MATTER. 269 
 
 since there is no evidence of the diminution of its 
 diameter. It is demonstrated that but a small por- 
 tion of the heat emanating from the sun is dis- 
 tributed to the planets in the solar system. Hence 
 arises the " enormous loss " to which Mayer refers 
 as having been sustained by it " through countless 
 centuries." 
 
 Where shall we seek the "compensating influ- 
 ence to make good this enormous loss" and so 
 preserve the equilibrium of the solar system ? By 
 our hypothesis, as before noted, an inexhaustible 
 supply of fuel is furnished from the outer stellar 
 space, not only for our sun but for all the suns in 
 the omniverse. This supply is ample, immanent, 
 constant and is immediately furnished wherever 
 " waste," " loss," exhaustfon or dissipation of mat- 
 ter has occurred, thus maintaining the equilibrium 
 of every system. 
 
270 SUNS ANI> PLANETS. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Number and Duration of Suns and Planets. 
 
 We have noted the popular idea that the stars 
 are infinite in number and duration. Treating of 
 the stellar distances Father Secchi * says : " Im- 
 mense as this space may seem it does not constitute 
 the real limit of the creation, since our most pow- 
 erful instruments fail to penetrate even all the 
 galactic strata in all their profundity ; hence the 
 firmament for us is unfathomable. Nevertheless 
 it cannot be called infinite ; nothing composed of 
 distinct and separate entities can be called infinite. 
 It is said that the world ought to be infinite, in 
 order that the work may be worthy of its infinite 
 Creator. But if it were infinite and peopled to 
 infinity with stars, the celestial vault ought to 
 appear, in all its extent, as brilliant as the sun. 
 Such is not the fact, and hence we must conclude 
 that the stars are not infinite in number." 
 
 This argument is conclusive. 
 
 The conditions of our new Cosmography help 
 us to comprehend, to a reasonable extent, what 
 * Johnson's Cyclopedia, Art. " Universe." 
 
SUNS AND PLANETS. 271 
 
 has hitherto been considered incomprehensible. In 
 that system all the celestial bodies are formed 
 within the hyperboloids and the asymptoid which 
 together constitute the omniverse. The divine, 
 transcendent light proceeding from the centre of 
 the asymptoid, enveloping and passing beyond the 
 supernal spheres within it, will gradually diminish 
 in intrinsic brightness as it recedes from that centre. 
 In like manner, the solar rays, emanating from all 
 the suns in all the hyperboloids and reflected from 
 all planets, will also gradually fade out as they 
 recede from the same centre until finally the whole 
 omniverse will be enveloped in the utter darkness 
 of outer space, thus presenting the appearance, 
 from any point from which it could be visible, of 
 a vast globe of mild radiance, flecked, as it were, 
 with numerous shadows on a field totally dark. 
 And although this omniverse is constantly increas- 
 ing in size, we can comprehend its limits so far as 
 to understand that it can never fill all space, and 
 consequently that it can never contain an infinite 
 number of celestial bodies. 
 
 We have shown that the calorific rays of the 
 sun after leaving its atmosphere are totally dark, 
 and that they do not become luminous until they 
 encounter some opaque or resisting medium by 
 which they are reflected and refracted. This is 
 conclusively proved by the fact that if the opaque 
 body be of any considerable magnitude, like a 
 planet, the side opposite the sun is totally dark, 
 
•272 SUNS AND PLANETS. 
 
 and if the planet did not revolve on its axis, so 
 that every part of its surface could be subjected, 
 at short intervals, to the luminous rays, it would 
 become intensely cold and perfectly desolate. On 
 the contrary, if the hemisphere exposed to the 
 direct rays of the sun were so exposed for any con- 
 siderable period of time the heat concentrated upon 
 it would be so intense that its waters, its moisture, 
 would be entirely evaporated and all forms of life 
 would perish. The moon is a sublime object-lesson 
 that partially illustrates this condition of things. 
 
 There is one supreme truth that we are com- 
 pelled to recognize, that namely, that all life is the 
 result of a, force. Another cardinal fact is that no 
 force can be made manifest except through the in- 
 strumentality of matter. 
 
 Magnetism requires the lodestone, a metal, the 
 air or a fluid or a gas to make its presence known. 
 Electricity requires the proper machine, the in- 
 ductive cylinders or coils, the amber, the wax, the 
 clouds and moisture or a peculiar condition of the 
 atmosphere for its development. The mental 
 powers, the mind, the thought, the will, can only 
 manifest themselves through brain and muscle and 
 nerves. Equally true it is that there can be no 
 life without the aid of heat and moisture ; also 
 that there can be no life in the extremes of heat 
 and cold, in other words, that there are degrees of 
 temperature, calorific and frigorific, beyond which 
 life cannot be sustained. 
 
SUNS AND PLANETS. 273 
 
 We know that there can be no vegetable life 
 without light. In the mammoth cave of Kentucky 
 and in all caves where total and constant darkness 
 prevails, there is no least manifestation of vegetable 
 or plant life. 
 
 But light is not necessary for the development 
 of animal life, as is abundantly demonstrated by 
 the blind fish in the mammoth cave and the forms 
 of life in the extreme depths of the ocean, as well 
 as beneath the surface of the earth. 
 
 Since matter and force are held to be indestruct- 
 ible, and since force can be made manifest only 
 through matter, it must follow that every organ- 
 ism, animal, plant or vegetable, is a mechanical 
 structure operated by some force. But these 
 organisms are endowed with a force that enables 
 them to perpetuate themselves indefinitely, each 
 after its kind. Hence that force must be constant, 
 pervasive, effective. As we have repeatedly noted, 
 there is in nature but one force that invariably and 
 perfectly fulfills these conditions, that is, the mag- 
 netic force. Hence, if there be no error in our 
 facts and no fault in our reasoning, the inexorable 
 logic of the concept is that there can be no life 
 without magnetism. And especially noticeable is 
 the marvellous adaptability of this force to every 
 organism, however immense or minute. The 
 working of the brain of the little brown ant is as 
 perfect and wonderful as that of man or the ele- 
 phant, of the humming-bird as that of the condor. 
 18 
 
274 CONCLUSION. 
 
 XL. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 With the exception of some experiments 
 designed to demonstrate the correctness of some 
 of our most important propositions, but which we 
 have not been able to secure the facilities for per- 
 forming, our task is finished. Probably no student 
 in astronomy or physics ever laid down his text- 
 books without feeling that some of the most im- 
 portant conclusions arrived at were not conclusive, 
 that there was a hiatus, a something wanting that 
 ought to be attained in order that our reason 
 should be satisfied. He feels that he is very near 
 the grand goal of truth, but has not quite reached 
 it ; that, Moses like, he has had a charming view of 
 the fair fields of the celestial Canaan, but still has 
 not been permitted to wander through them nor 
 to taste their grapes nor drink their wine. 
 
 All the problems connected with our own solar 
 system are so thoroughly elucidated that when we 
 have mastered them we commence our explora- 
 tions in the boundless areas of space with a cheer- 
 ful hope and strong faith that the sublimest results 
 will be soon attained. 
 
CONCLUSION. 21b 
 
 We get into the Milky Way. It is an enchant- 
 ing way to follow. New beauties and glories, 
 aspects more and more sublime, are revealed at 
 every step. But it returns into itself and we end 
 where we began. We find that our stellar system 
 is but a small part of this illuminated way, and 
 that its primary — the sun — is only a brilliant point 
 lost in a galaxy of other points far larger and more 
 brilliant. 
 
 Vast as is the extent of this galaxy, yet how 
 small a portion of the firmament does it fill ! Con- 
 cerning the Galactic Circle Sir John Herschel ^ 
 writes : " It is to sidereal what the invariable eclip- 
 tic is to planetary astronomy — a plane of ultimate 
 reference, the ground plan of the sidereal system." 
 It may be compared to the cross-section of an im- 
 mense cylinder, populated with stars, in some 
 parts so densely that the highest telescopic power 
 of vision does not enable us to sound their utmost 
 depths ; in other parts so sparsely that we look 
 through them into " coal sac's " of impenetrable 
 darkness. 
 
 Looking north and south, so to speak, from the 
 centre of this cylinder, we observe numerous groups 
 of stellar matter twinkling and moving apparently 
 in all directions, direct and retrograde, angular and 
 oblique, with little or no system or order, like 
 swarms of insects in a summer sky. 
 
 From a careful review of the various facts and 
 ' Outlines of Astronomy, p. 450. 
 
276 CONCLUSION. 
 
 conclusions which we have presented it seems cer- 
 tain that the Galaxy is the grandest feature, the 
 sublimest outgrowth of the stellar geography, the 
 celestial cosmography;" that it forms a zone or 
 group of stellar systems which occupies one of the 
 hyperboloids ; the most perfect and the most brill- 
 iant of these systems being nearest to the hyper- 
 boloidal centre, while those which are less perfect, 
 less complete, lie further from that centre; the 
 nebulae and nubuculae lying still more remote, 
 being the last and most minute forms of matter 
 which occupy the border-land of the hyperboloidal 
 space. The planets that are nearest their prima- 
 ries are the oldest, and the north or positive pole of 
 each stellar system points toward the grand, com- 
 mon centre of them all. 
 
 The centres and motions of individual solar sys- 
 tems are well understood, but all effort to establish 
 a common centre for all stellar systems has, thus far, 
 failed. As the reader will have observed, our 
 principal object has been to establish that centre 
 and to show how all possible stellar systems with 
 all possible forces and motions are inexorably con- 
 nected with it. 
 
 In developing our hypothesis we have, with an 
 iteration and reiteration that may seem wearisome 
 but that we have deemed essential, set forth, special- 
 ized and emphEisized the properties and character- 
 istics of one particular force, namely, magnetism. 
 And in order to demonstrate more fully its mani- 
 
CONCLUSION. 277 
 
 fold virtues, offices and functions, we have ranged 
 into the department of psychology. If the nature 
 of this force in its normal and transcendental func- 
 tions as herein unfolded and interpreted, shall, by 
 the use of more perfect instruments and further 
 observation be proved and accepted as true, then 
 we have a reasonable solution of all psychological 
 and physical problems. 
 
 If it be asked why we have selected the asymp- 
 toid, the hyperboloids and the hyperbola for the 
 outlines of our celestial geography and the forms 
 of space in which all matter can exist and all 
 the natural and certain supernatural forces can 
 be manifested, the reply is, because they are best 
 adapted to accomplish the end proposed and that 
 they possess peculiar properties and characteristics 
 that are possible in no other forms. 
 
 And while it is true that innumerable hyper- 
 bolas can be cut from cones whose sides make any 
 angle at their vertices from zero to 90°, yet it is 
 also true that the hyperbola cut from what we 
 have called a right angle cone is the only one that 
 can fulfil the conditions of our hypothesis. 
 
 The hyperboloid that revolves about its trans- 
 verse axis generates a hyperboloid of two nappes. 
 These are surfaces of double curvature ; they are 
 conjugate, symmetrical, homogeneous, homologous 
 and their equations are identical. If two conjugate 
 hyperbolas are revolved about either axis they will 
 generate a pair of conjugate hyperboloids of revo- 
 
278 CONCLUSION. 
 
 lution and their common asymptotes will generate 
 a cone which separates the two. There are no 
 other curves known that can possibly fulfil these 
 conditions. How admirably and perfectly they are 
 fitted for the construction of our new cosmography 
 must be at once apparent. There are no hidden 
 angles or corners connected with them. Perfectly, 
 systematically, harmoniously they occupy all space. 
 All forms of matter, all forms of energy, all pro- 
 cesses of life and growth, all processes of decay and 
 death, exist and are manifested within them. 
 
 Finally we wish further to emphasize the fact 
 that the supreme origin, centre, source, germ and 
 root of the new System is Deity. All spirit, power, 
 energy, force ; all life, matter, motion are the 
 direct outcome of His will, the result of His laws. 
 Ample material, ample ways and means are pro- 
 vided for the execution of those laws, with endless 
 space and time for their perpetual development. 
 And thus the grand processes of nature are forever 
 carried forward, and thus with ever-increasing 
 reason, ever-growing emphasis, the firmament show- 
 eth forth the handiwork and the heavens declare 
 the glory of GoD. 
 
 Such is the system which, with due humility 
 but with an abiding faith in its substantial verity, 
 is submitted for the consideration of investigators, 
 and with some appropriate words from Grove we 
 submit it to their criticism : " That the theoretical 
 portions of this essay are open to objections I am 
 
CONCLUSION. 279 
 
 fully conscious. I cannot, however, but think that 
 the fair way to test a theory is to compare it with 
 other theories, and to see whether, upon the whole, 
 the balance of probability is in its favor. Were a 
 theory open to no objections it would cease to be a 
 theory and become a law ; and were we not to theo- 
 rize or to take generalizedviews of natural phenom- 
 ena until those generalizations were sure and un- 
 objectionable — in other words were laws — science 
 would be lost in a complex mass of unconnected 
 observations, which would probably never disen- 
 tangle themselves." 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 Abbott, Mrs., 105 et seq. 
 Aerial Music, 217. 
 Age of Earth, \s,Z et seq. 
 Age of the Stars, 164 et seq. 
 Addison, 171, Note. 
 Aqueous Vapor, 150, 76. 
 Alpha Centauri, 195. 
 Ampfere, 26. 
 Ammonia, 184. 
 Anaxagoras, 58. 
 Andrews, 41. 
 Angstrom, 55. 
 Animal Magnetism, 197 et 
 
 seq., 233etseq., 339. 
 Animals, 239, 259. 
 Answered Prayer, 183. 
 Ants, 239 et seq., 246. 
 Arago, 25. 
 Aphides, 239. 
 Attributes of God, 64. 
 Asymptoid, 173, 178, 181, 
 
 185. 
 Aurora, 96. 
 Apostles, 227. 
 
 B. 
 Bacon, 11, 215. 
 Bain, 121, 124. 
 Barnard, President, 195, 
 
 Note. 
 Beginnings, 64, 72. 
 Bancalari, 134. 
 Bees, 239, et seq. 
 Bernheim, 198. 
 Birds, 239 et seq. 
 Brain, no et seq., 199, 200, 
 
 208. 
 Browne, Sir Thomas, 68. 
 Burke, E., 81. 
 Butterflies, 254 et seq. 
 
 C. 
 
 Capella, Light of, 196. 
 Cat, 80, 234. 
 Carbon, 136. 
 
 Center of all Space, 192. 
 
 Celestial Geography, 140 et 
 seq., 169. 
 
 Caterpillars, 250. 
 
 Chemical Force, 27, 28, 34, 
 198. 
 
 Chrysalid, 254. 
 
 Cocoon, 254. 
 
 Chapman, 130. 
 
 Carnot, 25. 
 
 Cicada, 58. 
 
 Clark, Dr., 65. 
 
 Conductors, 126. 
 
 Coulomb, 73, 82. 
 
 Cook, 136. 
 
 Cosmography, The new, 22, 
 169. 
 
 Color, 28, 78, 89, 35, 139. 
 
 Comets, S4, 145. 
 
 Condor, 82. 
 
 Conarium, 116. 
 
 Charcot, 198. 
 
 Combustion, 152. 
 
 Currents, Afferent and Ef- 
 ferent, 126. 
 
 Creation, 61, 62. 
 
 Crookes, 40. 
 
 D. 
 Darwin, 29. 
 Daniell, 27. 
 Davy, Sir H., 49, 89. 
 Diamonds, 137. 
 Delirium Tremens, 197. 
 Devotion, 197. 
 Democritus, 58. 
 Dewar, 107. 
 
 Diastole and Sistole, 128. 
 Dogs, 80, 234. 
 Draper, J. W., 49. 
 Dreams, 209 et seq. 
 Dust of Time, 145. 
 Descartes, 119. 
 
 E. 
 Eagle, 81, 83, 247. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Earth, Age of, 158 et seq. 
 Effluence, 66, 68, 74, 
 Electricity, 36, 89, 92, 199. 
 Electricity of Plants, 203, 
 
 204. 
 Emerson, R. W., 68. 
 Electro-Chemic Force, 28. 
 Epicurus, 59. 
 Energy, 86, 91. 
 Ether, 153, 187. 
 Exhilarating Atmosphere, 
 
 185, 186. 
 Evolution, 67, 187. 
 Experiments in Magnetism, 
 
 43- 
 
 F. 
 Faraday, 22 et seq., 88, 90, 
 
 91, 134, 139. 
 Fibres, iii, 115, 126, 80. 
 Ferrier, no, 125-6, 131,207. 
 Firefly, 18, 139. 
 Flame, 150. 
 Flowers, 204. 
 Force, Disruptive, 94, 86, 91, 
 
 266. 
 
 G. 
 Gases, 132 et seq., 183. 
 Gauss, 24. 
 Gassiot, 37, 41. 
 .Ganot, 49. 
 Geisler's Tubes, 36. 
 Gravity, 49, 53. 
 Geography, Celestial, 140. 
 Graining of Wood, 28, 30. 
 Grey, 34. 
 Grove, 19, 41, 49. 
 Glow-worm, 182. 
 Gould, 167. 
 God, Attributes, 64. 
 God, Dwelling Place, 179. 
 God, 57, 68, 190, et seq. 
 Gland, Pineal, 115 et seq. 
 Glashier, 46. 
 
 H. 
 Harris, 94. 
 Hawks, 81, 93. 
 Hansteen, 167. 
 
 Heart, 127 et seq., 247. 
 
 Herschel, Sir Wm., 143, 166. 
 
 Herschel, Sir John, 54. 
 
 Heat, 88, 89,91. 
 
 Heat, Radiant, 36. 
 
 Hegel, 70, 71. 
 
 Hertz, Experiments, 93, 102. 
 
 Heredity, 202. 
 
 Helmholtz, 18, 26, 63, 88, 
 
 267. 
 Hair, 233 et seq. 
 Hodge, 92. 
 Horse, 83-4, 201. 
 Hopkinson, 36, 40, 50. 
 Holmes, Dr. O. W., 65, 66. 
 Humble-bees, 249. 
 Humboldt, 84, 167-8. 
 Hydrogen, 76, 135. 
 Hyperboloids, 173, 175. 
 Hypnotism, 239 et seq. 
 Huggins, Dr., 147, 155. 
 
 I. 
 Imago, 257. 
 Instinct, 72, 259. 
 Insects, 72, 239. 
 
 J- 
 James, Prof., 125. 
 Jesus, 65, 68. 
 Joule, 39. 
 
 K. 
 Kant, II, 42, 60, 67. 
 Kirschoff, 55. 
 Kolrauch, 55. 
 
 L. 
 Laughing Gas, 136. 
 Laer, 80. 
 Lambert, 141. 
 Ladd, 121, 126. 
 Langley, 139, 148. 
 Larvae, 254. 
 Leibnitz, 42, 51. 
 Lambert, 141. 
 Leucippus, 58. 
 Light, 92, 97 et seq. 
 Lepidoptera, 254 et seq. 
 Light without Heat, 182. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Lucretius, 59. 
 Lockyear, 148. 
 Lodge, Dr., 187. 
 Love, 201. 
 Life Changes, 194. 
 Lodestone, 47, 78-9, 150. 
 Lotze, 69. 
 
 Lost Articles Returned, 229 
 et seg. 
 
 M. 
 Magnetism, Compressible, 
 
 36, 38, 90. 
 Magnetism, Animal, 105 et 
 
 seq., 197. 
 Magnetism, Transcendental, 
 
 57. 70- 
 Magnetism, 24, 43, 47, 90, 
 
 198. 
 Magnetism, 22 et seq. 
 Magnets, Power of Large and 
 
 Small, 262. 
 Magnetic Poles, 168. 
 Magnetic Men and Women, 
 
 200. 
 Matter, 10, 64,68, 180 etseq. 
 Matter, Transcendental, 180 
 
 et seq. 
 Marcus Aurelius, 10. 
 Martyrs, 201. 
 Magnesphere, 193. 
 Magellanic Clouds, I5S> 'S^- 
 Milky Way, 60, 62, 273. 
 Mental Conversatioii, 215. 
 Mental Questions and An- 
 swers, 215. 
 Mind Reading, 215. 
 Maxwell, 17, 91. 
 Magendie, 121. " 
 Mayer, 86, 87. 
 
 Music, Piano and Harp, 218. 
 Music, Piano Beating Time, 
 
 215. 
 Motion, 19, 74, Rotary, 63, 
 
 64. 
 Muscular Action, ig8 
 Miiller, 28. 
 
 N. 
 Nappes, 170, 174. 
 Natural Forces, 267. 
 Nebulie, 141, 143. 
 Nebular Conglomeration, 63. 
 Nerves, 124, 126, 128. 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, 52, 67,73. 
 Newcomb, Prof., 6, 141. 
 Nitrogen, 135, 184, 185. 
 Nordenskjold, 146. 
 
 O. 
 Ocular Spectrum, 235. 
 Odors, 81. 
 Oersted, 26. 
 Omniverse, 193, 271. 
 Ova, 254. 
 Oxygen, 76, 80, 91, 137. 
 
 P. 
 Pain, 128. 
 
 Perpetual Motion, 177, 189. 
 Pineal Gland, 116 et seq. 
 Physical and Psychic Force, 
 
 198. 
 Pigeons, 241. 
 Piano, Beating Time, 219. 
 Place-sense of Animals, 240 
 
 et seq. 
 Plants, 28, 78-9. 
 Planchette, 221. 
 Planetary Systems, 13. 
 Planets and Spheres, Life in 
 
 them, 193. 
 Pliicker, 50. 
 Poles, Magnetic, 168. 
 Personal Experience, 233. 
 Prayer Answered, 183. 
 Procreation, 201. 
 Prenatal Impressions, 202. 
 Presentiment, 209. 
 Preexperience, 207, 209. 
 Primordial Matter, 65. 
 
 Quam, 115, 121. 
 
 R. 
 
 Radiant Heat, 40, 181. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Radiant Light, 184. 
 Radiant Matter, 40, 186. 
 Raven, 81. 
 Ribot, 198. 
 Reminiscence, 197. 
 Reappearance of Lost Arti- 
 cles, 229 et seq. 
 Reason, 72, 81. 
 Rheotem. 
 
 Ross, Sir James, 167. 
 Rotary Motion, 63-4. 
 
 S. 
 Sachs, 32. 
 Saviour, 68. 
 Secchi, Father, 142, 164, 
 
 173, 194, 270. 
 Selective Faculty, 259. 
 Sinews, 124. 
 Sirius, Light of, 195. 
 Schelling, 149. 
 Solar Light, 55. 
 Seeds, 203, 205. 
 Soul, 112. 
 Southern Hemisphere, 166 
 
 et seq. 
 Smell, Sense of, 80, 84, 240. 
 Spectrum of Gas Flame, 149 
 
 et seq. 
 Spiritual Transformations, 
 
 194. 
 Spiritual Force, 262. 
 Semi-spiritual Substance, 64. 
 Spirit, 71, 187, 223, 262. 
 Space, Centre of all, 192. 
 Space, Extra Stellar, 73, 189. 
 Spiders, 249, et seq. 
 Solar Systems, 188. 
 Space, 9, 13, 178. 
 Spiritism, 187, Systematic 
 
 Investigation, 215. 
 Subtle Force, 229. 
 Shell Life, 258. 
 Stellar Distances, 270. 
 Stellar Systems, 13, 72, 140 
 
 et seq., 189. 
 
 Stars, 60, 156-7, Star-dust, 
 
 173. 176. 
 Spheres, Celestial, Life in 
 
 them, 194. 
 Swedenborg, 59, 67, 167. 
 Sun, 161. 
 
 T. 
 
 Telepathy, 183. 
 
 Tesla, 182. 
 
 Tait, 26. 
 
 Time, 9. 
 
 Thomson, Sir William, 18, 
 36. 
 
 Thalen, 55. 
 
 Thrills, 233, 236. 
 
 Thought Transference, 215. 
 
 Tissues, 200. 
 
 Touch, Sense of, 83-4. 
 
 Trance, Speaking and Writ- 
 ing, 215. 
 
 Tides, 54. 
 
 Trees, 29. 
 
 U. 
 Universal Force, 36. 
 Universe, 70, 30, 32. 
 Universes, 193. 
 
 V. 
 Vacua, 36 et seq., 53. 
 Vision, 23s, 239, 240, 247. 
 
 W. 
 Water, 138. 
 Wartman, 203. 
 Winchell, Prof. Alexander, 
 
 63, 145, 147. 
 Winslow, 114. 
 World Systems, 57, 61, 74. 
 World-stuff, 64, 71, 72. 
 Wright, T. F., 59. 
 
 Y. 
 Young, Dr. Thomas, 49. 
 
 Z. 
 Zantedeshi, 134.