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Persons of this cast of mind find no difficulty in holding that atoms are absolutely inert, and at the same time asserting that these atoms are perfectly elastic; or in maintaining that the physical universe, in its last analysis, resolves itself into 'dead' matter and motion, and yet denying that all physical energy is in reality kinetic; or in proclaiming that all phenomenal differences in the objective world are ultimately due to the various motions of absolutely simple material units, and, nevertheless, repudiating the proposition that these units are equal" . . . . (p. xix.) "The blindness of eminent physicists to some of the most obvious consequences of their own theories is marvellous . . . . When Prof. Tait, in conjunction with Prof. Stewart, announces that 'matter is simply passive' ( The Unseen Universe , sec. 104), and then, in connection with Sir W. Thomson, declares that 'matter has an innate power of resisting external influences' ( Treat. on Nat. Phil. , Vol. I., sec. 216), it is hardly impertinent to inquire how these statements are to be reconciled. When Prof. Du Bois Reymond . . . . insists upon the necessity of reducing all the processes of nature to motions of a substantial, indifferent substratum, wholly destitute of quality (' Ueber die Grenzen des Naturerkennens ,' p. 5), having declared shortly before in the same lecture that 'resolution of all changes in the material world into motions of atoms caused by their constant central forces would be the completion of natural science,' we are in a perplexity from which we have to be relieved." (Pref. xliii.) [[Vol. 1, Page]] 486 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. is claimed to be a modification and refinement of the idea of Lucretius. Let us then examine the modern concept from several scientific volumes containing the admissions of the physicists themselves. The existence of Ether is accepted by physical astronomy, in ordinary physics, and in chemistry. Astronomers, who first began by regarding it as a fluid of extreme tenuity and mobility, offering no sensible resistance to the motions of celestial bodies, never gave a thought to its continuity or discontinuity. "Its main function in modern astronomy has been to serve as a basis for hydrodynamical theories of gravitation. In physics this fluid appeared for some time in several roles in connection with the 'imponderables'" -- so cruelly put to death by Sir W. Grove. Some physicists have even identified the ether of space with those "imponderables." Then came their Kinetic theories; and from the date of the dynamical theory of heat, it was chosen in optics as a substratum for luminous undulations. Then, in order to explain the dispersion and polarization of light, physicists had to resort once more to their "scientific imagination" and forthwith endowed the Ether with ( a ) atomic or molecular structure, and ( b ) with an enormous elasticity, "so that its resistance to deformation far exceeded that of the most rigid elastic bodies" ( Stallo ) . This necessitated the theory of the essential discontinuity of matter , hence of Ether. After having accepted this discontinuity, in order to account for dispersion and polarization, theoretical impossibilities were discovered with regard to such dispersions. Cauchy's "scientific imagination" saw in atoms "material points without extension," and he proposed, in order to obviate the most formidable obstacles to the undulatory theory (namely, some well-known mechanical theorems which stood in the way), to assume that the ethereal medium of propagation, instead of being continuous, should consist of particles separated by sensible distances. Fresnel rendered the same service to the phenomena of polarization. E. B. Hunt upset the theories of both ( Silliman ' s Journal , vol. viii., p. 364 et seq. ) There are now men of Science who proclaim them "materially fallacious," while others -- the "atomo-mechanicalists" -- cling to to them with desperate tenacity. The supposition of an atomic or molecular constitution of ether is upset, moreover, by thermodynamics, for Clerk Maxwell showed that such a medium would be simply gas.* The hypothesis of "finite intervals" is thus proven of no avail as a supplement to the undulatory theory. Besides, eclipses fail to reveal any such variation of colour as supposed by Cauchy (on the assumption that the chromatic rays are propagated with different velocities). [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- *See Clerk Maxwell's "Treatise on Electricity of Magnetism" and compare with Cauchy's " Memoire sur la Dispersion de la lumiere. " [[Vol. 1, Page]] 487 SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION. Astronomy has pointed out more than one phenomenon absolutely at variance with this doctrine. Thus, while in one department of physics the atomo-molecular constitution of the ether is accepted in order to account for one set of special phenomena, in another department such a constitution is found quite subversive of a number of well-ascertained facts, Hirn's charges being thus justified ( vide supra ) . Chemistry deemed it impossible to concede enormous elasticity to the ether without depriving it of other properties, upon the assumption of which the construction of its modern theories depended. This ended in a final transformation of ether. The exigencies of the atomo-mechanical theory have led distinguished mathematicians and physicists to attempt to substitute for the traditional atoms of matter, peculiar forms of vortical motion in a "universal homogeneous, incompressible, and continuous material medium," or AEther. ( See Stallo. ) The present writer, claiming no great scientific education, but only a tolerable acquaintance with modern theories, and a better one with Occult Sciences, picks up weapons against the detractors of the esoteric teaching in the very arsenal of modern Science. The glaring contradictions, the mutually-destructive hypotheses of world-renowned Scientists, their mutual accusations, denunciations and disputes, show plainly that, whether accepted or not, the Occult theories have as much right to a hearing as any of the so-called learned and academical hypotheses. Thus whether the followers of the Royal Society choose to accept ether as a continuous or a discontinuous fluid matters little, and is indifferent to the present purpose. It simply points to one certainty: Official Science knows nothing to this day of the constitution of ether. Let Science call it matter, if it likes; only neither as akasa nor as the one sacred AEther of the Greeks, is it to be found in any of the states of matter known to modern physics. It is MATTER on quite another plane of perception and being, and it can neither be analyzed by scientific apparatus, appreciated, nor even conceived by "scientific imagination," unless the possessors thereof study the Occult Sciences. That which follows proves this statement. It is clearly demonstrated by Stallo as regards the crucial problems of modern physics (as was done by De Quatrefages and several others in those of anthropology, biology, etc., etc.) that, in their efforts to support their individual hypotheses and systems, the majority of the eminent and learned materialists very often utter the greatest fallacies. Let us take the following case.