Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/139

 convertible into it, is the next or second discrete degree of material substance.

That there is such a substance as ether is conceded by all scientists, for the explanation of the phenomenon of light necessitates the existence of a universally diffused medium whose activity produces light. Consequently the existence of such a substantial medium need not be further discussed.

That electricity originates in the same element that light does, and is consequently only another manifestation of ether, is quite evident from the fact that heat and light can be electrically produced similar to that produced by the activity of ether. That light and electricity have their origin in a common medium is experimentally evident from Maxwell's demonstration that the velocities of the propagation of light are substantially the same as of electro-magnetic induction. Science now concedes that electrical activity is the origin of heat and light from the sun.

Of a still higher order than ether is that substance called aura, whereof is the force of gravity that no atom escapes, and that binds all things together in their natural relation, and gives grosser matter its so-called inherent or innate properties according to its form. The aura so