Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/255

 or electro-magnets. They differ in their character according to the efficacy of the agency that disturbs the normal condition of the electrical ether, and calls it into action. While they are forms of the activity of the same substance, it would not be contended that the activity is not of somewhat different character in each: that of frictional electricity is the least free and therefore the weakest; that of chemical origin is more free and stronger; and that generated by the dynamo is the most free and the most powerful. Phosphorescent light is due to electrical disturbance caused by the nature of phosphorus.

Magnetism is only another form of the activity of ether, whether it be in the artificial magnet or in the natural ore. The natural magnet derives its character from the metal being of such a nature as in a degree to receive and to transmit as from itself the general current of electricity that permeates the earth. The magnet derives its forces from the ether perpetually. The forces of the artificial magnet are due to conditions similar to those of the natural magnet being produced in the steel by artificial methods.

Whatever phenomenal properties ponderable or imponderable matter, whether discovered or