In 1885, before Keely's scientific explorations had taught him that

no engine can ever be constructed by which the ether can be used and

controlled, as we now use and control steam, he wrote, in a letter to a

friend, "I shall not forestall an unproved conclusion, but fight step

by step the dark paths I am exploring, knowing that, should I succeed

in proving one single fact in science heretofore unknown, I shall in

so doing be rewarded in the highest degree. In whatever direction the

human mind travels it comes quickly to a boundary line which it cannot

pass. There is a knowable field of research, bordered by an unknown

tract. My experience teaches me how narrow is the strip of territory

which belongs to the knowable, how very small the portion that has

been traversed and taken possession of. The further we traverse this

unknown territory, the stronger will become our faith in the immovable

order of the world; for, at each advancing step, we find fresh fruits

of the immutable laws that reign over all things,--from the falling

apple, up to the thoughts, the words, the deeds, the will of man:

and we find these laws irreversible and eternal, order and method

reigning throughout the universe. Some details of this universal method

have been worked up, and we know them by the names of 'gravitation,'

'chemical affinity,' 'nerve-power,' &c. These material certainties are

as sacred as moral certainties.... The nearest approach to a certainty

is made through harmony with nature's laws. The surest media are

those which nature has laid out in her wonderful workings. The man

who deviates from these paths will suffer the penalty of a defeat,

as is seen in the record of 'perpetual motion' seekers. I have been

classed with such dreamers; but I find consolation in the thought

that it is only by those men who are utterly ignorant of the great

and marvellous truths which I have devoted my life to demonstrate

and to bring within reach of all. I believe the time is near at

hand when the principles of etheric evolution will be established,

and when the world will be eager to recognize and accept a system

that will certainly create a revolution for the highest benefits

of mankind, inaugurating an era undreamed of by those who are now

ignorant of the existence of this etheric force." These views which

have guided Keely in all his researches cannot be made known to any

just, discerning mind without an accompanying perception of the gross

way in which he has been misrepresented by his defamers; as well as

some appreciation of the scientifically cautious manner in which he

has pursued his investigations, since he abandoned his efforts to

construct an engine that would hold the ether in rotation.

At the present time Keely is concentrating his efforts on the

perfecting of his mechanical conditions to that point where, according

to his theories, he will be able to establish, on the ninths, a

sympathetic affinity with pure, polar, negative attraction, minus

magnetism. In his own opinion he has so nearly gained the summit,

or completion of his "graduation," as to feel that he holds the key

to the control of the infinitely tenuous conditions which lie before

him to be conquered, before he gains mastery of the group of depolar

disks that he is now working upon. Twenty-six groups are completed,

and when the twenty-seventh and last group is under equal control,

Keely expects to establish a circuit of vibratory force, for running

machinery: both for aerial navigation and for terrestrial use. If

this result be obtained, Keely will then be in a position to give his

system to science; and to demonstrate the ever-operative immanence of

the Infinite builder of all things of whom our Lord said, "My Father

worketh hitherto, and I work."

In commercial use Keely expects that when the motion has been once

set up, in any of his machines, it will continue until the material

is worn out. It is this claim which has caused Keely to be classed

with perpetual-motion seekers.

For years Keely has been trying to utilize his discoveries for

the material and moral advantage of humanity: and yet he feels,

as Buckle has said of the present acquirements of science, that the

ground only is broken, that the crust only is touched. The loftiest

pinnacle which has been reached by the men who are foremost in their

constructions of the method by which the one source of all energy works

in the material world, is too insignificant a position to obtain

even an outlook towards the vast realm that Keely figuratively

describes as the infinite brain; or the source from which all

"sympathetic-leads" emanate, that connect mind with matter. Realizing

that all conditions of matter are but as vain illusions, he never

falters in his determination to reach after the hidden things of God,

if haply he may find them. Even the goal which he seeks to attain

lies, in his own estimation, on the outermost border of this crust;

and well he knows that it never can be reached in any other way than

by principles of exact science and by pursuing a path that is at all

times lighted by reason.

Believing that "the horizon of the world of matter, which has been

thought to rest over hydrogen, extends to infinite reaches, including

substances which have never been revealed to the senses," he knows how

unfathomable is the ocean that lies beyond, and like Newton compares

himself to one who is gathering pebbles on its shore.

Science, which has ever been interested both in the infinitely small

and infinitely great, has in our age dropped the only clue that can

guide through the obscure labyrinth which leads into depths of nature

lying beyond the knowledge of our unaided senses.

The evolution of the human race, says Nesbit, has passed from the

physiological into the psychological field; and it is in the latter

alone that progress may be looked for.

This is the realm into which Keely's efforts, to give to the world

a costless motive power, have slowly conducted him through the black

darkness of the region in which he has been fighting his way, for a

score of years, in behalf of true science and humanity.

Lord Derby has said that modern science, on its popular side, is

really a great factory of popular fallacies; that its expounders in

one decade are kept busy refuting the errors to which the preceding

decade has given currency. There is hardly a branch of science, he

says, susceptible of general and wide-reaching conclusions, which

might not be revolutionized by some discovery to-morrow.

If Keely is able to establish his theories, physical science will have

to abandon the positions to which she clings, and forced to admit that

there exists a purity of conditions in Vibratory Physics unknown in

mechanical physics, undreamed of even in philosophy; for he will then

be in a position to demonstrate the outflow of the Infinite mind as

sympathetically associated with matter visible and invisible.

Of this philosophy Professor Daniel G. Brinton has said, "It is

so simple, beautiful and comprehensive in its vibratory theory

that I hope it will be found experimentally to be true. To me all

commercial and practical results, motors, air-ships, engines, are of no

importance by the side of the theoretical truth of the demonstrations

of this cosmic force. As soon as Dr. Koenig is prepared to report

on the purely technical and physical character of the experiments,

I shall be, in fact I am, ready to go into full details as to their

significance in reference to both matter and mind. It will be enough

for me if Dr. Koenig is able to say that the force handled by Keely

is not gravity, electricity, magnetism, compressed air, nor other

of the well-known forces. Let him say that, and I will undertake

to say what the force is." Tests were made last year by Dr. Koenig

and Dr. Tuttle, a Baltimore physicist, in the presence of other men

of science with the most sensitive galvanometer belonging to the

University of Pennsylvania, all of whom were satisfied that no known

force had been detected.

The abstract of Keely's philosophy, written by Dr. Brinton, has made

Keely's theories intelligible for the first time. Each new discovery

necessitates a new vocabulary; and Keely's writings are obscure

because of his new nomenclature. When Faraday's ideas differed from

those held by the authorities of his time, they were pronounced to

be "untranslatable into scientific language;" and as was then said

of Faraday, so can it now be said of Keely, with equal truth, that,

working at the very boundaries of our knowledge, his mind habitually

dwells "in the boundless contiguity of shade" by which that knowledge

is surrounded.

The brain of an Aristotle was needed to discern and grasp Keely's

meaning, to interpret and define it. Dr. Brinton never touches a

subject without throwing light upon it, and his penetrating mind

perceived the ideas to be defined in all their relations. His keen

logical acumen separated and classified them in their order, in a true,

sound, and scientific manner. In the words of Sir James Crichton

Browne, who heard Professor Brinton read this abstract in London,

"Professor Brinton's synopsis is an able, lucid and logical paper."

Now that such distinguished men are interesting themselves in

Keely's discoveries, there is no longer any danger of their being

lost to science; nor to commerce, if his life is spared. The action

of Dr. Pepper (Provost of the University of Pennsylvania) in January,

1891, gave Keely all the protection that he then needed in order to

continue his researches up to the completion of his system.

Professor Dewar of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, whose

Cambridge duties prevented him from keeping the engagement made for

him to visit Mr. Keely's workshop in December, 1891, is now compelled

to wait, until notified that Keely is in a position to demonstrate

his theories, as it is desirable that he should not be interrupted

in the critical work that is at present engrossing him, at times

eighteen hours out of the twenty-four. But although Keely has not

instructed anyone in his method of disintegrating water, to obtain

the ether, which he uses as the medium of the polar force, he does

not withhold the principle by which he obtains it. Sir John Herschell

said, "There is a principle in the science of music that has yet to be

discovered." Pythagoras taught that the principle which underlies the

harmonies of music, underlies the motion of the heavenly bodies. It is

this principle which Keely has discovered; but until he has utilized

it in mechanics, he has nothing more to sell than Sir Isaac Newton

had when he discovered gravity, as Professor Fitzgerald has said.

Discovery and invention are walking side by side in our age, the

glorious scientific age of the world. Never before have they so

linked themselves together, working for humanity; and it is but

natural that those savants who have seen no demonstrations of the

force Keely is handling should regard with apathy claims, which,

if established, would sweep away like chaff before a whirlwind,

some of the canons of their schools. In fact, this apathy is a

great improvement upon the active persecution of the learned men

who hurried Copernicus and Galileo to prison, and established the

Inquisition to deal with heretics in science as well as heretics in

religion. Commerce rushed Keely into a dungeon; science looking on

in approval; notwithstanding that conjectures of the most celebrated

modern member of its school supported Keely's teachings. Galileo

was brought before the Inquisition; the tribunal pronounced him a

deluded teacher and a lying heretic. They intended to subject him to

the severest torture and death. Galileo was old, and felt that he

could not endure such a terrible death. He knelt on the crucifix,

with one hand on the Bible, and renounced all. When he arose,

however, it is reported that he whispered to one of the attendants,

"The earth does move for all that." Sir Isaac Newton has written of

the possibility of discovering unknown forms of energy, in Nature,

in these strong words: "For it is well known that bodies act upon one

another by the attractions of gravity, magnetism and electricity,

and these instances show the tenor and course of nature and make

it not improbable that there may be more powers of attraction than

these. For Nature is very consonant and conformable to herself."

All progress of whatever kind would be put back, if it were in the

power of bigots to arrest its triumphal march, as they have done in

the past, but the evolution of the human race remains in the hands

of the Infinite One, who never fails to open up new paths when the

farther development of humanity requires it. All systems may be said

to have descended from previous ones. "The ideas of one generation

are the mysterious progenitors of those in the next. Each age is the

dawn of its successor; and in the eternal advance of truth,

'There always is a rising sun,

The day is ever but begun.'"

Religious and scientific reformation have always gone hand in hand,

says Dr. Lowber. In fact, religious science is superior to any

other science. As Christianity is the pure religion which contains

the truth of all the rest, so it is the highest of the sciences,

for it represents the development of the highest faculty of the

human nature. Religion develops manhood as nothing else will, and

Christianity represents the highest culture to which it is possible

for man to attain....

The system, now being evolved and worked out to demonstration by Keely,

restores, by religious science, the faith of which materialistic

science has been robbing the world, thus confirming Dr. Lowber's

assertions that materialists will never be able to reduce all natural

and spiritual forces to mere vibratory action of matter; and that

the reformatory movement in philosophy, which characterizes our age,

will continue until all the sciences point to God and immortality.

A writer in Galignani's Messenger, March 2, 1892, says: "When the

nineteenth century closes, the most marvellous period ever known to

man will be stored away in Time's granary. Can the twentieth century

by any possibility be more productive, more fertile, more prolific of

wonders than its predecessor? The face of the world has been changed;

space has been annihilated; science puts 'a girdle round about the

earth in forty minutes.' We may be almost excused if we are tempted

to believe that the serpent's promise is fulfilled in our persons, and

we are as gods. Alas for human complacency! Perhaps our descendants a

thousand years hence will look upon us as pigmies. Be that as it may,

the past and the present are ours, with their achievement, and we

believe we shall hand down to posterity a goodly heritage."

The New York Home Journal, of the week before Christmas, 1892,

points out, in its leader, the road on which this advance in the

cause of humanity may be made. The writer, Mr. Howard Hinton, says:

"The spirit of the salutation, 'A Merry Christmas,' lies in the desire

that peace and goodwill shall reign among men, nor, if we may trust

the intimations of the latest science, will this universality of good

wishing be without avail in effecting its own accomplishment. For, as

we are told by the wise men of science, every thought, every mental

impulse of ours, sets in motion, in that realm of ether which it

is said interfuses all coarser forms of matter, certain vibrations,

corresponding in force to their cause, which have power to communicate

themselves to other minds favourably conditioned to receive them,

and so excite in them like thoughts and impulses.

"And are not common observation and individual experience in accord

with this suggestion of science? Do we not say at times that a

certain thought is in the air, revealing itself contemporaneously

to many widely separated minds without any recognizable means of

communication? And do we not sometimes find a noble, or it may be an

ignoble, impulse breaking out in a community with a suddenness and

universality that would seem to transcend all the ordinary forms of

the contact of mind with mind? Perhaps, too, this theory of vibratory

communication through an ethereal medium may explain, in part at least,

that 'Welt-Geist,' that 'Spirit of the Age,' of which the philosophers

discourse so bravely.

"Again, there are times--if the experiences and observations of

sensitive minds have any worth--when a general spirit of expectancy

seems to be awakened, as if the world were on the eve of some new

and epoch-making revelation of science, or some new enthusiasm of

regenerative impulse. Are we not now, at this hour, in this mood

of silent expectancy, thrilled with an indefinable awe of what the

brooding life of the world is maturing for the sons of men?--sensitive,

perhaps, to ethereal vibrations that have not yet accumulated force

for expression in conscious thought or for the definite determination

of our hearts' desires?

"This may be fanciful. It may be simply that we are beginning to

perceive that physical science has reached a stage of development

when some new and more central truth, some profounder generalization,

is needed to give further impulse to its essential progress. It may

be that we are becoming aware that the conditions of society are

such that some new unifying motive, some new enthusiasm of humanity

is needed for its salvation; and that therefore we wait in expectancy

for what--knowing that there can be no let nor hindrance in the onward

movement of life--we feel in our hearts must come.

"And yet does not this sense of expectancy seem to communicate itself

from mind to mind by some other means than that of oral or written

expression, and to touch with more or less force even minds that are

free from these intellectual anticipations? Are there not certain

intellects at the fore-front of the world's progress, and certain

hearts filled above the ordinary measure with the love of mankind,

who are thus centres of power, from whom spread ever widening

circles of vibratory emanations that gradually involve all minds in

a common thought and all hearts in a common purpose? 'Many men of

many minds.' Yes, truly; but there is the one mind of humanity that

thinks and thinks, and alone has the power to externalize its thought

as part of the world's history, while all purely individual thought

is blown finally into the abyss of the Absolute Nothing.

"But it is not only the great souls that thus move and shape the

world. We are all, in various degrees, centres and distributors

of the ethereal force, so far as we are in touch with its waves of

vibration. We can all make our thoughts, if they are one with the

thought of humanity, and our desires, if they are one with the heart

of humanity, felt by our fellows in extending circles of effluence

till finally the very clods of human kind know the stirrings of a

new life and wake to the higher reality as from a dream.

"And if individually we can thus set in movement this ethereal medium,

how must not this movement be quickened and extended when collectively

we give utterance to some great thought and heart's desire, announcing

it in song and prayer and merry-making. Hence the use and potency of

the great festivals, the best and sweetest of which is the Christmas

festival that we are now about to celebrate--the Evening Star of the

year that is passing, the Morning Star of the new."

CHAPTER XXI.

FAITH BY SCIENCE: THE DAWN OF A NEW ORDER OF THINGS.

"All for each and each for all."

God will take account of the selfishness of wealth, and His

quarrel has yet to be fought out.--Rev. F. Robertson.

All the great things of time have been done by single men, from

Judas Maccabeus down to Cromwell. We hear the age spoken of as

degenerative because of the vast accumulations of wealth. But

wealth may be a power for beneficence, as great brains may be,

and we have no more reason for regretting large fortunes than

large heads. No doubt to secure a perfect equality of all

people we need small heads, and small heads or empty heads

go with empty purses. By no other means can you level us. So

also by wealth the world has been moved, and will continue

to be moved. Can we consecrate money power to humanity, as

we do mind power? We do not see why not. And in our judgment

anyone who does not feel the change that is going on must

be blind. It is not legislation that will produce a moral

revolution, but a new enthusiasm. The future holds for us

a grand enthusiasm of this sort--a moralization of property

and possession.--Social Science in Science Siftings.

A wave of unrest seems to be passing over the world. Uneasiness

prevails on every side. We walk gingerly as though on the

edge of a precipice. Discontent is spreading everywhere. The

struggle between capital and labour threatens to reach

unheard-of proportions.... What is the meaning of the general

restlessness? What are its causes? Is the world growing old

and effete? Is the human race worn out? Is this generation

incapable of the great achievements of the past? Does its

materialism clog its powers and prevent its progress? Is

the world going wrong for want of an ideal? A people which

does not believe in its lofty mission will never accomplish

it. Science has made gigantic strides in our days; but have

its discoveries added much to the sum of human happiness? It

has contributed to our material comfort in various ways, but

it has not done much for the federation of the world. The

great growth of luxury is not a good, but an evil, if it

rob us of our belief in our great destiny and if it weaken

our endeavour. If "the time is out of joint," is it not

possible that worship of wealth is responsible for it? "He

who makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent." Ours is

emphatically the age in which men "make haste to be rich,"

without much regard to the means. Capital has profited unduly

at the expense of labour; employers have attained to fortune

too quickly for the welfare of the employed. Commerce has

forsaken the path of safety to indulge in rash and reckless

speculation. Businesses have been converted into companies

more for the benefit of vendors and financial houses than for

the public. Company promotion has been carried to reckless

lengths, and schemes for getting rich rapidly--schemes of

the South Sea bubble order--have multiplied in every part

of the civilized world. The Nemesis has come in the shape

of restlessness, discontent, paralysis of trade, strikes,

disorganization of finance, demoralization of Bourses, and

general insecurity. It is a fact proved countless times in

history that whenever a national need is felt, a man is raised

up to supply the want.--Galignani's Messenger.

The first seal is being broken in the book of vibratory

philosophy; the first stepping-stone is placed toward

reaching the solution of that infinite problem, the origin

of life.--John Ernst Worrell Keely, 1890.

The seals are opened, as it were, under the sign Leo--as

believing that such an age is coming on in which prophecy may

be fulfilled that the earth be filled with the knowledge of

the Lord, which shall cover it with wisdom and understanding

in the deep mysteries of God.--Jane Lead, 1699.

Evils bear in themselves the causes of their own

extirpation. Providence is bringing the old order of things

to a close in order to provide place for something better

and higher.--Julian Hawthorne.

Professor Rowland, in his paper on the "Spectra of Metals," which

he read at Leeds, says that the object of his research is primarily

to find out what sort of things molecules are, and in what way they

vibrate. The primary object of Mr. Keely's researches has been to find

out all that he could about the laws that control vibrations, and on

this line of research he made his discoveries, as to "what sort of

things molecules and atoms are, and in what way they vibrate." One of

the editors of the Times, in London, in January, 1891, wrote out this

question for Keely to answer:--"What impulse led you primarily into the

research of acoustic physics?" Keely replied, "An impulse associated

sympathetically with my mental organism from birth, seemingly, as

I was acutely sensible of it in my childhood. Before I had reached

my tenth year, researching in the realm of acoustic physics had a

perfect fascination for me; my whole organism seemed attuned as if

it were a harp of a thousand strings; set for the reception of all

the conditions associated with sound force as a controlling medium,

positive and negative; and with an intensity of enjoyment not to be

described. From that time to the present, I have been absorbed in this

research, and it has opened up to me the laws that govern the higher

workings of nature's sympathetic, hidden forces; leading me gradually

on to the solution of the problem relating to the conditions that

exist between the celestial and terrestrial outreaches, viz., polar

negative attraction." Another question asked by the same editor:

"What is the main difficulty to be overcome before completing the

system for commercial benefit?" Answer: "The principal difficulty

rests in equating the thirds of the thirds of the transmitters (i.e.,

the gold, silver, and platina sections, of which the transmitting

wires are composed) to free them of molecular differentiation. The

full control of this force can never be accomplished, until pure

molecular equation is established between the nodal interferences

(that result in their manufacture) and the chord mass of their

sectional parts. When this has been done, the chasm between the

alternation of the polar forces, which now exists, preventing the

inducing of polar and depolar conditions, will be bridged over and

commercial benefits at once established as the result. The devices

for inducing these conditions, primarily, are perfect: but the pure,

connective link on transmission has to be equated, before continued

mechanical rotation and reversion can be attained."

As has already been said, Keely's researches have all been on the

line of vibrations; and it was while pursuing them that he "stumbled

over," to use his own words, the inter-atomic subdivision of the

molecule, which released the Geni that for years thereafter was his

master. Keely's attention not having been turned to molecules and

atoms, he was not able, in the earliest years of his discovery of

the existence of a "force of nature more powerful and more general

even than electricity," to form any opinion as to the origin of the

force. He was as one who, in the thick darkness of an underground

labyrinth, found himself face to face with a giant, whose form even he

could not see to lay hold of in a death grapple; but when a germ of

the knowledge that he needed fell on his mind, he was quick to seize

it, and the acorn grew into an oak. Here again, to use his own words:

"I was as a boulder resting on the summit of a mountain, until an

introductory impulse was given to start it on its course; then rushing

onwards and carrying all before it, when the goal is reached its

concussion will produce the crash that will awaken a sleeping world."

Priestley proclaimed it as his belief that all discoveries are made by

chance; but Providence sends chance, and the man of genius is he who is

able to improve all opportunities and mould them to his own ends. In a

discovery, says Edison, there must be an element of the accidental,

and an important one too; discovery is an inspiration, while an

invention is purely deductive. The story of the apple dropping from

the tree, and Newton starting with a species of "Eureka," he rejects

absolutely. Maintaining that an abstract idea or a natural law may,

in one sense, be invented, he gives it as his opinion that Newton did

not discover the theory of gravitation, but invented it; and that he

might have been at work on the problem for years, inventing theory

after theory, to which he found it impossible to fit his facts. That

Keely claims to have discovered an unknown source of energy has not

seemed to disturb the equilibriums of some of the men of science who

have witnessed the demonstrations of the force, as much as that he

should have invented theories in regard to the operation of the laws

that control it. For a man who had lived more than half a century

without troubling himself as to the existence of molecules and atoms

to suddenly awaken to the knowledge of their existence, and to invent

theories as to "what sort of things they are and how they vibrate,"

was sufficient proof, in their eyes, that he invented his discovery;

but men who are, in thought, reaching out into unknown realms, are

the very men who are most likely to lay hold of a discovery;--as did

Bell, who, speculating upon the nature of sound, filed an invention

for his telephone before he discovered that articulate speech could be

conveyed along a wire. It was in the same way that Keely, speculating

upon the nature of vibration, was led into the field of invention; and

while experimenting with one of his inventions, he suddenly stepped

into that great unknown territory which lies beyond the horizon of

ordinary matter. It took him nearly a score of years to find out where

he was. Years of experiment followed before he was able to summon

the Geni at will; for when his lever first registered a pressure

of 2000 lbs., while subjecting water to the action of multiplied

vibrations, he had no idea how to proceed, as far as the number of

vibrations were concerned, to repeat the operation. Commencing at

a certain point, he increased the vibrations day by day until, six

years later, he was able to effect the dissociation at will. But at

that time Mr. Keely had too much mechanical work to do to give any

of his time to theorizing. He was in the clutches of a speculating

Keely Motor Company, whose cry was, "Give us an engine!" and day

and night this toiler fought his way in the underground labyrinth,

thinking only of a commercial engine. It was not until Macvicar's

"Sketch of a Philosophy" fell into Mr. Keely's hands that he realized

he had imprisoned the ether. This was in 1884, and, four years later,

in 1888, Professor Hertz of Bonn announced that we were using the

ether, without knowing it, in all electro-magnetic engines. By this

time Keely's researches in vibratory physics had led him well on

his way in the construction of hypotheses as to "what sort of things

molecules are, and in what way they vibrate." An hypothesis treats

a supposed thing as an existing thing, for the purpose of proving,

by experimental demonstration, whether the supposition is correct

or not. At a critical juncture, Mrs. J. F. Hughes (a grand-niece of

Charles Darwin), hearing of Keely's researches, became interested in

his work; and her book on "The Evolution of Tones and Colours" was

sent to Mr. Keely. An expression used by Mrs. Hughes in that work,

brought a suggestion to Mr. Keely. The veil of darkness was rent

asunder which had enveloped him in what he called "Egyptian blackness,"

and from that time he worked no longer in the dark.

Pythagoras taught that the same law which underlies harmonies underlies

the motion of the heavenly bodies, or, as Mrs. Hughes has expressed it,

"The law which develops and controls harmony, develops and controls

the universe." Mr. Keely, nothing daunted by the vast extent, the

stupendous "outreach" of the domain, the boundary line of which he

had thus crossed, concentrated all his energies upon "the situation;"

thinking thereafter, not alone of the interests of commerce as before,

but of the developing of a system, which he could give to science in

the same hour that he should hand over, to those whose thoughts were

only on financial gain, the inventions that our age is demanding,

in the interests of humanity, with the stern voice of the master

necessity; a voice that never fails to make itself heard in "the voice

of the people." Experiment after experiment justified his hypotheses,

and converted them into theories. To keep pace with the wants of

humanity, invention must now walk side by side with philosophy. It took

half a century for the "Principia" of Newton to tread down the contempt

and opposition that its publication met with; and now progressive

knowledge is overshadowing Newton's vast attainments. Faraday, after

discovering electro-magnetic conditions, as related to latent or

hidden energy, did not pursue his researches far enough to establish

a theory as to the mode of transference of magnetic force, though, in

some of his speculations on the line of force, he hit upon truths now

advanced in Keely's theories. The physicists of Faraday's time could

not reach up to him. They complained of his "obscurity of language,"

of his "want of mathematical precision," of his "entertaining notions

regarding matter and force altogether distinct from the views generally

held by men of science." It is not then to be wondered at that modern

physicists took up lines of research more in accordance with their

own views. The experiences of one age are repeated in another age;

and the same charges that were brought against Faraday are now brought

against Keely; coupled with shameful attempts to prove him to be "a

fraud;" a man "living upon the credulity of his victims;" "a modern

Cagliostro;" "an artful pretender." The question is often asked, "Is

he not an ignorant man?" Yes, so ignorant, that he knows how ignorant

he is; so ignorant, that he asserts with Anaxagoras, that intelligent

will is the disposer and cause of everything; and not satisfied with

asserting this great truth, he has devoted the remnant of his days

to finding out and demonstrating how this cause operates throughout

nature. But ignorant as Keely has always confessed himself to be, he

knows more of the mysterious laws of nature which hold the planets

in their courses and exert their dynamic effect upon the tides,

more of the "shock effect" which, brought to bear upon molecules,

causes their disruption and supplies the fine fluid thus liberated,

that extends the "shock effect," as Frederick Major has conjectured, to

the atoms that compose them. Ignorant as Keely is, he knows that "out

of the strife of tremendous forces which is ever going on in nature,

is born a creation of law and harmony;" that from atomic recesses to

the farthest depth there is naught but "toil co-operant to an end,"

that "all these atoms march in time, and that it is no blind cause

which originates and maintains all." Admitting his ignorance, Keely

claims with Dr. Watson that "the many who are compelled to walk should

not scoff at those who try to fly." All who agree in believing that

"the advance of the modern school of natural philosophy affords no

justification for the intolerant and exclusive position taken by

certain physicists," will be ready to examine Keely's theories,

in the light of his demonstrations, even although they have been

stigmatized as fallacies. Science owes large obligations to many

fallacious theories.

Canon Moseley has said that the perfecting of the theory of epicycles

is due to the astrologers of the middle ages; and that but for them the

system of Copernicus would have remained a bare speculation, as did

that of Pythagoras for more than two thousand years. In the same way

that astrology nurtured astronomy, chemistry was cradled by alchemy.

Keely welcomes criticism of his theories, and is able to answer all

who come to him with criticisms in a proper spirit. To quote one of

his own expressions, "as far as a physical truth is concerned I never

throw up the sponge for any one." Of Professor Crookes, Keely wrote

quite recently: "Your friend is wrong in saying that I dabble in

chemical heresies. There must be some misunderstanding on his part,

for I have never asserted that nitrogen is a necessary constituent

of water. I only said that, after a thousand experiments had been

conducted, there was a residual deposit, in one of my tubes, of a

resinous substance that showed nitrogenous elements, which I could

not account for. I consider Professor Crookes one of the greatest of

discoverers, and, when he understands my system, he will be one of

the first to endorse it."

A philosophical journalist says of the force discovered by Keely,

that "it is harder to believe in than either steam or electricity,

because it has no visible manifestation in nature. It does not rise

in white clouds from every boiling kettle, or flash with vivid light

in every thunderstorm. It does not show itself in the fall of every

loosened body to the earth, like gravitation, nor can it be discovered,

like oxygen, by chemical investigation. If it exists at all, it is

in a form entirely passive, giving no hint of its presence until it

is brought out by the patient investigator, as the sculptor's chisel

brings out the beautiful statue from the shapeless mass of marble.

"Working thus entirely in the dark, with an intangible, imponderable,

invisible something whose nature and attributes are all unknown,

and whose characteristics differ essentially from those of any

other known force, what wonder if the inventor's progress is slow

and his disappointments many? Mr. Keely may be deceived, or he may

have discovered an actual force which he is unable to harness; but

the fact that he is very slow in perfecting whatever discovery he

may have made is no proof that he has not made a very great one.

"Far be it from us to say in this age of scientific marvels, that

any proposition whatever is impossible of accomplishment; but while

we wait for Mr. Keely to make his alleged discovery public, before

we become enthusiastic over it, we would not set it down as a fraud

and the reputed discovery as a humbug. It is the nature of inventors

to be enthusiastic and to think that they are on the eve of success

when, in fact, a great deal remains to be done.

"Especially is this the case in the development of a hitherto unknown

force. James Watt had a comparatively straight road to travel from his

mother's tea-kettle to his first steam-engine, but it took him many

years to traverse it. More than a lifetime elapsed after Franklin drew

electricity from a cloud before Morse sent it over a telegraph wire,

and Morse himself worked for years to make it available for business

purposes; while men are still constantly finding new adaptations of the

mysterious force of which that was the first practical application."

But, as Frederick Major has said, "Science at present is too full of

its own erroneous theories to accept or even notice theories outside of

science, until practically proved, and probably not even then unless

they can foist them upon the public as partially their own." These

words are not applicable to all men of science. There are some,

among those most eminent, who, in the spirit of true science, are

quite prepared for other roads to knowledge than those of our three

hundred years old induction school. The late Professor W. K. Clifford,

F.R.S., was one of those men who, in their earnest desire for "truth

at any cost," was ready to advance in every direction open to him. No

"fear of a false step" held him back. He did not belong to the category

of philosophical sceptics whom Dr. Stoney has so well classified as

damping all advance, unless it can be carried on, from the beginning,

under such conditions of perfection as are impossible in the early

stages of every discovery and of almost every inquiry. Professor Stoney

has well described Keely's method of work in these remarks: "In the

scientific method of investigating the validity of our beliefs, we take

our existing beliefs as our starting point, or a careful selection of

those which are fitted to enable us to advance. After the legitimate

consequences of these have been worked out, the inquirer finds himself

in a better position to return and test the validity of the bases on

which he proceeded. After these revisions, and such corrections as

he finds possible, he makes a step of a like kind farther forward:

after which another revision and another advance. Thus real progress

is accomplished. Probabilities acquire strength and accumulate; and

in the end a state of mind is attained replete with knowledge of the

realities within and around us. The sea of knowledge on which man

makes his brief voyage is for the most part unfathomable. He cannot

hope, except near shore, to measure the whole depth, and thus attain

philosophical certainty. But the scientific student may diligently use

such a sounding line as he possesses--that of probability--and with it

explore wide expanses under which there are no rocks nor shoals within

the utmost depth that he can plumb, and over which he may securely

sail. Compare this with the situation of the philosophical sceptic,

groping among rocks along the shore, and not venturing beyond the

shallow margin which he can probe with his little pole."

Professor Clifford struck out boldly in this unfathomable ocean of

knowledge, when he admitted the infinite divisibility of the atom,

which is one of the bases of Keely's theories. And how exquisitely

did his penetrating vision pierce the mists of materialism when he

wrote:--"Every time that analysis strips from nature the gilding that

we prized, she is forging thereat a new picture more glorious than

before, to be suddenly revealed by the advent of a new sense whereby

we see it--a new creation, at sight of which the sons of God shall

have cause to shout for joy. What now shall I say of this new-grown

perception of Law, which finds the infinite in a speck of dust,

and the act of eternity in every second of time? Shall I say that

it kills our sense of the beautiful, and takes all the romance out

of nature? And, moreover, that it is nothing more than a combining

and reorganizing of our old experiences; that it never can give us

anything really new; that we must progress in the same monotonous way

for ever. But wait a moment. What if this combining and organizing

is to become first habitual, then organic and unconscious, so that

the sense of law becomes a direct perception? Shall we not then be

really seeing something new? Shall there not be a new revelation of

a great and more perfect cosmos, a universe fresh-born, a new heaven

and a new earth? Mors janua vitæ, by death to this world we enter

upon a new life in the next. Doubtless there shall by-and-by be

laws as far transcending those we now know as they do the simplest

observation. The new incarnation may need a second passion; but,

evermore, beyond it is the Easter glory."

In these words there is the true ring of divinely inspired prophecy

to those who know of the pure philosophy which Keely's system

unfolds; teaching the "wondrous ways of Him who is perfect in

knowledge." Professor Clifford was one of those whom Ernest Renan has

classified as scouts in the great army, who divine beforehand that

which becomes ere long patent to all. In their rapid and venturesome

advance they catch sight before the others of the smiling plains

and lofty peaks. The student of nature has been compared to a hound,

wildly running after, and here and there chancing on game, universal

exploration, a beating up of the game on all sides, that and that

only is the sole possible method. And this is the spirit of those who

pursue their researches in a scientific frame of mind: while those

who enter the field in a sceptical mood, are indisposed to step out

of the beaten track where they feel sure of their footing.

They have no ambitions to meet the fate of the trilobites in Professor

Clifford's amusing apologue. "Once upon a time--much longer than six

thousand years ago--the Trilobites were the only people that had eyes;

and they were only just beginning to have them. Some of the Trilobites,

even, had as yet no signs of coming sight. So that the utmost they

could know was that they were living in darkness, and that perhaps

there was such a thing as light. But at last one of them got so far

advanced that when he happened to come to the top of the water in

the daytime he saw the sun. So he went down and told the others that

in general the world was light, but there was one great light which

caused it all. Then they killed him for disturbing the commonwealth;

but they considered it impious to doubt that in general the world was

light, and that there was one great light which caused it all. And

they had great disputes about the manner in which they had come to

know this. Afterwards, another of them got so far advanced that when

he happened to come to the top of the water, in the night-time, he

saw the stars. So he went down and told the others that in general

the world was dark, but that, nevertheless, there were a great number

of little lights in it. Then they killed him for maintaining false

doctrines; but from that time there was a division amongst them,

and all the Trilobites were split in two parties, some maintaining

one thing and some the other, until such time as so many of them had

learned to see that there could be no doubt about the matter that

both of the savant Trilobites were right."

Bacon has compared the mind of man to a prisoner in a cave with his

back to the light, who sees only shadows of the events passing outside.

Dr. Stoney, in his paper on "Natural Science and Ontology," frames a

working hypothesis, which leads up to Keely's theory, that "the laws

of the universe are the laws of thought." "This is a very different

thing," says Dr. Stoney, "from saying that they are the laws of

human thought. The laws of human thought bear to them the same small

proportion which the laws of the action of the wheels of a watch upon

one another bear to the entire science of dynamics.... Natural science

is thus, as it were, the study of an ever-changing shadow cast in a

special and very indirect way by the mighty march of actual events."

"The history of philosophy," writes Ernest Renan, "should be the

history of the thoughts of mankind. Hence we must look upon philology,

or the study of ancient literatures, as a science having a distinct

object, viz., the knowledge of the human intellect."

The philologist and the chemist, because of the results of the

researches of the one, and of the nature of the researches of the

other, are the students who are best able to comprehend the discoveries

of Keely. "It is the characteristic and the pride of modern science to

attain its most lofty results only through the most scrupulous methods

of experiment, and to arrive at the knowledge of the highest laws of

nature, its hands resting on its apparatus. If the highest truths can,

as it were, emanate from the alembic and the crucible, why should they

not equally be the result of the study of the remains of the past,

covered with the dust of ages? Shall the philologist who toils on

words and syllables be less honoured than the student of chemistry

labouring in his laboratory? It is impossible to guess beforehand what

may result from philological researches, any more than one can know,

in digging a mine, the wealth it may contain. We may be on our way to

the discovery of a new world. Science always presents itself to man as

an unknown country. The most important discoveries have been brought

about in a roundabout way. Very few problems have been deliberately

grappled with at the outset, 'taken at the core.' There is nothing

more difficult to foretell than the importance with which posterity

will invest this or that order of facts; the researches that will be

abandoned, the researches that will be continued. In looking for one

thing one may stumble upon another; in the pursuit of a mere vision,

one may hit upon a magnificent reality."

When a result has been attained, it is difficult to realize the trouble

its attainment has cost, says Ernest Renan in "The Future of Science."

Of this nature have been the researches of the present distinguished

Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution; leading him into a

discovery, the great importance of which the future alone can unfold.

Professor Dewar's brilliant success in producing liquid oxygen will be

remembered by all who had the privilege of witnessing it last year, on

the occasion of the celebration of Faraday's Centenary. Its production

is attended with the greatest difficulties; so great that Professor

Dewar even felt doubts as to his being successful in his attempt at

that time, which made his complete success all the more gratifying

to him. When produced, it is difficult to hold and difficult to

manipulate; but nothing daunted by these difficulties, Professor Dewar

continued his researches, subjecting it to tests which no mind less

penetrating than his own would ever have thought of, with the result

that, most unexpectedly to himself, he has "hit upon a magnificent

reality." The ordeal to which, with consummate skill, he subjected

this unstable fluid, disclosed its marvellous affinity for the magnet;

and iron is now no longer able to claim the distinction which it has

hitherto enjoyed, of monopolizing the affections of the magnet. Sir

Robert Ball, LL.D., F.R.S., in commenting upon this important and most

interesting addition to our knowledge of the properties of oxygen,

says:--"Seeing that water, which is so largely composed of oxygen,

is not attracted by a magnet, it might certainly have seemed unlikely

that a liquid which was nothing but pure oxygen should be affected

to any noteworthy degree. I suspect, however, that Professor Dewar

must have had some sagacious reason for anticipating that the magnet

would treat liquid oxygen with much more attention than it bestowed

on water. At all events, whether he expected it or not, the result as

described was of the most extraordinary character. The liquid oxygen

was vehemently attracted by the great magnet; it seems to have leaped

from the vessel, to have clung round the poles, and continued to adhere

to them until it had all evaporated and resumed the form of gas. The

appreciation of this discovery will be shared not alone by chemists,

but by all who are interested in the great truths of nature."

When Mr. Keely fell upon his discovery of an unknown force, he had not

the faintest conception of the infinite extent, nor of the nature, of

the territory he had invaded. Step by step he has been led on through

years of patient and persistent research, yet even now feeling that

he has but lifted one corner of the veil of the goddess of nature,

and that a lifetime is too short to do more than this. The physicists

whom Keely, in the earlier years of his discovery, invited to confer

with him as to the origin of the force which was generated by the

disintegration of water, preferred rather to pronounce him an impostor,

after witnessing his demonstrations, than to admit that such results

should have escaped the penetration of their all-powerful methods. "It

indicates," says Dr. Watson, "a mistaken apprehension of the basis of

our own so highly valued system of inquiry, that we should arrogate to

it absolute exclusiveness, and deride, as though they were searchers

after proved impossibilities, all those who choose to make the trial

whether truth may be sought by any method besides our own."

History repeats itself, but on new planes. It is not those who are

mighty in their own eyes whom Providence chooses as instruments to

reveal new truths to the world when the needs of humanity require

"a new order of things." The evolution of the human race is slow but

sure. If in one century some backward steps are taken, in the next with

giant strides all is regained that seemed to have been lost. Each age

answers the need of its own time. "The condition of mankind, during

the last quarter of the fifteenth century, bore some curious analogies

to its state at present," writes Julian Hawthorne, under the heading,

"The New Columbus." "A certain stage or epoch of human life seemed to

have run its course and come to a stop. The impulses which had started

it were exhausted. Once more, it seems, we have reached the limits of

a dispensation, and are halted by a blank wall. There is no visible

way over it, nor around it. We cannot stand still; still less can we

turn back. What is to happen? What happens when an irresistible force

encounters an impenetrable barrier? That was the question asked in

Columbus' day, and he found an answer to it. Are we to expect the

appearance of a new Columbus to answer it again? What Columbus can

help us out of our dangers now? The time has come when the spirit

of Columbus shall avouch itself, vindicating the patient purpose of

Him who brings the flower from the seed. Great discoveries come when

they are needed; never too early nor too late. When nothing else will

serve the turn, then, and not till then, the rock opens and the spring

gushes forth. Who that has considered the philosophy of the infinitely

great and of the infinitely minute can doubt the inexhaustibleness of

nature? And what is nature but the characteristic echo of the spirit of

man? A prophet has arisen, during these latter days, in Philadelphia,

who is commonly regarded as a charlatan; but men, cognizant of the

latest advances of science, admit themselves unable to explain upon

any known principles the effects he produces."

"What we are to expect is an awakening of the soul; the rediscovery

and rehabilitation of the genuine and indestructible religious

instinct. Such a religious revival will be something very different

from what we have known under that name. It will be a spontaneous

and joyful realization by the soul of its vital relations with its

Creator. Nature will be recognized as a language whereby God converses

with man. The interpretation of this language, based as it is upon an

eternal and living symbolism, containing infinite depths beyond depths

of meaning, will be a sufficient study and employment for mankind for

ever. Science will become, in truth, the handmaid of religion, in that

it will be devoted to reporting the physical analogies of spiritual

truths, and following them out in their subtler details. Hitherto

the progress of science has been slow, and subject to constant error

and revision. But as soon as physical research begins to go hand in

hand with moral or psychical research it will advance with a rapidity

hitherto unimagined, each assisting and classifying the other.

"The attitude of men towards one another will undergo a corresponding

change. It is already become evident that selfishness is a colossal

failure.... Recent social theorists propose a universal co-operation,

to save the waste of personal competition. But competition is a

wholesome and vital law; it is only the direction of it that requires

alteration. When the cessation of working for one's livelihood takes

place, human energy and love of production will not cease with it,

but will persist and must find their channels. But competition to

outdo each in the service of all is free from collisions, and its

range is limitless. Not to support life, but to make life more lovely,

will be the effort; and not to make it more lovely for one's self

alone but for one's neighbour. Nor is this all.

"The love of the neighbour will be a true act of divine worship,

since it will then be acknowledged that mankind, though multiplied

to human sense, is in essence one; and that in this universal one,

which can have no self-consciousness, God is incarnate.

"The divine humanity is the only real and possible object of mortal

adoration, and no genuine sentiment of human brotherhood is conceivable

apart from its recognition. But, with it, the stature of our common

manhood will grow toward the celestial. Obviously, with thoughts and

pursuits of this calibre to engage our attention, we shall be very

far from regretting those which harass and enslave us to-day. Leaving

out of account the extension of psychical faculties, which will

enable the antipodes to commune together at will, and even give us

the means of communicating with the inhabitants of other planets,

and which will so simplify and deepen language that audible speech,

other than the musical sounds indicative of emotion, will be regarded

as a comic and clumsy archaism,--apart from all this, the fathomless

riches of wisdom to be gathered from the commonest daily objects and

outwardly most trivial occurrences, will put an end to all craving

for merely physical change of place and excitement. Gradually the

human race will become stationary, each family occupying its own

place, and living in patriarchal simplicity, though endowed with

power and wisdom that we should now consider god-like.... We have

only attempted to indicate what regions await the genius of the new

Columbus; nor does the conjecture seem too bold that perhaps they

are not so distant from us in time as they appear to be in quality."

If we turn, from this seemingly Utopian forecast, to the matter-of-fact

utterances of Ernest Renan, we will find that he anticipates

nothing less as the destiny of humanity, than the perfecting of it

as a unity. Asserting that the nineteenth century is preparing the

way for the enfranchisement of the mind, he proceeds logically to

show how this evolution is to be brought about, strong in the faith

that Providence will not fail in its design to secure the ultimate

happiness of the human race. To quote, at length, from Renan:--"It

is the law of science, as of every human undertaking, to draw its

plans on a large scale, and with a great deal that is superfluous

around them. Mankind finally assimilates only a small number of the

elements of food. But the portions that have been eliminated played

their part in the act of nutrition. So the countless generations that

have appeared and disappeared like a dream, have served to build the

great Babel of humanity which uprises toward the sky, each layer of

which means a people. In God's vast bosom all that lived will live

again, and then it will be true to the very letter that not a glass

of water, not a word that has furthered the divine work of progress

will be lost. That is the law of humanity; an enormous and lavish

expenditure of the individual; for God only sets Himself the large,

general plan; and each created being finds subsequently in himself

the instincts which make his lot as mild as possible. All help to

accelerate the day when the knowledge of the world shall equal the

world, when the subject and the object having become identified, God

will be complete. Philosophy up till now has scarcely been anything

but fancy, a priori, and science has only been an insignificant

display of learning. As for us, we have shifted the field of the

science of man. We want to know what his life is, and life means

both the body and the soul; not placed facing one another like clocks

that tick in time, not soldered together like two different metals,

but united into one two-fronted phenomenon which cannot be divided,

without destroying it. It is time to proclaim the fact that one sole

Cause has wrought everything in the domain of intellect, operating

according to identical laws, but among different surroundings.

"The lofty serenity of science becomes possible only when it

handles its imperturbable instrument with the inflexibility of

the geometrician, without anger and without pity. True science, the

complete and felt science, will be for the future, if civilization is

not once again arrested in its march by blind superstition and the

invasion of barbarism, in one form or another. But it is contended

that the inferiority of the philosophy of science consists in its

being accessible to the small minority. This is, on the contrary,

its chief title to glory, showing us that we should labour to hasten

the advent of the blessed day in which all men will have their place

in the sunshine of intelligence, and will live in the true light of

the children of God. It is the property of hope to hope against hope,

and there is nothing which the past does not justify us in hoping

from the future of humanity. Perfect happiness, as I understand it,

is that all men should be perfect. I cannot understand how the opulent

man can fully enjoy his happiness while he is obliged to veil his face

in presence of the misery of a portion of his fellow-creatures. There

can only be perfect happiness when all are equal, but there will

only be equality when all are perfect. Thus we see that it is

not a question of being happy; it is a question of being perfect;

a question of true religion, the only thing which is serious and

sacred. Inequality is legitimate whenever inequality is necessary for

the good of humanity. Rights create themselves like other things. The

French Revolution is not legitimate because it has taken place, but

it took place because it was legitimate; the freeing of the negroes

was neither achieved nor deserved by the negroes, but by the progress

in civilization of their masters. Right is the progress of humanity;

there is no right in opposition to this progress, and, vice versâ,

progress legitimizes everything. Never, since the origin of things, has

human intelligence set itself so terrible a problem as the one which

now menaces our age. Upon the one hand, it is necessary to preserve

the conquests already secured for civilization; while upon the other,

all must have their share in the blessings of this civilization. It

took centuries to conceive the possibility of a society without

slavery. The traveller who looks only at the horizon of the plain,

risks not seeing the precipice or the quagmire at his feet. In the

same way, humanity when looking only to the distant object is tempted

to make a jump for it, without regard to the intermediate objects

against which it may not improbably dash itself to pieces. Socialism

is, therefore, right to the extent of discerning the problem,

but solves it badly; or rather socialism is not yet possible of

solution. Reforms never triumph directly; they triumph by compelling

their adversaries to partially adopt them in order to overcome them. It

might be said of reforms as of the crusades: 'Not one succeeded: all

succeeded.' As one sees the tide bringing the ever-collapsing waves

upon the shore, the feeling aroused is one of powerlessness. The wave

arrived so proudly, and yet it is dashed to pieces against the sand,

and it expires in a feeble career against the shore which it seemed

about to devour. But, upon reflection, one finds that this process

is not as idle as it seems; for each wave, as it dies away, has its

effect; and all the waves combined make the rising tide against which

heaven and hell would be powerless. Humanity, when it is fatigued,

is willing to pause; but to pause is not to rest. The calm is but

an armistice and a breathing space. It is impossible for society to

find calm in a state when it is suffering from an open wound such as

that of to-day. The age is oppressed by this inevitable and seemingly

insoluble problem. We barricade ourselves in one party, in order not

to see the reasons of the other side. The conservatives are wrong,

for the state of things which they uphold, and which they do right

to uphold, is intolerable. The revolutionists are wrong; for it is

absurd to destroy when you have nothing to put in place of what you

destroy. At these epochs, doubt and indecision are the truth; the man

who is not in doubt is either a simpleton or a charlatan. Revolutions

must be made for well-ascertained principles, and not for tendencies

which have not yet been formulated in a practical manner. They are

the upheavals of the everlasting Enceladus turning over when Etna

weighs too heavily upon him. It is horrible that one man should be

sacrificed to the enjoyment of another. If it were merely a question

of self-indulgence, it would be better that all should have Spartan

fare, than that some should have luxuries and others go hungry; but,

as long as material ease is to a certain extent the indispensable

condition of intellectual perfection, the sacrifice is not effected

for the enjoyment of another individual, of the luxuries of life,

but it is made upon behalf of society as a whole. A society is

entitled to what is necessary for its existence, however great may

be the apparent injustice resulting for the individual. It is the

idea of the ancient sacrifice--the man for the nation. If the object

of life were but self-indulgence, it would not be unreasonable that

each one should claim his share, and from this point of view any

enjoyment which one might procure at the expense of others would be in

reality an injustice and a robbery: but the object of life, the aim

of society, should be the greatest possible perfecting of all. The

State is neither an institution of police, as Smith would have it,

nor a charity bureau and a hospital as the Socialists would have

it. It is a machine for making progress. In the state of things which

I should like to see, manual labour would be the recreation of mental

labour. The immense majority of humanity is still at school: to let

them out too soon would be to encourage them in idleness. Necessity,

says Herder, is the weight of the clock which causes all the wheels

to turn. Without the idea of progress, all the ideas of humanity are

incomprehensible. We must keep our machines in order, if we would bring

down paradise upon earth; and paradise will be here below when all have

their share in light, perfection, beauty, and therefore in happiness.

"It matters little whether the law grants or refuses liberty to

new ideas, for they make their way all the same; they come into

existence without the law, and they are all the better for this than

if they had grown in full legality. When a river which has overflown

its banks pours onward, you may erect dykes to arrest its progress,

but the flood continues to rise; you may work with eager energy and

employ skilful labourers to make good all the fissures, but the flood

will continue to rise until the torrent has surmounted the obstacle,

or until, by making a circuit of the dyke, it comes back by some other

way to inundate the land which you have attempted to protect from it."

These are the advanced views of Ernest Renan, who still sees nothing

before us but a fresh cataclysm, a general upheaval and chaos, terrible

disturbances when human intelligence will be checkmated, thrown off

the rails so to speak, by events as yet unparalleled. We have not yet

suffered sufficiently, he says, to see the kingdom of heaven. When a

few millions of men have died of hunger, when thousands have devoured

one another, when the brains of the others, carried off their balance

by these darksome scenes, have plunged into extravagancies of one

kind and another, then life will begin anew. Suffering has been for

man the mistress and the revealer of great things. Order is an end,

not a beginning; but out of respect for the rights of bears and lions

are we to open the bars of a menagerie? Are these beasts to be let

loose upon men? No, for humanity and civilization must be saved at

any cost. But these problems, which make up the capital question of

the nineteenth century, are, in a speculative sense, insoluble; they

will be solved by brute force, says Renan. The crowd behind is ever

pressing forward; those in the foremost ranks are toppled over into

the yawning gulf, and when their bodies have filled up the abyss,

the last comers pass over on the level.

But let us suppose that what pseudo-science has wrested from us,

true science is ready to restore; ready to offer all that Renan

himself tells us is necessary to open the way for the elevation of

the people, by giving all men a share in the delights of education;

thus widening the basis of the brotherhood of humanity, and making

room for all at the banqueting-table of knowledge, enabling men to be

"perfect in their measure," for "absolute equality is as impossible

in humanity as it would be in the animal reign. Each part is perfect

in the hierarchy of the parts when it is all that it can be, and does

well all that it ought to do."

Let us suppose that true science offers confirmation of all that

revelation has taught of the attributes of the Creator of all things,

reiterating the promise of a time when this knowledge shall be spread

over the face of the whole earth and made known to all men. Let

us imagine that, in addition to the opening of these floodgates of

knowledge, the time is drawing near when machinery, unknown now, will

be employed to help the workman in his task, and abridge his hours of

labour, leaving leisure for the cultivation of his mind. Aristotle

has told us what would be the result, "if every instrument could

work of its own accord, if the spindles worked of themselves, if the

bow played the violin without being held, the contractors could do

without workmen and the masters without slaves." Man would so master

nature that material requirements would no longer be the supreme

motive, and human activity would be directed towards the things of

the mind. In such a state of existence men of intelligence would

"conquer the infinite."

We are living in a period of wondrous revelations of the power of God,

and the crowning discovery of this epoch promises the fulfilment of

Scripture prophecy in a dispensation of harmony and peace, that will

restore to mankind that measure of faith in God and immortality, which

can alone give strength "to endure the evil days without feeling the

weight of them" that lie between the present time and the realization

of our hopes for the perfection of humanity. With the knowledge

that lies in this new revelation of the power of the All-Mighty, no

hopes seem chimerical or Utopian. We shall all be as gods, when the

fulness of the love of God and the power of God is made known to, and

understood by, all men. Tossing as we are in a seething whirlpool of

scepticism, threatened as are the nations with dangers on all sides,

if we were bereft of our God, as the leading lights of science would

have us believe, there would be no hope for humanity. But though

the anchor of ancient faiths has been swept away by materialism,

the sheet-anchor of faith by science has been let down from heaven,

as it were in our hour of peril, for the saving of the peoples:

teaching as often before that the world lies in the bosom of God,

like a child in its mother's arms, who with watchful solicitude

ministers to its wants as they arise.

Religion as revealed to us by our Holy Master, Jesus Christ, is to

know and to love the truth of things. When this religion is understood

and practised, then, and not before, will the earth be full of the

knowledge that it is God who is, and that all the rest only appears to

be. If anarchy and disorder would but wait for this time to arrive,

no devastating cataclysms, no destroying whirlwinds, will come as

forerunners to prepare the way, as in the past, for progress. The

light now dawning will usher in "the new order of things," and we

may expect that an era of material prosperity will soon set in,

such as the world has never dreamed of; arresting the outbreak of

barbarism which seems near at hand. There are some who contend that

this revelation of an unknown force will, in the hands of anarchists,

put back the progress of civilization and enlightenment for centuries;

there are others who proclaim that it will take the bread from the

mouths of the hungry and swell the sums amassed by capitalists. But

history shows that discovery heralds progress, and walks with it hand

in hand. With the costless and unlimited power which will be made

available, in every direction where power is required, all works

of improvement will be carried out on a far grander scale than has

ever been anticipated. The great polar stream, with its exhaustless

supply of energy, places at our disposal a force as harmless as the

current that draws its keeper to the magnet. We have but to "hook

our machinery on to the machinery of nature," and we have a safe

and harmless propelling and controlling force, the conditions of

which when once set up remain for ever, perpetual molecular action

the result. Another step made toward the conquering of the material

world which must precede the advent of the reign of the spirit.

Schlegel foresaw that the only hope for a brotherhood of humanity lay

in the thorough religious regeneration of the State and of science, and

that through these combined powers the underlying purpose of Eternal

Mind is to be made known, covering the earth with the knowledge of

God as the waters cover the beds of the seas, obtaining a complete

triumph for Christianity.

It would fill with despair the hearts of those who are working

to bring about this end (so slow, so retrograde at times does the

evolution seem to be) did they not know that they have an Invincible

Power working with them.

History has again repeated itself, and truth has once more had its

birth in a stable. A star has arisen in the West which heralds to all

races what the Star of Bethlehem heralded in Judea, viz. the coming

of the time when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of

the Lord. There are both Magi and shepherds now, as of old, who have

watched for the rising of this star, and who were the first to behold

the gold and crimson light of the approaching dawn; in which Faith,

which modern science has crucified and laid away in its sepulchre,

will have its resurrection and dwell on earth for evermore--the

tabernacle of God with men.

THE DAWN.

Dante called his lifetime, "The time of my debt."

I.

Have I not paid my debt, O God,

What have I left to give?

Yet blest my life in rendering all

To help the nations live

In harmony, in peace, in love,

As nations all will be,

When knowledge true shall cover earth

As waters cover sea.

II.

Nailed to the cross are all my hopes--

Thou hast not spared me aught:

But raised thereby above the world

Its treasures count as naught:

Empty its titles and its show,

Its honours and its fame;

Better the love of God to know

Than riches, rank, or name.

III.

Two avenues there are, 'tis said,

From paltry passions vile,

From all calamities of earth,

From artifice and wile.

Science and Art their votaries lead

From quicksands and from shoal;

Their guiding torches held aloft

Will light us to our goal.

IV.

When ended this--my "time of debt"--

'Tis only Thou canst know;

But when the longed-for quittance comes

I stay not here below.

Till then give me the torch of Art

To light my pathway drear,

Let Science lift my thoughts to Thee,

My lonely hours to cheer.

V.

And when my life-long debt is paid--

My soul from body free--

No bondage can enslave me more,

For I shall go to Thee.

Hasten the hour when summons comes,

To take me to my home;

Here have I lived an exile's life,

An exile forced to roam.

VI.

The face of love was turned from me

When most I felt its need,

And in the wilds my feet were set

To plough and sow the seed.

Ashes and tears to me were given;

I sat not by the way,

With folded hands to make lament,

But laboured day by day.

VII.

Thou hast not dealt one useless blow,

What time I worked in field:

Each tear of blood, each hour of toil,

Increased the harvest yield;

And now the furrows all are ploughed,

If I have paid my debt,

By waters still, in paths of peace,

Thou wilt my footsteps set.

VIII.

Æons may pass before my hopes

For earth are all fulfilled;

But let "the dawn" approach, I pray,

Before my lips are stilled!

And let true knowledge cover earth

As waters cover sea--

Knowledge of truth, knowledge of love,

Knowledge, dear God, of Thee!

IX.

I wait the music of the spheres,

The rhythmic pulse of earth,

Which, when Death's angelus doth ring,

Announce immortal birth:

In that blest home beyond the veil

No discord rends the air

The law of harmony prevails

And love reigns everywhere.

CONCLUSION.

KEELY'S PHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY.

Mr. Keely begins with sounds whose vibrations can be known

and registered. I presume that the laws of ratio, position,

duality, and continuity, all the laws which go to mould the

plastic air by elastic bodies into the sweetness of music,

will also be found ruling and determining all in the high

silence of interior vibrations, which hold together or shake

asunder the combinations that we call atoms and ultimate

elements.--The Science of Music. D. C. Ramsay. Edited by the

Rev. John Andrew. Marcus Ward & Co.

What Keely has discovered in physics, I am in some measure

credited with discovering in metaphysics: this is nothing

strange, according to this philosophy, which shows that many

people may divine the same original truth at the same time

by means of the etheric element which connects the Deity, the

source of all truth, with all His creatures.--Preface to Vera

Vita; or, the Philosophy of Sympathy. David Sinclair. Author

of A New Creed. Digby, Long & Co., London.

Abstract of Keely's Physical Philosophy in its main features up to

the point of practical application; by Professor Daniel G. Brinton,

of the Pennsylvania University; subject to modifications and additions

when Keely has made public his system.

The fundamental conception of the Universe is force manifesting itself

in rhythmical relations.

This definition is exhaustive, including both thought and extension,

matter and mind. The law for the one is the law for the other. The

distinction between them is simply relative, i.e. quantitative,

not qualitative.

The rhythmic relations in which force acts are everywhere, under all

conditions, and at all times, the same. They are found experimentally

to be universally expressible by the mathematical relations of thirds.

These threefold relations may be expressed with regard to their

results as,--

I. Assimilative.

II. Individualizing.

III. Dominant or Resultant.

From these three actions are derived the three fundamental

LAWS OF BEING.

I. Law of Assimilation: every individualized object assimilates itself

to all other objects.

II. Law of Individualization: every such object tends to assimilate

all other objects to itself.

III. Law of the Dominant: every such object is such by virtue of the

higher or dominant force which controls these two tendencies.

Applying these fundamental laws to an explanation of the universe,

as it is brought to human cognition, all manifestations of force may

be treated as modes of vibrations.

The essential differences give rise to three modes of vibration:--

I. The Radiating: called also the "Dispersing," the "Propulsive,"

the "Positive," and the "Enharmonic."

II. The Focalizing: called also the "Negative," the "Negative

Attractive," the "Polarizing," and the "Harmonic."

III. The Dominant: called also the "Etheric," or the "Celestial."

These, it will be noted, correspond to the three laws of being. It is

not to be understood that any one of these three modes of vibration

can exist independently. Each by itself is called a "current," and

all three must be present in every "stream" or "flow" of force. The

relations of the currents in every flow are expressible in thirds,

and it is experimentally demonstrable that the relation of the three

are in the order named: as 33 1/3 : 66 2/3 : 100.

The evolution of what is called "matter" from the different modes

of vibration is through the action of the second law, that of

focalization, or "negative attraction," or "negative affinity."

Where the vibrations under this mode meet, and are maintained in a

state of mutual affinity or equilibrium, there is established what

is called a "neutral centre," or, as otherwise expressed, "a centre

of sympathetic coincidence."

The terms "neutral attraction," "neutral affinity," "negative

attraction," or "polar negative attraction," are employed to express

the property of a mode of vibration to direct its components towards

such centre.

As no current or flow of force can be composed of one mode of

vibration only, but must always be composed of three modes uniting in

varying thirds, we have 1 × 2 × 3 = 6 as the total possible forms of

sympathetic coincidence, or, to speak in ordinary terms, there can

be six; and six only, possible forms of individualized being. These

are what Keely calls the six orders of atomic subdivision, or orders

of vibratory motion, and he names them as follows:

I. Molecular.

II. Inter-molecular.

III. Atomic.

IV. Inter-atomic.

V. Etheric.

VI. Inter-etheric.

In this list the forms of matter are arranged in the mathematical

sequence of the rapidity of the oscillations of their constituent

members; the proportion being proved by experiment to be as follows:

for the molecular orders:

1 : 3 : 9 : 27 : 81 : 243.

This arithmetical progression changes in the atomic orders to a

geometrical progression as follows:

3 : 9 : 81 : 6561 : 43046721, etc.

This same method of progression is believed to hold in all the orders

of vibrations above the molecular, and soon passes into mathematical

infinity.

Actually, however, all matter of which we are capable of cognition

through the medium of our senses is in one of three forms of

aggregation:

I. Molecular.

II. Atomic.

III. Etheric.

in each of which the controlling mode of vibration is respectively,

I. The Enharmonic.

II. The Harmonic.

III. The Dominant.

But it must be understood that each of these modes is a positive and

real constituent of every atom and molecule.

It will be seen that as every form of material aggregation is to be

considered as a "neutral centre of attraction," where the vibratory

force of all three orders are held in "sympathetic coincidence," that

is, in balanced activity or harmonized motion, and not by any means

cancelled or mutually destroyed, there is no diminution of force,

but only temporary suspension of its radiating or propulsive activity

or expression.

This is the foundation of Keely's doctrine of "latent force," and

of the indefinite power which can be obtained by breaking up the

harmonious balance or equation of forces of every mode, which exists

in every "neutral centre," that is to say in every mass of matter.

Insomuch as every mass of matter consists thus, in fact, of vibrations

in harmonic equilibrium, related by simple proportions of thirds,

it follows that every mass of every description stands in harmonic

relation to every other mass. This is, in part, what is meant by

the sympathy of all forms of matter and of motion; and it is through

the study of the methods of increasing or diminishing this sympathy

that we reach practical results in this field of research. At present

this is best accomplished by resonance; that is, through the harmonic

vibrations created by musical instruments, bringing out the acoustic

world as the microscope reveals the hidden visual world.

Every visible or tangible mass of matter must be regarded as an

aggregation of molecules; the molecules being the true centres of

the equated forces of "neutralized attraction."

These molecules have been experimentally proved by Keely to be

formed of all three modes of vibration; the proof being that they

respond to all three modes when subjected to the tests of compound

concordant impulses.

When in that state of neutral aggregation which we know as matter,

each molecule is in perpetual oscillation, the range of the oscillation

being one-third of the molecule, and its rapidity 20,000 oscillations

in a second.

It is through the disturbance of this oscillatory equilibrium, by

means of resonant impulses, that Keely alters the relations of the

vibratory impulses which constitute matter. This he does by striking

the same chord in three octaves, representing the third, sixth,

and ninth of the scale.

Of these, the sixth reduces the range of molecular vibrations or

oscillations; and, by thus bringing nearer to each other the neutral

centres, increases solidification.

The ninth extends the range of molecular oscillation, and thus tends

to give greater tenuity to the mass. It induces "trajectile velocity"

from neutral centres, or "neutral radiation." Experiment shows

that molecular dissociation does not take place until the molecule

attains an oscillation approaching, if not fully reaching two-thirds

of its diameter. This can be effected by means of the action of the

"enharmonic" or "radiating" current applied to the mass, after its

molecules have once been disturbed by an "introductory impulse;"

that is, by the musical note above mentioned.

The third represents the "dominant," and when brought under control

of a harmonic resonant impulse induces a complete rearrangement of

the modes of vibration and oscillation; in other words, will transform

the mass either into its component initial forces, or into some other

form of matter.

It is the study of the dominant to which Keely has devoted his recent

researches. He aims to control the power he evolves by altering the

dominant or etheric mode of vibration in the triplicate flows of force.

As all molecules and masses are mere centres of harmonized vibrations,

temporarily held in suspension by simple laws identical with those of

resonance, it follows that these centres can be broken up or divided

by certain orders of vibration impinging upon and disturbing them.

It is a familiar fact that a cord in vibration tends to produce a

similar vibration in a cord placed near it. This property belongs

to all vibrations, whether resonant or not, and they exert it in

proportion to the "order" to which they belong. The distance in space

to which this power extends, or can be extended, is what is called

"the sympathetic outreach" of the current or flow.

In this manner we have "sympathetic negative attraction," and

"sympathetic positive propulsion," with reference to the "outreach"

of the third or dominant current of the stream, which is allied to

the order of etheric vibrations.

Each molecule of a given mass of matter represents the same harmonic

chord or note in its oscillatory motion. The "chord of the mass" is,

therefore, the chord of every molecule of the mass.

But as the condition of absolutely stable equilibrium is theoretical

only, and does not exist in nature, the chord of the mass is constantly

changing. Yet we must learn to control this "chord of the mass" by

resonant induction, if we would gain command of the molecular forces.

Keely believes he has solved this problem, by the invention of a

mechanical device which brings the chords of all masses within the

conditions of a few simple acoustic tests.

The range of molecular oscillation is affected differently in different

substances when submitted to the same vibratory impulse, and these

ranges can be measured.

In the three metals, silver, gold, and platina, we obtain the

proportions----3 : 6 : 9 :--As this is the primary relation of the

modes of vibration, a wire made of these three metals is peculiarly

adapted to transmit concordant impulses; and nodes made of these

substances placed upon a wire, transmitting resonant vibrations,

indicate, by the different orders of vibration induced in them,

the rate of oscillations of the atomic constituents.

The phenomenon of rotation arises from the harmonic interaction of

the dominant and enharmonic elements of the flow: in other words,

the first and third, the third and ninth, etc.; those whose vibrations

bear the proportions to each other 33 1/3 : 100.

A practical example of rotation is a wheel in revolution on its

axis. This is force in its commercial or economic aspect. To accomplish

this result by molecular vibratory action, we must gain control of

the "negative attractive" or "enharmonic" current of the triple flow,

and the problem is then solved up to any limit of power.

APPENDIX I.

More than four centuries B.C., Leucippus and his disciple

Democritus--who expounded the atomic theory of his master--introduced

the doctrine of indivisible atoms, possessing within themselves a

principle of energy. Democritus, it is said, travelling in search of

wisdom, visited the Gymnosophists of India (who, by leading ascetic

lives, thought they could effect a reunion of the spiritual nature

of man, with the divine essence of Deity), and in so doing incurred

the risk of being deprived of the rites of sepulture by his "waste

of patrimony," there being a law in Abdera to that effect.

Anaxagoras, Heraclitus, Empedocles and other philosophers, had taught

that matter was indefinitely divisible, but Leucippus and Democritus

were the first to assert that these particles or atoms were originally

destitute of all qualities except form and energy; and they are,

therefore, called the originators of the atomic philosophy; which is

the basis of Keely's system of sympathetic physics.

Sympathetic physics teaches that light is an etheric evolution,

propagated by sympathetic conflict between celestial and terrestrial

outflows: solar tensions as against terrestrial condensation. True

luminosity cannot be induced in any other way. The high order of triple

vibration, that induces (progressively) molecular and intermolecular

separation, shows luminous results which, when thus mechanically

produced, are virtually on a small scale, a facsimile of nature's

operations. "All such experiments that I have made," writes Keely,

"resulted in vortex motion invariably, both sympathetically and

otherwise. Vortex motion follows nature in all corpuscular action.

"The undulatory theory, regarding light, I have not been able to

reconcile myself to, as anything but hypothetical. The conditions

which govern electro-magnetic radiation, disprove the theory in many

particulars. The vortex action induced in space, by the differential

conflict between the low and high tenuous, shows up results that

harmonize with the conditions accompanying the dissociation of

hydrogen and oxygen, in disintegrating water: viz., vortex action of

the highest order, but peripheral only. If it were not so, the ether

could not be held in suspension, neither in the molecular nor atomic

envelopes. Undulatory effects are produced by certain conditions of

sound; and by other conditions quite opposite effects. In organ pipes,

of a certain calibre, very sensitive waves occur at intervals; as

according to the character of the sound evolved; but on a combination

of resonators composed of brass tubes of more than nine in number, a

wave of sound, induced by certain chords passing over them, produces

high vortex action of the air enclosed in them. The vibration of

tuning forks induces alternate conditions of the air that surrounds

them, if in open atmosphere; but quite a different action presents

itself when the forks are exercised in resonating tubes, set to

thirds of the mass chord they represent. Then high vortex action is

the instant result. Vibrators cannot be set promiscuously in tubes,

and get such results, any more than a musician can render a musical

composition on the violin before tuning it. The conditions under which

light is evolved negatize whatever is associated with undulation, as

this word is understood by physicists. Aqueous undulations there are,

but not etheric undulations.

"The mighty forces latent in corpuscular matter, by which we

are surrounded, are all held in oscillating vortex action by the

Infinite Designer of workings hidden from us, until the time is ripe

for their disclosure. This latent, registered power interchanges

sympathetically with the celestial radiating streams, whereby light,

heat, electricity, magnetism and galvanic action are propagated in

their different orders, vitalizing all nature with their life-giving

principles. When this great scientific and religious truth has been

made known, and established by demonstration, all controversy as to

the source of energy will be for ever silenced. If I am the chosen

instrument to develop this knowledge, and to make known the conditions

which surround this pure truth, it is only that I may hand the key

to those who will use it to enter the doorway that opens into the

inaudible, and thus gain an insight into the now invisible region

of the operation of Nature's most powerful governing forces, in the

control, over terrestrial mind by celestial matter."

APPENDIX II.

The flow of electricity, as set down in Keely's system, is governed

by triple conditions: 1st. the dominant or high vibratory; 2nd. the

sub-dominant or low vibratory; 3rd. the harmonic or undulatory; in

combination one flow. Keely writes:--"When electrical experts can

construct a mechanical device whereby the low vibratory conditions

of the sub-dominant can be assimilated to the harmonic undulatory, by

thirds, they will be able to run their dynamos without any extraneous

appliances. An introductory impulse, on a certain order of vibration,

being all that would be required to give the sub-dominant a concordant

relation to the dominant; which would more effectually operate

the dynamo than any number of steam-engines; allowing the harmonic

stream to be the governor. This concordance, as towards the dominant,

would only excite its sympathetic action in a way that would divert

the ruling conditions of the two, without being submitted to the

destructive effects of the dominant current. I think many lives will be

lost before such a position is attained. Tesla has reached out almost

to the crest of the harmonic wave, leaving all electrical explorers

far behind him. It is only when such a condition is reached that the

true value of electrical lighting will be understood, and extraneous

power dispensed with; but, in my opinion, the present conditions for

transferring power will remain unaltered, in the use of electricity,

for generations.

"There is but one position to arrive at, that will redeem the many

failures of the past decade, in attempts to find an economizing medium

for commercial benefit in regard to power; and that position will be

attained when the polar sympathetic harness is completed, which will

give to the world the control of the polar forces."

In reply to the question, "What do you include in the polar

forces?" Keely answers, "Magnetism, electricity, and gravital sympathy;

each stream composed of three currents, or triune streams, which

make up the governing conditions of the controlling medium of the

universe: the infinite ninths that I am now endeavouring to graduate

to a sympathetic mechanical combination, will, if I succeed, close

my researches in sympathetic physics, and complete my system. These

sympathetic streams from celestial space, percussing on the dense

atmospheric environment of our earth, by their infinite velocities,

wrest from their atomic confinement the latent energies which we call

heat and light."

Question.--And where do these sympathetic conditions or streams of

force have their origin?

Answer.--'So God created man in His own image, in the image of God

created He him: male and female created He them,' Genesis i. 27. All

sympathetic conditions, or streams of force, are derived (if we dare

to make use of such a term in speaking of Deity) from the cerebral

convolutions of the Infinite: from the centre of the vast realm of

the compound luminous. From the celestial intermediate, the brain

of Deity, proceed the sympathetic flows that vitalize the polar

terrestrial forces."--Keely.

APPENDIX III.

Some faint idea of the infinite patience which the nature of Keely's

work requires may be gained by a knowledge of his process of converting

straight tubes into resonating rings. The tubes, in sections long

enough to form a semicircle, are passed between triple rollers,

which are set to give them a slight bend. They are then fastened to

a bed-plate, and a steel ball, the exact diameter of the interior of

the tube, is passed into it and forced through it. It is then passed

between the rollers again; which are set so as to slightly increase

the curvature, and again the interior of the tube is corrected by

the steel ball. This process is intermittently continued until the

semicircle is reached. Each process of bending and correcting requires

over two hours. Eighty bends are sometimes necessary for the completion

of the full circle. When the two semicircles, which form the circle,

are finished, they are placed in a steel mould and kept under hydraulic

pressure for two or three days, to correct any lateral deflection which

has taken place in bending them. They are then taken out of the moulds

and screwed rigidly to a face-plate, and joined together by a solder

of refined brass and silver. Next they are placed in a hot sand bath

of sufficient volume to require seventy-two hours to cool down. This

corrects the differentiation in their molecular groupings. They are

then submitted to a vibratory flow from the sympathetic negative

transmitter, until their intonation, by percussion, represents a pure

unmixed chord. The indicator, attached to the rings, denotes when

this condition is attained. They are then centred on a steel shaft

and rotated at the rate of 2000 revolutions per minute, surrounded

by the triple circuit ring. If the indicator, on the circuit ring,

should vary five degrees on a subdivision of 8000, the process

for correcting has to be repeated until the variations are reduced

to three; which is near enough to be considered perfect, inasmuch

as the circular resonator will then hold the neutral focalization

intact during the graduation of the full ninths, or triple triplets,

for sympathetic association to polar negative attraction.

Professor Dewar's recent brilliant achievements, in his line of

experimental research, not only have an important bearing upon one

of the greatest problems of modern science, but upon the science of

the future, as forecast by Keely.

Thermal radiation (and its negative, cold), the field of Professor

Dewar's researches, in Keely's system comes below the first atomic;

while celestial sympathetic radiation comes as the fountain head;

the compound inter-etheric, from which all aggregated matter springs,

the governing force of all aggregations. If there were no sympathetic

radiation from the great celestial centre, space would be void of

suspended, or floating, earthy and gaseous matter; consequently,

planetary worlds would never have had their birth and growth.

The suggestion of Professor Dewar, that an increase in low temperatures

might lead to the liquefying of hydrogen, is an admission that

hydrogen may be a compound; for no simple can ever be condensed into

a visible form. Keely's experimental researches have proved, to his

own satisfaction, that all known gases are compounds, inasmuch as,

when the intensity which accompanies sympathetic vibration, in his

process, is brought to bear upon any gas, it submits to dissociation.

The low temperatures with which Professor Dewar is dealing cause

molecular motion to cease; but the matter thus experimented upon is

not "dead matter" after this cessation of motion. Nothing can rob

matter of the latent energy which it contains; water is not robbed

of it by being frozen. The oxygen and hydrogen still occupy their

relative positions and conditions, without depreciation of their

vitality. Were water dead matter when frozen, its molecular activity

could not be restored by elevating its temperature. Matter can never

be robbed of its soul by any conditions of intensity of heat nor of

cold that could be brought to bear upon it.

When Professor Dewar uses the term "dead," in regard to matter,

it is purely in reference to the present orthodox theory of heat

energy. Take the analogy of a tuning fork or a bell; both are dead,

so far as sound is concerned, if they are not in vibration;--they

can be examined at rest or in motion, but science has not yet been

able to do the same thing with those general motions of a molecular

nature called heat. This is what Professor Dewar means by the term

"dead," knowing well that the molecular activity can return alike to

the fork or the molecule; only the energy must be supplied from some

other source. Such are the conditions with which orthodox science is

dealing, without acknowledging Deity as the fountain head of all force.

Not until Professor Dewar has witnessed the dissociation of hydrogen

will he be able to judge of the truth of the claim, that for nearly

twenty years Keely has been researching the nature of the product

of this dissociation: leading him to define and classify force and

energy very much as Grant Allen has done in his heretical work,

on this subject, published by Longmans & Co., in 1887.

James B. Alexander, in his book on "The Dynamic Theory," [32] makes

this distinction between Force and Energy:

"Energy is simply the motion of material bodies, large or small. Force

is the measure of energy, its degree or quantity.... The ether is

the universal agent of Energy, and the medium in all motion and

phenomena. It may with propriety be called the Soul of Things."

TO JOHN ERNST WORRELL KEELY.

"Palmam qui meruit ferat."

Prized secret of aerial space

Is thine! Not firmly caught

Without long years of patient toil--

Of more than giant thought.

Unfaltering thy steadfast faith,

In all its wise control,

'Mid insults, taunts and sneers, enough

To crush the bravest soul.

Such the ordeal on the paths

Of Stephenson, Daguerre,

Of Fulton, Goodyear, Morse, to which

They gave no heed nor care.

Like them still fearless thou hast toiled

With heart and will intense,

Until discovery now brings

Its grandest recompense.

Displaced all powers known, before

This force of latest birth;

So great no mind can comprehend--

No being born of earth.

We hail thee, revolutionist

From every point of view;

For from the marvels thou hast wrought

Science must start anew.

Longed-for-attainment now is grasped,

Thy cherished hopes to bless;

And near at hand stands thy reward

In laurel crowned success!

Anonymous, in Cincinnati Illustrated News.

NOTES

[1] This electrician took the first box of stored electricity from

Paris to Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin) in Edinburgh; and as

early as in 1884 he had convinced himself that Keely had grounds for

his claims as a discoverer of an unknown force in nature.

[2] The stretching of a catgut chord over a resonator set to the

chord of B flat is precisely the same in its resultant issue as the

steel wire set over the same resonator.

[3] In Latin "circulator" means "quack."

[4] Keely was obliged to return to his former method soon after,

for in overcoming one difficulty he found a more obstinate one to

contend with.

[5] A system of Pendulums tuned to swing the various ratios of the

musical scale, form a "Silent Harp" of extraordinary interest. This

"Silent Harp," D. C. Ramsay, of Glasgow, has shown to his students of

harmony for many a year. A pen, placed by means of a universal-jointed

arrangement between any two pendulums of this "Silent Harp," so

as to be moved by a blend of their various motions, writes, with

all the precision of gravitation, a portrait of the chord which two

corresponding strings of a sounding harp would utter to the ear. This

spiral writing is a Pendulograph; exquisite forms such as no human

hand could trace.

[6] By his advocacy of Keely's claims, as a discoverer, Major

Ricarde-Seaver had reason to fear that he would lose his election to

membership of the Athenæum Club in London; as he was notified by Sir

William Thomson (who had proposed him for membership in or about the

year 1873) that such would probably be the case. The members however,

rallied in force and, led by one of the Major's oldest friends Prince

Lucien Buonaparte, he was elected by an overwhelming majority.

[7] The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 30, 1890, copied this article

from Anglo-Austria, headed "The Keely Motor: some observations on

the invention from a foreign publication."

[8] From the Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, April 13th, 1890: headed

"Professor Leidy's Adherence to the New Force."

[9] From Lippincott's Magazine, July, 1890. Edited by J. M. Stoddart.

[10] Quotation from one of Keely's letters in 1885.

[11] The steam engines of the world now represent the work of

1,000,000,000 men, or more than double the working population

of the earth, whose total population is about 1,500,000,000

inhabitants. Steam has accordingly trebled man's working power,

enabling him to economize his physical strength while attending to

his intellectual development. Our race, which seems to have reached

its limit of physical development, is ready to enter upon the foretold

stage of psychical evolution.

[12] Carried out in the taking of the forts one after another during

our civil war, which other generals had been unable to do.

[13] The paper which Mr. J. F. Nisbet was commissioned to write,

in behalf of this discoverer's claims on the world for patience,

while pursuing his researches (and paid in advance for writing),

illustrates the truth of this assertion. Mr. Nisbet's essay, entitled

"The Present Aspect of the Molecular Theory, or Mr. Keely's Relations

to Modern Science," closes with these lines:--"If science looks askance

at Mr. Keely's professions, therefore, it has its reasons for doing

so. These reasons, as I have shown, are not mere prejudices. In more

than one line of inquiry they have, what seems to be, a substantial

basis of fact, which must be explained away before Mr. Keely's theory

of 'etheric force' can commend itself to the mind of the impartial

observer."

Fortunately, for the interests of science and of humanity, the

threatened prosecution of Mr. Keely (for obtaining money under false

pretences) was checkmated by Provost Pepper's action, early in January,

before Mr. Nisbet wrote to America that he could not commence his paper

until he had received more information; sending a series of questions

to be answered by Mr. Keely. The superficial character of the essay

will be seen, when printed, as well as that Mr. Nisbet promised more

than he was able to perform when he accepted the cheque in order to

enable him to devote time to the writing of a paper, for an influential

quarter, which it was hoped would enlist public sympathy in Keely's

behalf. But that power which is mightier than the sword, in putting

down error and injustice, has hitherto turned its weapons against Keely

(with some rare exceptions) as Mr. Nisbet did in his essay.--C.J.M.

[14] This is effected by polarization and depolarization, and the

rotation of a non-magnetic needle by molecular differentiation:

both needles revolving about 120 times in a second.

[15] Electricians are now admitting that, in electric currents the

energy does not flow through, or along the wire, itself; but is

actually transmitted by the ether vibrations outside of the wire,

just as in Keely's experiments, running his musical sphere with a

fine "thread" of silk, the energy is not transmitted through the

sewing-silk, which acts only as the medium that makes the transfer

of energy in this way possible; though not itself transferring it.

[16] See "Jacob Böhme, his Life and Teaching; or, Studies in

Theosophy," by Dr. Hans Lassen Martensen.

[17] The apparent comprehension of Keely's discovery by Mr. Nisbet,

was what led the compiler of this work to apply to him for help, in

making known the nature of the researches which Keely is pursuing,

at the time that Keely was threatened with imprisonment, in 1890,

for obtaining money under false pretences.

[18] Mr. Keely explains the energy he is handling to be a condition of

sympathetic vibration, associated with the Polar stream of our planet,

positively and negatively.

[19] Mr. B. (not Browne) was afterwards discovered to be an inventing

journalist, who had been "disappointed of gain," and whose statements

concerning Dr. Leidy had to be corrected.

[20] Professor Dewar's visit to Keely's workshop has been delayed

until he goes to America as Royal Commissioner this year.

[21] One of Keely's researching instruments.

[22] The universal physical law of molecular vibration is finely

illustrated in the carbon pencils of the electric arc light used

in some of the largest lighthouses. The molecular stir set up in

the armatures of the dynamo machines by rapid magnetization and

demagnetization is transmitted to the carbon points of the lantern,

and reappears as a distinct musical tone.

[23] It will be a matter of interest to those who have given attention

to the laws of heredity to know that John Ernst Worrell Keely is a

grandson of a German composer, Ernst, who led the Baden-Baden orchestra

in his day; and that Keely's experiments in vibration had their origin

in his knowledge of music, and were commenced in his childhood.

[24] See "Untrodden Ground in Astronomy and Geology."

[25] There are some paradoxical conditions shown up in the

disintegration of water which require further research to get at the

solution. In disintegrating, say five drops of water in a steel bulb

of two cubic inches volume of atmospheric air, the force generated

by the triple order of vibration, when weighed on a lever, shows ten

tons pressure per square inch. In using the same number of drops in

the same bulb, and associating it with a tube of two hundred cubic

inches, the result is the same in the force developed per square inch

as is shown on the volume of the one of two cubic inches. The solution

of this problem seems to rest in the fact that the gaseous element

thereby induced even in minute quantities, must possess the property

of exciting atmospheric air to that extent as to force it to give up,

to quite an extended degree, the latent energy that is held in its

corpuscular depths. This introductory medium seems to act on the air in

the same manner that a spark of fire acts on a magazine of gunpowder.

[26] The ether is the capsule to the molecules and atoms all the way

up to the perfect stream of structural ether.

[27] A volume of pure ether equivalent to the atmospheric displacement

caused by our Earth, could be compressed and absorbed in a volume of

one cubic inch, by the velocity and sympathetic power of the etheric

triple flows, focalizing toward the neutral centre, at the birth of

the molecule.

[28] This is what Keely terms "sympathetic outreach."

[29] A facetious journalist commenting on this paper reprints its

last paragraphs as "the only part that is perfectly lucid to the

lay mind," continuing:--"We trust Keely will continue to bombard

his corpuscles until he accomplishes it. And when he does, all other

scientific men of this or any other age will sink by comparison into

insignificance. Let no man say he cannot do it. Mr. Keely, the world

is still waiting for you."

[30] Platina wires the thickness of a fine hair associated with each

of the nine nodal beads, and concentrated towards a general centre

of localization, attaching the other end of the wires to the focal

centre, will determine, by the magnetic conduction, the number of

corpuscular oscillations per second induced by a thought, either

positive or negative, in the central centres. These are the only

conditions--those of magnetic conduction--whereby the evolution of

a thought can be computed in regard to its force under propagation,

as against the amount of latent energy set free to act as induced by

such thought on the physical organism.

[31] It is always interesting to trace the germ of a scientific idea,

hypothesis, or established truth. A writer in La Lumière Electrique,

vol. xlv., has drawn attention to the fact that Descartes gave a

theory of magnetism, in 1656, which resembles the modern conception

of lines of stress in the ether. He considers that all magnets

are traversed by a subtle fluid which flows out at the North Pole,

and curving round, in the ether, re-enters at the South Pole, thus

completing the circuit. Some of the greatest doctrines of science

have recurred again and again, like the motif of a piece of music,

until they finally assume a definite shape and become a working part

of human progress; as will be seen when Keely's system is recognized.

[32] "The Dynamic Theory of Life and Mind." The Housekeeper Press,

Minneapolis, Minn.