WHAT IS PROPOSED.
In the following pages I shall endeavor to set forth, in a simple and
orderly manner, certain of my own theories of the Great Physical Forces.
In these theories will be comprised the identity of those forces, the
intimate and essential nature of sunlight, sun-heat, gravity, sun-spots,
winds and sounds, also the intimate nature of the atmosphere.
In treating these subjects my opinions will not be found in accord with
those which receive universal assent at the present time, and I may thus
unintentionally offend. I shall therefore claim exceeding indulgence.
If I differ from high authority, I have not a thought of detraction.
None can venerate the NESTORS in science who have enriched its annals,
more than I, and though we reverse their judgments, their errors are
confessedly our indispensable helps and guides.
_The Great Problem._
The problem of the great physical forces has engaged the profoundest
attention of mankind from the earliest historic period down to the
present time, yet it remains practically unsolved.
Before the Christian era the opinion was entertained that all of the
phenomena of nature might be reduced to one principle of explanation;
that there was more than a connection between the imponderable
agents--more than a relationship even,--that there was an actual
identity.
No substantial progress was thereafter made in the direction of
verifying this theory until along into the present century, when the
development of electrical science presented a tangible basis for
successful investigation.
The correlation of nearly all of those forces is now assured, leaving
little to be added besides gravity to complete the unity. Yet
notwithstanding the satisfactory progress which has been made in solving
the grand problem of their correlation, little has been learned of their
intimate nature, and the method of their operation. This is due, in the
highest degree, to certain theories which were developed, and which
made their way, _pari passu_, with the advancements of electrical and
electro-magnetic science. These theories, specious, inconsistent,
illogical, yet withal plausible, and even fascinating, served to blind
the mental vision so that mankind might not appreciate the truth.[1]
The hypothesis promulgated by BRUNO, KANT and LAPLACE, of the nebular
origin of the spheres, and the deductions consequent thereupon, in
regard to the progressive stages through which the earth in its
developments has passed, was pernicious in its influence in diverting
the minds of investigators from other and truer channels. To the blind
confidence with which that hypothesis has been universally accepted and
perpetuated, and to the fallacious theories thus directly and indirectly
engendered, we owe our false position at the present day.
The present theories of the transmission of light and sound; of the
production of winds, and sun-spots, and of the method of development and
dissemination of heat, are in point of fact, unphilosophical and
incomprehensible.
It is quite remarkable that in the present century, excelling as it does
any period in the world's history in exact and reliable scientific
knowledge, such unsatisfactory opinions should obtain. The failure is
still more inexplicable when we reflect that these subjects are in
importance the highest which can engage our attention as scientists.
We have at the present time sufficient reliable data whereon to found
satisfactory hypotheses. We have but to utilize the means which the true
scientists of the century have so wonderfully developed, and with which
they have so prodigally surrounded us, in order to complete the
consummation of the great and crowning achievement in physical science.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Appendix, p. 97.