THE UNIVERSAL ETHER.
[Sidenote: The modern theory of light was established only about the
year 1830.]
The nature of light has been in every age a fascinating subject for
study and reflection. Descartes, the French mathematician and
philosopher, advanced the hypothesis that light consists of small
particles emitted by luminous bodies, and that the sensation of light
is produced by the impact of these particles upon the retina of the
eye. Soon after this emission or corpuscular theory had been proposed,
Hooke, an English investigator of great note, stated publicly that the
phenomena of light, as he had observed them, led him to the belief
that the nature of light could best be explained on the assumption
that light was a kind of undulation or wave in some unknown medium,
and that the sensation of light was. produced when these waves struck
upon the retina of the eye. This new hypothesis, known as the theory
of undulations, after the great Isaac Newton had declared himself in
favor of the corpuscular theory, was finally adjudged by the majority
of students to be erroneous.
About the year 1800, more than a century after the days of Descartes,
Hooke and Newton, an English physician, Dr. Thomas Young, who had long
experimented on the nature of light, asserted that the emission theory
could not explain many of the best known phenomena of light. Dr. Young
further claimed that correct explanations could be made only by the
theory of waves of undulation of an etherial medium diffused through
space, and presented numerous experimental evidences in favor of this
view. This revival of the old theory of undulation met at first with
violent opposition from many of the greatest scientific minds of the
day. Sometime after Dr. Young's publication, a French army officer,
Augustine Fresnel, undertook the study of the nature of light, and
arrived, almost independently, at the conclusion stated by Dr. Young.
Later, other investigators discovered light phenomena which could be
explained only on the undulatory hypothesis, and so, little by little,
the new theory gained ground and adherents.
Still, even as late as 1827, the astronomer Herschel published a
treatise on light, in which he appeared to hold the real merit of the
theory of undulations in grave doubt.[A] Likewise, the Imperial
Academy at St. Petersburg, in 1826, proposed a prize for the best
attempt to relieve the undulatory theory of light of some of the main
objections against it.[B] It was several years later before the great
majority of the scientific world accepted the theory of undulations as
the correct explanation of the phenomena of light.
[Footnote A: History of the Inductive Sciences, Whewell, 3rd edition,
Vol. II, p. 114.]
[Footnote B: Loc. cit., 117.]
[Sidenote: A subtle substance, the ether, fills all space.]
In brief, this theory assumes that a very attenuated, but very
elastic, substance, called the ether, fills all space, and is found
surrounding the ultimate particles of matter. Thus, the pores of wood,
soil, lead, gold and the human body, are filled with the ether. It is
quite impossible by any known process to obtain a portion of space
free from it. A luminous body is one in which the ultimate particles
of matter, the atoms or molecules, are moving very rapidly, and thus
causing disturbances in the ether, similar to the disturbances in
quiet water when a rock is thrown into it; and, like the water wave,
proceeding from the point of disturbance, so the ether waves radiate
from the luminous body into space. When a wave strikes the retina of
the eye, the sensation of light is produced. This new-found ether was
soon used for the explanation of other natural phenomena.
[Sidenote: Light, heat, electricity and other forces are forms of
ether motion.]
The nature of heat had long been discussed when the world of science
decided in favor of the undulatory theory of light. One school held
that the sensation of heat was caused by the cannonading of heat
particles by the heated body; the other school, with few adherents,
insisted that heat was simply a form of motion of the ether already
adopted in the theory of light. The later discoveries of science
proved with considerable certainty that the undulatory theory of heat
is right, but it was well towards the middle of the last century
before the emission theory of heat lost its ground. In fact,
Dr.Whewell, in the third edition of his classic book on the _History
of Inductive Sciences_, published in 1859, says that the undulatory
theory of heat "has not by any means received full confirmation;"[A]
and Dr. John Tyndall, in a book published in 1880, says, that the
emission theory "held its ground until quite recently among the
chemists of our own day."[B] Today, the evidences of modern science
are overwhelmingly in favor of the undulatory theory of heat.
[Footnote A: Vol. II, p. 184.]
[Footnote B: Heat, A Mode of Motion, Tyndall, 6th ed., p. 38.]
The wonderful developments of the last century, in electricity and
magnetism, led to much speculation concerning the nature of the subtle
electrical and magnetic forces. The most popular theories for many
years were those that presupposed various electrical and magnetic
fluids, which could be collected, conducted, dispersed and otherwise
controlled. In 1867, the eminent English mathematician, Clerk Maxwell,
proposed the theory that electrical and magnetic phenomena were simply
peculiar motions of the ether, bearing definite relationship to light
waves. Later researches, one result of which is the now famous
Roentgen or X-rays, have tended to confirm Maxwell's theory. A recent
text-book on physics, of unquestioned authority,[A] states that the
ether theory of electricity and magnetism is now susceptible of direct
demonstration; and another eminent authority frankly states that "when
we explain the nature of electricity, we explain it by a motion of the
luminiferous ether."[B]
[Footnote A: Lehrbuch der Physik, Riecke, (1896), 2ter Band, p. 315.]
[Footnote B: Popular Lectures and Addresses, Kelvin (1891) Vol. 1,
page 334.]
Other recent discoveries have hinted at the possibility of matter
itself being only the result of peculiar forms of this all-pervading
substance, the luminiferous ether. The properties of the element
radium, and other radioactive elements, as at present understood,
suggest the possibility of a better understanding of the nature of the
ether, and of its relation to the world of phenomena.
[Sidenote: The existence of the ether is a certainty of science.]
That the present knowledge of the world of science compels a faith in
an all-pervading substance, of marvelous properties, and of intimate
relationship to all forms of energy, is shown by the following
quotations from Lord Kelvin, who is generally regarded as the world's
greatest physicist: "The luminferous ether, that is the only substance
we are confident of in dynamics. One thing we are sure of, and that is
the reality and substantiality of the luminiferous ether." "What can
this luminiferous ether be? It is something that the planets move
through with the greatest ease. It permeates our air; it is nearly in
the same condition, so far as our means of judging are concerned, in
our air and in the interplanetary space." "You may regard the
existence of the luminiferous ether as a reality of science." "It is
matter prodigiously less dense than air--of such density as not to
produce the slightest resistance to any body going through it."[A]
[Footnote A: Kelvin's Lectures, Vol. 1, pp. 317, 334, 336, 354.]
The theory of the ether is one of the most helpful assumptions of
modern science. By its aid the laws of energy have been revealed.
There is at the present time no grander or more fundamental doctrine
in science than that of the ether. The nature of the ether is, of
course, far from being clearly understood, but every discovery in
science demonstrates that the hypothetical ether stands for an
important reality of nature. Together with the doctrines of the
indestructibility of matter and energy, the doctrine of the ether
welds and explains all the physical phenomena of the universe.
Joseph Smith, in a revelation received on December 27, 1832, wrote:
[Sidenote: Joseph Smith taught space is filled with a substance
comparable to the ether of science.]
"The light which now shineth, which giveth you light, is through him
who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth
your understandings; which light proceedeth forth from the presence of
God to fill the immensity of space. The light which is in all things:
which is the law by which all things are governed: even the power of
God."[A]
[Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants, section 88:11-13.]
This quotation gives undoubted evidence of the prophet's belief that
space is filled with some substance which bears important relations to
all natural phenomena. The word substance is used advisedly; for in
various places in the writings of Joseph Smith, light, used as above
in a general sense, means spirit,[A] and "all spirit is matter, but it
is more fine and pure."[B]
[Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants, 84:45.]
[Footnote B: Ibid, 131:7.]
True, the passage above quoted does not furnish detailed explanation
of the Prophet's view concerning the substance filling all space, but
it must be remembered that it is simply an incidental paragraph in a
chapter of religious instruction. True, also, the Prophet goes farther
than some modern scientists, when he says that this universal
substance bears a controlling relation to all things; yet, when it is
recalled that eminent, sober students have suggested that the facts of
science make it possible to believe that matter itself is simply a
phenomenon of the universal ether, the statement of the "Mormon"
prophet seems very reasonable. The paragraph already quoted is not an
accidental arrangement of words suggesting an idea not intended by the
prophet, for in other places, he presents the idea of an omnipresent
substance binding all things together. For instance, in speaking of
the controlling power of the universe he says:
"He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all
things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all
things, and is through all things, and is round about all things."[A]
[Footnote A: Ibid, 88:41.]
That Joseph Smith does not here have in mind an omnipresent God, is
proved by the emphatic doctrine that God is personal and cannot be
everywhere present.[A]
[Footnote A: Ibid, 130:22.]
Lest it be thought that the words are forced, for argument's sake, to
give the desired meaning, it may be well to examine the views of some
of the persons to whom the Prophet explained in detail the meanings of
the statements in the revelations which he claimed to have received
from God.
Parley P. Pratt, who, as a member of the first quorum of apostles, had
every opportunity of obtaining the Prophet's views on any subject,
wrote in considerable fullness on the subject of the Holy Spirit, or
the light of truth:
"As the mind passes the boundaries of the visible world, and enters
upon the confines of the more refined and subtle elements, it finds
itself associated with certain substances in themselves invisible to
our gross organs, but clearly manifested to our intellect by their
tangible operations and effects." "The purest, most refined and subtle
of all these substances--is that substance called the Holy Spirit."
"It is omnipresent." "It is in its less refined particles, the
physical light which reflects from the sun, moon and stars, and other
substances; and by reflection on the eye makes visible the truths of
the outward world."[A]
[Footnote A: Key to Theology, 5th ed., pp. 38-41.]
Elder C. W. Penrose, an accepted writer on Mormon doctrine, writes,
"It is by His Holy Spirit, which permeates all things, and is the life
and light of all things, that Deity is everywhere present. * * By that
agency God sees and knows and governs all things."[A]
[Footnote A: Rays of Living Light, No. 2, p. 3.]
Such quotations, from the men intimately associated or acquainted with
the early history of the Church, prove that Joseph Smith taught in
clearness the doctrine that a subtle form of matter, call it ether or
Holy Spirit, pervades all space; that all phenomena of nature,
including, specifically, heat, light and electricity, are definitely
connected with this substance. He taught much else concerning this
substance which science will soon discover, but which lies without the
province of this paper to discuss.
By the doctrine of the ether, it is made evident all the happenings in
the universe are indelibly inscribed upon the record of nature. A word
is spoken. The air movements that it causes disturbs the ether. The
ether waves radiate into space and can never die. Anywhere, with the
proper instrument, one of the waves may be captured, and the spoken
word read. That is the simple method of wireless telegraphy. It is
thus that all our actions shall be known on the last great day. By the
ether, or the Holy Spirit as named by the Prophet, God holds all
things in His keeping. His intelligent will radiates into space, to
touch whomsoever it desires. He who is tuned aright can read the
message, flashed across the ether ocean, by the Almighty. Thus, also,
God, who is a person, filling only a portion of space is, by His power
carried by the ether, everywhere present.
The ether of science though material is essentially different from the
matter composing the elements. So, also, in Mormon theology, is the
Holy Spirit different from the grosser elements. In science there is a
vast distinction between the world of the elements, and that of the
ether; in theology, there is an equally great difference between the
spiritual and material worlds. Though the theology of Joseph Smith
insists that immaterialism is an absurdity, yet it permits no
overlapping of the earthly and the spiritual.
[Sidenote: Joseph Smith stated the existence of a universe-filling
substance before science had generally accepted it.]
It must not be overlooked that the broad statement of this doctrine
was made by Joseph Smith, at least as early as 1832, at a time when
the explanation of light phenomena on the hypothesis of a universal
ether was just beginning to find currency among learned men; and many
years before the same hypothesis was accepted in explaining the
phenomena of heat and electricity.
The idea of an influence pervading the universe is not of itself new.
Poets and philosophers of all ages have suggested it in a vague,
hesitating manner, without connecting it with the phenomena of nature,
but burdening it with the greatest absurdity of religion or
philosophy, that of immaterialism. Joseph Smith said the doctrine had
been taught him by God, and gave it to the world unhesitatingly and
rationally. The men of science, to whom Joseph Smith appears only as
an imposter, and who know nothing of his writings, have later
discovered the truth for themselves, and incorporated it in their
books of learning.
Had Joseph Smith been the clever imposter that some claim he was, he
probably would not have dealt in any way with the theories of the
material world, at least would not have claimed revelations laying
down physical laws; had he been the stupid fool, others tell us he
was, his mind would not have worried itself with the fundamental
problems of nature.
However that may be, it is certain that Joseph Smith, in the broad and
rational statement of the existence of an omnipresent, material though
subtle substance, anticipated the workers in science. In view of that
fact, it is not improbable that at some future time, when science
shall have gained a wider view, the historian of the physical sciences
will say that Joseph Smith, the clear-sighted, first stated correctly
the fundamental physical doctrine of the universal ether.