CHAPTER
XXIII.
I QUESTION SCIENTIFIC MEN.- ARISTOTLE'S ETHER.
Days and weeks passed. When the opportunity presented, I consulted Dr. W. B.
Chapman, the druggist and student of science, regarding the nature of light and
earth, who in turn referred me to Prof. Daniel Vaughn. This learned man, in
reply to my question concerning gravitation, declared that there was much that
men wished to understand in regard to this mighty force, that might yet be
explained, but which may never become known to mortal man.
" The correlation of forces," said he, " was prominently
introduced and considered by a painstaking scientific writer named Joule, in
several papers that appeared between 1843 and I850, and he was followed by
others, who engaged themselves in experimenting and theorizing, and I may add
that Joule was indeed preceded in such thought by Mayer. This department of
scientific study just now appears of unusual interest to scientists, and your
questions embrace problems connected with some phases of its phenomena. We
believe that light, heat, and electricity are mutually convertible, in fact, the
evidences recently opened up to us show that such must be the case. These
agencies or manifestations are now known to be so related that whenever one
disappears others spring into existence. Study the beautiful experiments and
remarkable investigations of Sir William Thomson in these directions."
" And what of gravitation?" I asked, observing that Prof. Vaughn
neglected to include gravitation among his numerous enumerated forces, and
recollecting that the force gravitation was more closely connected with my
visitor's story than perhaps were any of the others, excepting the mysterious
mid-earth illumination.
" Of that force we are in greater ignorance than of the others," he
replied. " It affects bodies terrestrial and celestial, drawing a material
substance, or pressing to the earth; also holds, we believe, the earth and all
other bodies in position in the heavens, thus maintaining the equilibrium of the
planets. Seemingly gravitation is not derived from, or sustained by, an external
force, or supply reservoir, but is an intrinsic entity, a characteristic of
matter that decreases in intensity at the rate of the square of the increasing
distance, as bodies recede from each other, or from the surface of the earth.
However, gravitation neither escapes by radiation from bodies nor needs to be
replenished, so far as we know, from without. It may be compared to an elastic
band, but there is no intermediate tangible substance to influence bodies that
are affected by it, and it remains in undying tension, unlike all elastic
material substances known, neither losing nor acquiring energy as time passes.
Unlike cohesion, or chemical attraction, it exerts its influence upon bodies
that are out of contact, and have no material connection, and this necessitates
a purely fanciful explanation concerning the medium that conducts such
influences, bringing into existence the illogical, hypothetical, fifth ether,
made conspicuous by Aristotle."
" What of this ether?" I queried.
" It is a necessity in science, but intangible, undemonstrated, unknown,
and wholly theoretical. It is accepted as an existing fluid by scientists,
because human theory can not conceive of a substance capable of, or explain how
a substance can be capable of affecting a separate body unless there is an
intermediate medium to convey force impressions. Hence to material substances
Aristotle added (or at least made conspicuous) a speculative ether that, he
assumed, pervades all space, and all material bodies as well, in order to
account for the passage of heat and light to and from the sun, stars, and
planets."
" Explain further," I requested.
" To conceive of such an entity we must imagine a material that is more
evanescent than any known gas, even in its most diffused condition. It must
combine the solidity of the most perfect conductor of heat ( exceeding any known
body in this respect to an infinite degree ), with the transparency of an
absolute vacuum. It must neither create friction by contact with any substance,
nor possess attraction for matter; must neither possess weight ( and yet carry
the force that produces weight ), nor respond to the influence of any chemical
agent, or exhibit itself to any optical instrument. It must be invisible, and
yet carry the force that produces the sensation of sight. It must be of such a
nature that it can not, according to our philosophy, affect the corpuscles of
earthly substances while permeating them without contact or friction, and yet,
as a scientific incongruity, it must act so readily on physical bodies as to
convey to the material eye the sensation of sight, and from the sun to creatures
on distant planets it must carry the heat force, thus giving rise to the
sensation of warmth. Through this medium, yet without sensible contact with it,
worlds must move, and planetary systems revolve, cutting and piercing it in
every direction, without loss of momentum. And yet, as I have said, this ether
must be in such close contact as to convey to them the essence that warms the
universe, lights the universe, and must supply the attractive bonds that hold
the stellar worlds in position. A nothing in itself, so far as man's senses
indicate, the ether of space must be denser than iridium, more mobile than any
known liquid, and stronger than the finest steel."
" I can not conceive of such an entity," I replied.
" No; neither can any man, for the theory is irrational, and can not be
supported by comparison with laws known to man, but the conception is
nevertheless a primary necessity in scientific study. Can man, by any rational
theory, combine a vacuum and a substance, and create a result that is neither
material nor vacuity, neither something nor nothing, and yet an intensified all;
being more attenuated than the most perfect of known vacuums, and a conductor
better than the densest metal? This we do when we attempt to describe the
scientists' all-pervading ether of space, and to account for its influence on
matter. This hypothetical ether is, for want of a better theory of causes, as
supreme in philosophy to-day as the alkahest of the talented old alchemist Van
Helmont was in former times, a universal spirit that exists in conception, and
yet does not exist in perception, and of which modern science knows as little as
its speculative promulgator, Aristotle, did. We who pride ourselves on our exact
science, smile at some of Aristotle's statements in other directions, for
science has disproved them, and yet necessity forces us to accept this illogical
ether speculation, which is, perhaps, the most unreasonable of all theories. Did
not this Greek philosopher also gravely assert that the lion has but one
vertebra in his neck; that the breath of man enters the heart; that the back of
the head is empty, and that man has but eight ribs ?"
" Aristotle must have been a careless observer," I said.
" Yes," he answered; " it would seem so, and science, to-day,
bases its teachings concerning the passage of all forces from planet to planet,
and sun to sun, on dicta such as I have cited, and no more reasonable in applied
experiment."
" And I have been referred to you as a conscientious scientific
teacher," I said; " why do you speak so facetiously?"
" I am well enough versed in what we call science, to have no fear of
injuring the cause by telling the truth, and you asked a direct question. If
your questions carry you farther in the direction of force studies, accept at
once, that, of the intrinsic constitution of force itself, nothing is known.
Heat, light, magnetism, electricity, galvanism ( until recently known as
imponderable bodies ) are now considered as modifications of force; but, in my
opinion, the time will come when they will be known as disturbances."
" Disturbances of what?"
" I do not know precisely; but of something that lies behind them all,
perhaps creates them all, but yet is in essence unknown to men."
" Give me a clearer idea of your meaning."
" It seems impossible," he replied; " I can not find words in
which to express myself; I do not believe that forces, as we know them (
imponderable bodies ), are as modern physics defines them. I am tempted to say
that, in my opinion, forces are disturbance expressions of a something with
which we are not acquainted, and yet in which we are submerged and permeated.
Aristotle's ether perhaps. It seems to me, that, behind all material substances,
including forces, there is an unknown spirit, which, by certain influences, may
be ruffled into the exhibition of an expression, which exhibition of temper we
call a force. From this spirit these force expressions ( wavelets or
disturbances ) arise, and yet they may become again quiescent, and again rest in
its absorbing unity. The water from the outlet of a calm lake flows over a
gentle decline in ripples, or quiet undulations, over the rapids in musical
laughings, over a precipice in thunder tones,- always water, each a different
phase, however, to become quiet in another lake ( as ripples in this universe
may awaken to our perception, to repose again ), and still be water."
He hesitated.
" Go on," I said.
" So I sometimes have dared to dream that gravitation may be the reservoir
that conserves the energy for all mundane forces, and that what we call
modifications of force are intermediate conditions, ripples, rapids, or
cascades, in gravitation."
" Continue," I said, eagerly, as he hesitated.
He shook his head.